“Hectic Uphill” Battles At Bolton Wanderers When I was The Manager But The Most…

Steven Schumacher hails ‘really good’ Bolton Wanderers characteristic despite regular uphill battles

Bolton Wanderers manager Steven Schumacher trusts his players to carry on coming from behind to win games this season.

Bolton Wanderers have won their last three league games having gone 1-0 down in all of them – taking their total to 20 points won from losing positions this season. No League One team has rescued more points from behind than BWFC this season

The Trotters sacked manager Ian Evatt last month hoping for more consistent results and performances

Since new boss Schumacher has taken the reigns, the trend of falling a goal behind in games has stayed. However, despite going a goal behind in all four of his league games in charge, Schumacher’s side have won three of them.

This has led to Bolton Wanderers moving level on points with 6th-placed Leyton Orient, leaving them outside the play-offs on goal difference.

Following his side’s 2-1 comeback victory against Orient last weekend, Schumacher was delighted with his players after yet another win from behind. Speaking to The Bolton News, he said:

“I think they are believing and trusting in each other, in what we are asking them to do, which is really good.

“Doing it once is great, then doing it twice, then once you start doing it all the time you understand it’s okay, there’s no panic. You don’t want to be a goal behind, but you have to understand how to put it right.

That was my message to the lads at half time. Okay, they controlled the last 10-15 minutes of the first half but so what? This is how we fix it.”

A late play-off revival

Bolton Wanderers may be making hard work of some of these wins, but they’re importantly right back in the hunt for the play-offs and moving in the right direction under Schumacher.

The strength in their squad has been clear but things just went flat under Evatt. The new boss has revitalised a struggling group and where they may have been beaten in some of these recent games earlier in the season, they’ve shown they can bounce back and respond when the pressure is on

That could stand BWFC in good stead if they are to make it into the top six this season.

Schumacher under the microscope

Bolton Wanderers boss Schumacher has already achieved promotion from League One in his short managerial career.

Schumacher took charge of his first club, Plymouth Argyle, just over three years ago. In his first full season as manager, he guided the Pilgrims to the League One title, winning manager of the season in the process.

After a solid few months in the Championship with Argyle, Schumacher left to join Stoke City, guiding them to Championship survival in 17th.

However, just a month into the ongoing campaign, he was sacked following two wins from the first five games of the campaign.

Following four months out of management, Schumacher was appointed BWFC boss on January 30th. He arrived with another promotion bid in his sights and a decent start to life in the north west has brought that prospect into reality.

A crucial game awaits on Saturday as Schumacher’s side travel to high-flying Wrexham. A win could take Bolton into the play-off places and five points behind 3rd place Wrexham.