'Honest' approach with Dion Charles brought right rection, says Bolton boss

DION Charles was controversially deprived his big moment against Blackpool on Saturday – but Ian Evatt was nevertheless pleased with his striker’s performance.

The Northern Ireland international had been challenged by his manager in the build-up to the game to rediscover his best form, after a run of just one goal in his last eight outings.

A smart finish into the bottom corner looked to have got him back on track against Blackpool until the goal was ruled out by referee Edward Duckworth after a flag from his assistant.

Evatt maintained that he was not speaking out of turn when stating that Charles had not “hit the heights” he did last season, and that his response at the weekend was a positive one.

He said: “Over my time here I have always had open, honest dialogue with the players, and I wouldn’t say anything to you guys that I wouldn’t say to them. I have had this conversation with Dion, he agrees, and I asked for a big performance from him, and I thought he gave us one.

“I thought he was back to his best, a pest, a nuisance, and he caused them problems, especially with those balls in behind.

“He was unfortunate not to get the wining goal but fortunately for us we had someone else who wants to score goals, and he made up for a pretty bad miss with the winner, which was great.

“Credit to the players, they kept pushing. Great thinking from Nathan Baxter to bowl it out quickly, which is something we talk about a lot, but then Tets (Jay Matete) and Szabi (Schon) showed some really composed play down that left side. It is easy in those moments to panic and throw the ball in, but we didn’t, we built our way in, and Aaron in the box is very dangerous.”

On the disallowed goal midway through the second half on Saturday, Evatt admits that repeated viewing did not shine any further light on why it didn’t stand.

“I have watched it a lot and it certainly wasn’t from the initial ball in because Victor was onside and the linesman’s flag didn’t go up. It went up after the ball went in, but I don’t think if you had three or four keepers in goal they were getting anywhere near it.

“I found it very strange to deem that Victor was impacting in any way and I don’t think any of their players appealed, so it would have been a very disappointing way to draw a game of football.

“As I said at the weekend, sometimes you get what you deserve in football, sometimes you don’t. And second half I thought we deserved to win the game.”