IT has often been joked by Ian Evatt himself that had supporters been allowed inside stadia during lockdown, that he would not have seen out his first season with Wanderers.

Exactly four years ago, Bolton were 15th in League Two, a dozen points behind second-placed Newport County having played a game more and had just been beaten 1-0 at home by Crawley Town.

We had yet to witness the transformative power the January window would have that season, with the likes of Dapo Afolayan, Kieran Lee, Declan John, MJ Williams and Ben Jackson all playing a significant part in a remarkable turnaround in the second half of the season to clinch third spot and an automatic promotion place.

Fast forward to 2025 and Evatt – now the fifth longest-serving manager in the Premier League and EFL – is finding out first hand what pressures a disgruntled Bolton crowd can exert when results are not going to their satisfaction.

There have been several flashpoints this season, the latest coming at Mansfield Town on New Year’s Day. Wanderers have attempted to prove they have not carried a hangover from last season’s near-miss on the top two and the consequent failure at Wembley in the play-off final but, in truth, they have not made a compelling case.

Evatt remains convinced he can win the battle, take Bolton into the Championship, and make believers of some of the folk who have lost faith since the summer.

Is he now experiencing the wrath he could once make light of?

“I think I have lived through it, yes,” he told The Bolton News. “It has obviously been tough and challenging, but I am made of tough stuff. I believe in what I do, I believe in what the players can do.

“The one thing you take for granted in football is good times, and you become really respectful of those. For four-and-a-half years we have had it pretty good.

“The minute things are not going so good, you go back to those times and think about the way you behaved, the coaching methodology, the messages you gave to the players and try to make sure you are giving the same ones. I think we have been pretty consistent with those.

“What I am trying to say is we don’t become a bad team or a bad manager overnight, or in 22 games. We just have to find the solutions to get better and be better, that’s on me. That’s my motivation - for all those who are unhappy and disgruntled with myself and the team at the moment, which they have the right to be – that I can prove them wrong, change things and turn things around.

“If you do that, it is amazing. People in this society, and the way the world is right now, struggle to deal with and come through adversity. If you can do that, it speaks volume to you as a person and your strength of character.

“At the moment, I am having to dig deep in the strength of my character but I have got big resolve. I can go there and find a way to get through this and get the team through this. I am seeing some positive signs, I saw some real positive signs on Wednesday (at Mansfield).

“Other than the result, it is the best we have played away from home for a long time, in terms of the way we controlled and dominated the game. But we have to start backing that up with results. We know it is a results business and things need to change.”

Defeat at Mansfield in midweek saw Bolton take a backward step once again, after what had been a fairly encouraging victory against Lincoln City at home a few days beforehand.

Support from the 1,700 travelling fans had been vocal and positive for the vast majority of the game – but there were visible and audible changes towards the end of the match, where having lost any sense of attacking momentum, Bolton no longer looked like getting back on level terms at 2-1 behind.

Asked about the jeers and chants which followed the final whistle, Evatt said: “I think it was the last five minutes. Other than that, they were with us because we had the ball in their final third.

“They were disgruntled with the way it finished, I don’t think throughout the game there was any disgruntlement. Obviously, there was when we went two behind but we got one back and had them penned in for so long. The fans were willing the ball into the goal and that’s because of the pressure we had.

“The arguments came in the last five minutes when they thought and realised we weren’t going to get the result. I understand it is a results business but in terms of the general play, no-one can watch that game and think we didn’t deserve anything from the game.

“If you look at the data, that backs it up. We will go again and work very hard to try and get results consistently.”

Much was made of Evatt’s decision to walk almost immediately to the tunnel in the opposite direction to the travelling supporters, and act the manager said was more to do with his own frustration than any criticism the supporters were voicing at the time.

“I am frustrated because, as I said, we are all sick and tired of having to respond,” he said. “Being on that roller-coaster and then walking off, that was my initial feeling – ‘We have to go through this again’.

“Actually, it wasn’t probably down to how poor we were on the day, I think the opposite. It was how poor we were in specific moments, and we were punished for those moments. We have to learn and be better than that.

“My frustration isn’t with the fans or the way some of them are treating me, it’s none of that. I am a big boy, I have been in this game my whole life and understand what it’s like when you are not getting results. It is not personal to me or this football club, it happens at every club to people who aren’t getting results, which everyone wants to get.

“My frustration is with ourselves and that is what I can control, myself and the way I set the team up to play. Also, the players can control themselves and we all have to take responsibility for not getting results consistently, but there is a huge will to get it right and put it right.

“If we can, come the end of the season, then it is great for me as a person and a young manage to have been through dark, tough times and show I can come out the other side. I have done it before and can do it again, there is no doubt about that.”