Revealed: How fans rate the job Ian Evatt is doing at Bolton Wanderers

WANDERERS fans have given Ian Evatt a qualified show of support heading into the new season.

An online poll held by The Bolton News asked for people to give a score out of 10 to the Whites boss for the job he was currently doing.

The average rating in more than 2,000 replies was 6.7, although 39 per cent of the votes valued Evatt’s achievements in four years at the club at eight or above.

The score is down last year’s poll, however, when Evatt and his staff were given an average rating of 8.63.

There was an even stronger feeling among supporters when asked how the club was currently being run, the average mark given climbing to 8.7, with 86 per cent of the votes cast at eight or above.

Failure to gain automatic promotion last season and the subsequent defeat in the play-off final at Wembley hit the fanbase hard, and there was a strong agreement among supporters that last year’s squad had the sufficient depth and quality to have achieved their goal. Nearly 74 per cent of responders voted positively in that section, with more than 75 per cent also believing the club’s playing budget was sufficient last season.

An area which did split opinion was that of playing style. More ‘positive’ votes were cast (49.1 per cent) than ‘negative’ ones (29.1 per cent) but the balance shifted notably from other sections of the questionnaire.

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Expectations for next season are also notably lower than 12 months ago, with 40 per cent of supporters saying they did not think that Wanderers would get automatic promotion in 2024/25. Just 5.2 per cent of the voters were ‘certain’ that the Whites would get a top two spot.

In comparison, just 8.3 per cent of the voters felt Bolton would not make the top six next season, with 44 per cent ‘certain’ that it would be the case.

Asked which new signing had made the biggest impact at the Toughsheet Stadium last season, fans provided us with one of the closest results. Aaron Collins shaded the votes, taking 32.7 per cent, compared to Nathan Baxter (32.2 per cent) and Paris Maghoma (30.6 per cent).

Wanderers have made two signings this summer, goalkeeper Luke Southwood from Cheltenham Town and Chris Forino from Wycombe. Fans were asked before either signing had been confirmed which positions were most in need of strengthening – and the highest percentage of ‘positive’ votes went to central midfield (69.3 per cent).

Clamour to see Bolton improve their options across the board was clear, however, with goalkeeper the only position which failed to attract more than 55 per cent of votes for the ‘high’ or ‘very high’ priority categories.

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Finally, we asked supporters which clubs they felt would most likely challenge Wanderers in League One next season. Birmingham City were selected by 91.9 per cent of responders, with fellow relegated sides Huddersfield Town (78.8) and Rotherham United (73.1) also prominent.

Beaten semi-finalists Peterborough United also presented a danger to 76 per cent of the responders, with Barnsley (63.3), Wrexham (50.9), Wigan (49.9), Blackpool (44.7) and Charlton (30.6) the next teams down the list.

Supporters were also asked how the club could make their matchday experience better – providing a wide range of comments which will be compiled into an article later this week and also fed back to the club.