STEVEN Schumacher says he won’t shirk tough selection decisions as he continues to tailor his line-ups to suit the opposition.

The door has been opened for a few players who had been on the periphery under Ian Evatt and Schumacher has been rewarded for placing faith in the likes of John McAtee, Will Forrester and Luke Southwood with an upturn in form and performances.

But Schumacher says form cannot be the only factor which influences his thinking and with two away games in four days coming up he has already pre-warned his players that there will be some squad rotation to keep things fresh.

The head coach also made a big call to drop playmaker Josh Sheehan – who had worn the captain’s armband for the previous two games - against Birmingham City in midweek, underlining that he is willing to mix and match his options.

“I don't just say if players are playing well, they keep the shirt,” he said. “I left Josh Sheehan out the other night and he has been excellent.

“We left him out for tactical reasons because we felt it was George Thomason's type of game, with the pressing that we were going to do and with the running power that George brings.

“Josh can obviously have running power as well, but he's more of a technical player who gets us playing, so we pick sort of starting XIs based on what we think is going to be the best team to give us a chance to win the game.

“There’s also what sort of lads we feel can give us impact off the bench as well, so we’ll continue to do that, and it won’t be the same starting line-up every single game from now until the end of the season. It won’t be because it just isn’t possible.

“You have to use the whole squad, especially when you've got a strong squad.”

Squad rotation has not always been a popular policy on the terraces at Bolton and Schumacher admits that in his playing days he too would have felt hard done by if he was pulled from the starting line-up whilst in a good run of form.

“I suppose it is difficult at times,” he said. “And when I pulled Josh to one side on Tuesday before the game he was obviously disappointed.

“It was the biggest game of the season, if you like. It was at home, playing against the league leaders, and to leave him out of that game, such a good player, it's not an easy call when you're telling one of your best players you're not playing.

“Obviously he's not going to be happy. But he understood it was for the best interest of the team and obviously the plan worked, we got a brilliant result from it, so he'll quickly forget about it, and he'll know that the next game might be the one for him.”