POSITIVE mental attitude is working for Wanderers – but Steven Schumacher insists he has not had to change too much to get the club’s play-off chase back on track.

Just over a month into the job and the new head coach has helped build a run of five wins in six league games to lend an air of optimism to what had been a frustrating campaign.

Schumacher says he has not had to change his approach since coming back to the North West, nor employ any particular tricks of the trade to get Bolton winning regularly again, but he has credited his players with changing their own circumstances for the better over the last few weeks.

“Me, my staff, we are just normal lads coming in to try and put a plan together,” he told The Bolton News. “Obviously, you want to get the players buying in and enjoying what they are doing, and we do say it shouldn’t be a chore to come to work. It should be coming in and learning something new every day.

“If you get that going on the training pitch at Lostock then quite often it transfers itself on to the pitch. But it’s them who put it there.

“If you can then put the effort in and run as hard as we have – and the running stats have been off the scale in the last few weeks – the the fans see that as well, and they react.

“Sometimes it isn’t about what we do. If the fans stick behind the players, then they get late goals, they get comeback victories, it all works together, it all just breeds confidence. And that is what I’m seeing around the club at the moment.”

After narrowly beating Wanderers in the quarter final on February 11, Saturday’s opponents Wrexham face a Vertu Trophy semi-final against Peterborough United tonight, looking to book their place in the final at Wembley next month against Birmingham City.

Recent form has cast a slightly different light on the first league game at the Racecourse Ground – now STōK Cae Ras – since Bolton were promoted from the old Fourth Division there in 1988.

And though Schumacher reckons Saturday’s comeback win against Leyton Orient wouldn’t have affected how he went about the game tactically, he accepts that externally the mood has brightened significantly.

“If we’d have lost (against Orient) then it wouldn’t have been any different for me, I’d have still been asking the lads to get after Wrexham and try and win the game because that is what I want the team to be about,” he said. “That is how my mind works.

“The fans – it might have been different, possibly. I’m sure they would still have been supportive, but we’ll be going there with a positive mindset knowing we played well there for a large spell of the game in the Vertu Trophy and there’s no reason why we can’t go there and play well again.

“It’s a tough game, definitely, they have some good players and a massive squad, so they will still be fresh.

“We have to make sure we are at our best to get a result from it, but we'll try and prepare as best we can to do that.”

Meanwhile, Chris Forino and Carlos Mendes Gomes played an hour as Wanderers’ B Team had a point snatched away late in their game at Lostock.

The two first teamers continued their comeback from injury under the gaze of first team head coach Steven Schumacher and his backroom staff.

Alfie Henderson snatched a win for top-of-the-table Salford with a volley from the edge of the area in what proved a frantic finish to the game.

Salford had edged ahead with 16 minutes left through Will Wright but Bolton equalised quickly as Trevon Bryan played in Mark Isong for the equaliser.

The Ammies had the last laugh, however, with Luke Hutchinson forced into early saves from Ryan Watson and Frankie Okoronkwo.

The had put pressure on the Bolton goal until the final 10 minutes of the half when Isong headed over from Sam Inwood’s corner and Mendes Gomes skimmed the crossbar with a shot from distance.

Salford pushed hard for an opening and despite Isong’s leveller will feel they deserved the late win.