Bolton SACK Ian Evatt after four years in charge after losing at home again and season at risk of petering out
BOLTON have sacked manager Ian Evatt.
The League One club sit ninth in the table despite expectations of challenging for promotion this season.
The Wanderers crashed to another home defeat to Charlton last night.
And club bosses decided at an emergency board meeting called after the defeat that enough was enough and pulled the plug.
A club statement said: “Bolton Wanderers Football Club today announces that First Team Manager Ian Evatt has left the Club by mutual consent.
“We would like to express our gratitude to Ian for his professionalism, commitment and creating a legacy during his time at the Club.
Evatt, 43, joined Bolton in July 2020 after leaving Barrow and guided the team to promotion from League Two with a third-place finish in his first season.
He was then awarded a three-year contract in 2021 and went on to win the EFL Trophy in 2023 and lead the club to the play-offs in the same season, seeing him earn renewed terms up to 2026.
Bolton suffered heartbreak under Evatt at the end of the 2023/24 season as they lost in the play-off finals.
But this season the wheels have come off for the Trotters, with a run of one win in six games to start their season proving difficult to recover from.
Following a 2-1 defeat at home to Charlton last night, they have now lost five games at the Toughsheet Community Stadium this season.
Speaking after the game, Evatt told reporters: “I can’t pick faults with the way we played.
“We were back to our best for large parts. But we found a way to lose which has happened too often. It can’t obviously continue.
“The performance was better than most of the season, if not all of it. But we came out on the wrong side of the result. That is bitterly disappointing.
“I am immensely proud when we play like that of who we are as a team.
“We look at them (Charlton). They got the win but they were very direct, very simplistic. I am not sure I would want to watch that every week.”
This season Bolton have won 11 of their 26 games, drawn five and lost 10.
Overall Evatt managed 261 games for the club, winning 132, drawing 52 and losing 77.
My view: Phil Gradwell - Bolton fan
IT'S a real shame Ian Evatt's time at Bolton ended as it did - but he had outstayed his welcome.
He was lucky there were no fans in stadiums in his first season as he’d have probably lasted just six months.
But in the second half of that League Two campaign his Wanderers went on a fantastic run to sneak automatic promotion.
But ultimately, we have spent too much time in the third tier.
There have been plenty of good times – that promotion, a 6-0 gubbing of Sunderland and the Papa John’s Trophy win in 2023.
That day summed up his reign – great when it didn’t really matter.
Opponents Plymouth were beaten 4-0 but finished top of League One.
We lost in the play-off semis, so who were the real winners?
He should have gone in the summer, after one of the most abject displays of all time in the play-off final against Oxford.
It shouldn’t have even come to that – we blew automatic promotion.
And with us now languishing in mid-table, his departure was IanEvattable.