A desire to keep Jon Dadi Bodvarsson fresh for this Saturday's game against Plymouth Argyle and the amount of football he has played in a short space of time after being thrust back into the action was behind the Iceland international not starting for Bolton Wanderers vs Morecambe.
Bodvarsson came off the bench to score a dramatic late equaliser against the Shrimps at the University of Bolton Stadium last night in a 1-1 draw.
Wanderers began the clash at the University of Bolton Stadium exceptionally well and could have been a few goals to the good by half-time.
Dion Charles missed a glorious chance and struck the crossbar with another effort, while Amadou Bakayoko saw an effort land wide.
But Cole Stockton gave the visitors the advantage after making the most of George Johnston's short pass to give the Shrimps the lead at the break.
Wanderers huffed and puffed after the break but got a stoppage time equaliser when Xavier Amaechi teed up fellow substitute Bodvarsson to net late on and salvage a point.
The draw keeps Wanderers in 11th place in League One and they remain seven points from the top six with nine games of their season left to go.
Ian Evatt opted to make one change from the side which beat Gillingham 3-0 over the weekend on the road, with Bakayoko replacing Bodvarsson.
And the Wanderers boss explained the busy fixture list of late for Bodvarsson allied to the lack of action he got in the first half of the season at previous club Millwall was behind the decision, as well as Bakayoko's recent good form in front of goal which has earned him a nomination for League One player of the month.
Was it two points dropped or a point gained for Wanderers against Morecambe? Have your say in the comments section below
Evatt said: "It’s tough when Jon’s missed a lot of football before he came here and we’ve tried to gain his fitness and build his fitness up. Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday is really challenging and tough so we wanted to try and keep him fresh for Saturday and also Baka’s deserved to play as well.
"Baka’s scored a lot of goals for us of late and done really well and tonight he did well. But delighted for Jon to step up and get the goal.
“I think they’re disappointed. I think the standards that we’ve set right now, they know what should have happened tonight. The first goal, especially if you score in the first 20 minutes like we should have, it becomes a completely different game and then they can’t camp and hang on the way they did.
"I think the big chance that Dion missed, it would have been one of the best goals you’ll see at this stadium and the way we moved it, some of the combination play, and we got away with it on Saturday as we missed some big chances then.
"Tonight we’ve not got away with it so it’s something we need to look at.”
The chance for Charles Evatt refers to came early in the encounter and was a slick passage of play which ended with the Northern Ireland international curling a glorious chance from inside the box wide.
Charles hit the bar also and missed a couple of decent opportunites he would be expected to put away against Gillingham, but Evatt has vowed Wanderers will support the January signing during this period.
He said: “Strikers go through these spells and sometimes even the one off the bar, you just want that to go in for him, but we’ll back him and we’ll support him.
"We know he’s a very good player. He’s a big player for us so we’ll get around him and keep giving him confidence.”
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