91Èȱ¬

Bolton Wanderers boss Ian Evatt says his side have to get over the pain of their League One play-off final defeat at Wembley last season.

Evatt's side were well beaten 2-0 by Oxford United, missing out on promotion back to the Championship after a five-year absence.

Wanderers' defeat came off the back of narrowly missing out on automatic promotion in 2023-24.

"We have to try to get over it and formulate a way to get better," Evatt told 91Èȱ¬ Radio Manchester.

"The hardest part of football for me was once you've had those negative experiences, you don't just think and memorise those, you think about the good things we did in that season as well and there were a lot of those.

"We have to find a balance of improving and getting better, but also not throwing the baby out with the bath water because I think there was still a lot to like about last season."

Bolton prepare for the upcoming 2024-25 campaign with a stiff battle ahead for promotion, with big names in Huddersfield Town and Birmingham City being relegated into League One, while Wrexham and Stockport County were promoted from League Two.

Despite the challenges ahead, it is the obstacles that Bolton have had to overcome over the summer that is of more concern to Evatt.

"I think we'll be ready in terms of our training preparations but we've had some challenges in this off-season and I don't think it's a secret," he said.

"We've carried over some historical injuries from last season, and picked up one or two in pre-season as well, and recruitment has been challenging.

"There's context behind that. It's been challenging because we have moved away from the free-transfer window and the loan market and we've been trying to improve by signing the best players.

"Like always, the Premier League dictates everything in this country in the pyramid and by recruitment from the Championship, the dominoes fall there and eventually it'll get to us.

"We've had to show some patience and, at the end of the window, we'll get the ones in that we want."