Bolton Wanderers: Steven Schumacher can inflict Ian Evatt’s revenge v Stockport, Blackpool & Wigan | OneFootball

Bolton head into three successive local derbies that could define their season but also serve as an exorcism as they seek to get revenge.

Last season, Bolton Wanderers appeared in an ideal situation to finally propel themselves back into the second-tier of English football once again, but a mini-collapse in the second-half of the campaign saw them miss out on automatic promotion on the final day of the season before then losing 2-0 to Oxford United in the League One play-off final.

As a part of that mini-collapse, Wanderers faced two local derbies in the space of three days in late-February, and they lost them both on the road; capitulating to a 4-1 loss at Bloomfield Road against Blackpool before losing 1-0 to Wigan Athletic at the DW Stadium.

That exact situation is about to happen again when Wanderers return from the March international break with a trip to Bloomfield Road on the Saturday before, once again, facing Wigan three days later at the DW under the lights.

Prior to those crucial clashes, though, Wanderers must first face off against another local rival in Stockport County, who thrashed Bolton by five goals to nil at Edgeley Park in the reverse fixture between the two sides back in mid-November.

Ian Evatt’s tenure at the Toughsheet Community Stadium was consistently undermined by a failure to perform on big occasions, whether that be against top sides or in local derbies – his successor, Steven Schumacher, has the chance to get revenge for Evatt and for Bolton, as well as going further to enhance his reputation within the Bolton fanbase, which is already strong.

Bolton’s struggles in local rivalries

Those aforementioned defeats were arguably the denouements in what was a very poor final few months of the 2023/24 campaign for Bolton, but performances and results like that were all too common under the management of Evatt.

Arguably, Bolton’s biggest local rival in the modern era is Wigan, and the Trotters, despite Wigan’s trials and tribulations off the pitch, have regularly been embarrassed by the Latics in recent years, with the last three games at Wanderers coming to a 10-0 aggregate score in favour of their rivals, as well as failing to beat them away from home.

As well as that, though, there is the aforementioned capitulation away at Stockport against yet another side that appear to have developed a hoodoo against the Trotters in recent times.

With Bolton in League One and Stockport a non-league side back in the 2021/22 season, the Hatters managed to earn a 2-2 draw in the first round of the FA Cup away from home before dispatching of Bolton after extra-time with a 5-3 win in the replay, in a game in which Bolton had been 2-0 up early on – meaning they have now scored 12 goals in three games against Wanderers in recent times.

Schumacher can right some wrongs for Bolton fans

As the cliché goes in football, the most important game is the next one and the next one for Bolton is indeed against Stockport. Rather than it being like that cup game of league vs non-league, it is a side that are very much a promotion rival for the Trotters.

With both sides still believing they have a chance of squeezing into the top two and the automatic promotion spots in League One this season, even despite Bolton’s 3-2 defeat to Bristol Rovers the other night, there is far more importance on this game than the usual bluster of a derby game.

If Bolton can get themselves over the line at the Toughsheet Community Stadium this weekend, then it will allow them the chance to head into a two-week break to properly prepare for what could be a dramatic run-in in the third-tier.

A victory should also give Wanderers a fair bit of confidence ahead of trips to stadiums that will give the players and supporters a few nightmares given the scars of last season’s promotion run-in.

Wanderers have buckled under pressure and expectation far too often in recent seasons, but Steven Schumacher has the chance to go even higher in the estimations of Bolton fans if he can pull off a three-match winning streak that takes down three old foes, including a game against a close friend and the man he was formerly the assistant to at both Bury and Plymouth Argyle, Ryan Lowe, recently installed as Wigan’s new boss, whilst also dispelling some demons and emphatically launching an unlikely automatic promotion push.

It's a huge cluster of fixtures for obvious reasons, and positive outcomes could well right the wrongs of last season.