Ian Evatt has congratulated the Imps on our success this season, but dropped a backhanded warning in for good measure.
Evatt’s Bolton side was once the blueprint, in my opinion, for what is required to challenge in this division. They had good players, know-how off the ball and skill on it. It did not get them promoted; it eventually got him the sack, but the Trotters are not a whole lot better off with their new manager.
Evatt was sacked on 1.46 points per game, while Schumacher has improved slightly to 1.70. Still, it is not Bolton the belligerent boss is in charge of now, it is Blackpool, and looking ahead to his trip to the Bank, he is the one seeing a blueprint, not me.
“What they’ve done is follow a blueprint of what others have done in terms of having that real pragmatic approach and having real experienced heads around the team,” Evatt said.
“They just do the basics really well, and of course have some talent in there as well, players like (Jack) Moylan, who’s having a great season.”
He did deliver a warning for the Imps. Seemingly believing we are going up, his challenge was how we evolve what we do now for the next level. Hopefully, our blueprint will achieve that, but we need to heed Evatt’s warning.
“They can get you in different ways, but I’ll go back to the blueprint of Rotherham teams of the past. They go up in that manner, and then the difficulty for them is how they evolve and change things if they get promoted. That’s not for me to decide, it’s down to them.”
He did have some words of encouragement ahead of the weekend’s fixture.
“I’ve watched a lot of Lincoln, and they’ve done incredibly well.
“Their recruitment has been excellent, they’ve got a really experienced back line and are a physically dominant team, and they’ve got some really good footballers that can hurt you.”
It is another big weekend in League One. Stockport travel to Stevenage in a tricky encounter, while Bradford have an equally tough task away at Reading. Bolton, with two draws behind them, face Exeter City, leaving us with a good chance to open up more of a gap between those three teams and us.
For those looking up, not down, Cardiff City go to Doncaster Rovers.