BOLTON Wanderers defender Jack Iredale might have found it “really tough” to miss out on the chance of reaching Wembley in the play-offs last season – but he’s in no mood to achieve that career first this May!
Iredale, 27, was sidelined with meniscus damage for the second half of the 2022-23 campaign, meaning he could only watch on as Wanderers lost their League One play-off semi-final against Barnsley.
He’d previously missed out on their EFL Trophy triumph against Plymouth at Wembley because of the same injury.
But, with Bolton just one point outside of the automatic promotion places ahead of this weekend with two games in hand on second-placed Derby and three on leaders Portsmouth, the 6ft Australian is hoping to avoid an extension to the season this time around and put that dream of treading the hallowed turf on hold for at least another year.
“Growing up overseas, Wembley is such a massive, iconic stadium, so to have that chance to try and get there taken away by injury was really tough,” Iredale reflected. “Everyone tried to make me feel a part of the play-offs but, when you’re not putting your boots and strip on, that’s not easy.
“Now, though, I’ve got another chance to do something special with the club, but I’d rather not get to Wembley this season. I’d prefer to get the job done by the end of April - and get there another year.”
If Bolton do get the job done, then it will have been a genuine squad effort.
Ian Evatt made six changes for Tuesday 2-1 win over Wycombe and had not picked the same set of players in successive games for 18 fixtures.
The need to continue rotating without a negative impact on results is likely to underpin the team’s capacity to negotiate a congested fixture schedule which, by their March 12 home meeting with Oxford, will have seen the club play a midweek fixture in eight of nine consecutive weeks.
Prior to yesterday’s game against Charlton, no EFL club had completed fewer league fixtures than Bolton’s 30, but Iredale insisted: “Saturday-Tuesday-Sat-
urday weeks are the best. It’s what we want as players and, with the amount of strong, quality players we have, there are no issues handling the schedule.
“We make multi
