Manager previews the weekend's game against Brighton
Heading into this weekend’s clash with Brighton & Hove Albion, manager Dougie Freedman is confident his side have enough in their locker to secure maximum points.
Seeking a third successive home win, confidence is high at BL6 as Bolton head into the clash off the back of a five-match unbeaten run.
And while wary of the threat posed by the promotion-chasing Seagulls, Freedman has faith in his players to build on their current good form.
“Brighton defend in a little bit of a different way,” Freedman told bwfc.co.uk. “We’ve looked at them a lot on the videos, the manager has got them defending a little bit deeper.
“It is a little bit more counter-attacking, but that’s fine. We’ve got the personnel and ideas in the team to break them down eventually.
“I would say, looking at our home record over the last couple of games, we have been creating a lot of opportunities and have been taking them as well.
“I know there are goals in us and now I know there is a clean sheet and resilience in us as well, so we just need to make sure we continue in the form we are in and continue doing the simple things well.
“It is going to be a very interesting game. We need to make sure we don’t get done on the counter-attack. It’ll be a tactical game so we need to make sure we’re fully on top of that.”
Pleased with the progress his squad has made so far this season, Freedman is glad to see Bolton getting the rewards for their recent efforts.
Freedman said: “I think for the last dozen games we have been putting in fantastic performances. I remember the game against Bournemouth at home where I thought we were fantastic.
“It was just the position we were in at that moment when we were getting difficult results. The last five games the results have been matching the performances.
“Not all performances are going to be four or five-nil. Some performances you’ve got to dig in and make sure you don’t get beaten and keep a clean sheet, and I think we did that against Derby.
The Scot continued: “We’re starting to show an all-round consistency to our game and making sure that we understand Championship football.
“Every game is three points, home or away. It is not all about winning 5-1 or 4-0, it is about the whole round effort you have got to put in.
“We’ve been playing some fantastic football at home. We’ve been controlling matches for the whole 95 minutes. We just need to put in a performance like that on Saturday.”