Ian Evatt is backing his side to hit the goal trail again as Wanderers bid to end their lean streak at Charlton.
Wanderers have failed to score in four of their last five league games – wrapped around a thumping 5-2 win at pre-season promotion fancies Ipswich Town earlier this month.
Evatt’s men have continued to produce some top-quality football to live with the best in the division.
But after back-to-back defeats to Rotherham and high-flying Sunderland, the Bolton boss wants Wanderers to sharpen up at the Valley to earn a more fitting reward.
“To go to Sunderland and dominate the game as we did, especially in the second half, was credit to the team,” said Evatt, whose side created a host of chances at the Stadium of Light without being able to cancel out Carl Winchester’s early strike.
“But we just have a nasty habit of letting teams off the hook at the moment.
“We need to snap out of that pretty quickly but, performance wise (at Sunderland), I actually though it was better than Ipswich.
“I’ve been pleased with performance levels, just frustrated that we keep letting teams off the hook with missed opportunities.
“But we’ll keep backing ourselves, backing our forward players and working hard to put that right.”
Evatt – who is set to replace the injured Lloyd Isgrove with Elias Kachunga for Tuesday night’s trip to south-east London – added: “We need to go and perform with the same levels but have that clinical edge in the final third.
“It is the clinical edge. We are creating lots of opportunities. We just need to finish those opportunities.
“And it’s not just down to Eoin (Doyle) and the other forward lads. Other people need to chip in as well.
“Other people have opportunities. Even a set-play. Go and believe you’re going to score and go and get your head on the ball.
“We need to share that responsibility and make sure that once we get those opportunities we do take them.”
Evatt also wants his players to be a bit quicker out of the blocks after conceding early goals to both Sunderland and Rotherham on the way to recording successive losses for the first time since December.
But despite not picking up the points their performances have warranted, Wanderers still remain on the fringes of the early push for top-six places thanks to a solid start to life back in League One.
And Evatt insists this is not a time for doubts as Wanderers look to regain their momentum against a Charlton side with just one league win to their name this season and still seemingly finding their feet following a major summer overhaul.
“I said to the players on Saturday this is a key moment for us,” explained the Wanderers’ boss.
“We’ve had a really tough month, a really tough run of fixtures, and when you’re on the back of a couple of poor results – not performances – it can be easy to lose confidence and easy to come away from the type of team we are and how we’re playing.
“We have to have even more belief and show even more strength of character and courage to do what we do and be better at what we do.
“And if we do that, I’m more than confident we can get a result against team. I think we’ve shown that this season.
“We have been competitive with every big team we’ve played so we go there again without fear, to enjoy it and play our way and hopefully that’s good enough.”