Schumacher looks back on his whirlwind Wanderers introduction at Reading

Yahoo

12 hours ago

THE last time Steven Schumacher prepared a side to face Reading, he wasn't entirely sure of the name of every player sat in his dressing room.
February 1, 2025, and the newly appointed Bolton boss travelled down to the Select Car Leasing Stadium having introduced himself on the training ground only the previous morning.
That he took charge of the game at all was a surprise to some, especially as the interim management group of Julian Darby, Andy Taylor and Andrew Tutte had managed to win two from two in their short spells to leave him in the best possible position.
Schumacher watched a situation unfold that would prove frustratingly familiar by the end of the season – one in which Wanderers created chances but could not convert them, only to be caught by a sucker punch at the end of the game via Harvey Knibbs' penalty, given for a bizarre handball from debutant Kion Etete.
Asked if he had considered 'watching from the stands' on that day, Schumacher admits his excitement at getting back into football with the Whites had taken over his thinking at the time.
'I'd been out of the game for three or four months and I was desperate to get back involved,' he told The Bolton News. 'I don't know how long the interview process went on for in the end but it seemed to be a long time and all that week I was just thinking about if I was given the opportunity to be the manager what team would we pick, so I thought about it a lot when I got in.
'Julian, Andrew Taylor and Tutty had done such a good job in the previous two games and I said: 'Look, I'm going to need your advice on what you think.'
'I'm pretty sure they had a huge part in picking the team and the preparation went smoothly as what it would normally do.
'I actually thought we played well on the day, had some really big chances to score.
'It was a story of how the rest of the season went, wasn't it? I Remember Aaron Collins had a big chance and then another one later on. From nothing from a penalty was given in the last few minutes.
'I just didn't want to wait any longer, just get in the mix straight away and glad that I did.'
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Thankfully, preparations will be much more exhaustive this time around and after getting off to such a positive start at home in the league to Plymouth, Schumacher is keen to keep the run going over the next few days as Reading and Lincoln City come to town.
'It's important that you try and make the most of your home advantage and try and make the Toughsheet Stadium a tough place for people to come and play,' he said.
'So we want to continue what we did against Plymouth in the league, we were really good, we managed to get a result in the game against Sheffield Wednesday (in the Carabao Cup), although we lost in our penalties, we came from behind three times and used our home advantage to not fall apart there when we had 10 men.
'So that's what we'll be trying to do at the weekend, just try and get on the front foot, be positive and get a result that we need.'