STEVEN Schumacher has explained his decision to swap Nathan Baxter for Luke Southwood in goal for Saturday’s League One clash with Stockport County.
The Bolton boss had stuck with Northern Ireland international Southwood in all but one of his games in charge to date, that being a Vertu Trophy quarter-final at Wrexham.
But Baxter returned against the Hatters for his first start in 11 league games and - despite the 1-0 defeat – impressed with three important saves to keep the visitors at bay.
Explaining his choice, Schumacher said: “I think Luke Southwood has done a good job in the nine or 10 games that we've been here.
“I also feel as though we have conceded goals from not having too many shots against our keeper, so it's something that we were thinking about.
“Obviously, Nathan is a really experienced goalkeeper, a goalkeeper that's got good pedigree. So I looked at a bit of data this week and felt, you know what, this might be the time.
“I spoke to Luke yesterday (Friday) and said there's not something I can pinpoint, or that he has made loads of mistakes.
“I just felt in the big moments in these tight games, my gut told me this might be the time to give Nathan a chance.
“He is also the only player who hasn’t really had an opportunity as he has only had one game since we've been here.
“So, it was up to him to go and earn the shirt, and for what it's worth I thought Nathan was excellent all day.”
Wanderers made five changes to the side for Stockport, with Schumacher trying to put “energy” into his line-up by changing his two wide players, Szabi Schon and Gethin Jones, for Josh Dacres-Cogley and Jordi Osei-Tutu.
George Thomason moved to left-sided centre-half to cover for the injured George Johnston, and Newcastle United loan Alex Murphy was dropped from the squad. That also meant a recall for Joel Randall in midfield.
The other big talking point on the day was a return for Chris Forino in the middle of the back three, which meant Will Forrester was moved to the bench.
“We felt Kyle Wooton was going to start the game, so we knew how physical he is and that was the reason why we brought Big Chris in,” he said. “I came up against Wooton at Stoke in pre-season and he was a massive handful, to Ben Wilmot who's very similar size to Will Forrester.
“Again, it's no slight on Will, if I've got a big unit like Chris, why not use him?
“Obviously, they didn't start Wooton, but he came on in the second half and was a handful, so that was the reason.”
Schumacher is disappointed but not too down after successive league defeats, which mean his side enter the international break outside the play-off spots.
“There is no panic,” he said. “I said to the players in there, the results and performances that we have had leading up to the last two games have earned them the right to lose a couple.
“If we'd have lost one in the middle of that and one today for example, then no-one would see it as a big deal.
“We have come out of it in two real tight games with no points, when arguably we could have taken something from both games.
“They can go into this international break now with a chance to reset mentally and physically and then go and attack the last nine games.
“We are out of the top six by one point, which is closer than what we were before we came here. So, they've done brilliant, and they need to know that they've done brilliant. I still believe in them, and I'm sure our fans will as well.”
