After ending the 2021-22 League One season in ninth place, Bolton showed improvement last season with a fifth-placed finish, and they will be desperate to pull closer to the promotions spots this term.
Over the course of the season, Ian Evatt’s side recorded 26 wins, eight draws and 12 losses in the league, finishing 15 points behind Sheffield Wednesday in third and eight points better off than they were the previous season.
The hosts have been busy in the preseason, having already played five matches this month, and it has gone fairly well for them so far, winning four of those matches while drawing just one against Chester City.
Bolton secured 47 of a possible 69 points at home last season (W14 D5 L4), which was only the fifth-best in the league, though they did manage an unbeaten run of nine games on either side on New Year, which included seven clean sheets.
The last time the hosts beat Everton at this venue was way back in the 2011-12 season when they were a Premier League side, and while they are not fancied to win this match, their players will want to give a good account of themselves against top-class opposition and cement their spots in the side with the league season just around the corner.
Meanwhile, last season was almost unimaginable from an Evertonian perspective as the Toffees came within a whisker of being relegated from the Premier League for the first time since its creation in 1992.
After spending a large portion of the season below the dotted line and looking deflated, Frank Lampard was replaced by Sean Dyche, who made an instant impact by beating the league leaders at the time, Arsenal, 1-0 in his first match in charge.
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In their 38 league matches, Everton managed just eight wins, which was one less than relegated Leicester City recorded, but a crucial strike from Abdoulaye Doucoure against Bournemouth on the final day of the season saw his side edge out the Foxes to safety by just two points.
Everton have played two preseason friendlies so far and won both, beating Stade Nyonnais 2-1 with Katia Kouyate and Neal Maupay getting on the scoresheet, while the 38-year-old Ashley Young secured the win against Wigan Athletic over the weekend.
The Toffees only managed two wins on the road the whole of last season, which was the second-worst record in the league, but with a few new faces in the dressing room and a good preseason up to this point, things are starting to look up for Dyche’s men, and they will want to keep building momentum as they edge closer to their first league match against Fulham next month.
