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Owen Beck’s first-ever league start might have started better… But Ian Evatt was delighted with the way it finished.
The Liverpool loanee missed a golden opportunity in the third minute of the game but recovered to finish the game well.
The team named by Ian Evatt was the youngest he has EVER selected in nearly two-and-a-half years as Bolton manager, the starting line-up averaging 24.1 years of age and beating the XI named against Wycombe earlier this season by a full five months.
Evatt was happy with Beck’s performance in what was the first league start of his football career.
“He should have scored early on, but other than that, I thought he was excellent,” he said. “We have some very good young players, and you look at that team today especially across that middle of the pitch with Owen, George Thomason, Aaron Morley and Conor Bradley, that’s a young four but the way they took responsibility and kept belief, the way they dictated the game was excellent.
“We have got a really good squad. Yes, there are going to be bumps in the road along the way, but we are also going to have moments and days like we have done today and I’m really proud of the players because that was some performance.”
Evatt felt Wanderers’ second-half display was one of his team’s better away performances, during which they put in six shots on target from 18 in total.
“I think the whole game was an excellent performance, I saw flickers of it last week, I saw moments of it last week, but today it was a lot more consistent and I asked for that in the week.
“First half, we were behind but we were in control, there’s no doubting that and we still had some big chances, especially early on that could have got us ahead, but the players have done it the hard way and it’s all down to them. We draw the outline and they go on and paint the picture and I thought today the way they performed was absolutely excellent.”
The scenes after Afolayan’s winner will live long in the memory. As will the celebrations in the dressing room – captured by Wanderers’ in-house cameras – which celebrated Evatt’s 41st birthday in style.
“There is a huge togetherness here,” the manager said. “We love being at this club, we’re massively proud of our fanbase and we just want to make the fanbase proud of us.
“I think we’ve done that today. Yes, we’ve gone about it the hard way, but I don’t think anybody in here could be disappointed with the way we’ve played today. That was an excellent performance and one that was completely dominant and sometimes you don’t get what you deserve, sometimes you do and today we absolutely did.”
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