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They might have been thrown together out of necessity, but Wanderers’ new-look back three is playing nothing like a makeshift unit.
Eoin Toal, Will Aimson and George Johnston have not conceded a goal in the three-and-a-half hours of football they have played together in league and cup, keeping out Manchester United’s Under-21s, Exeter City then Derby County.
The absence of club captain Ricardo Santos and vice skipper Gethin Jones may well have had a destabilising effect on Bolton’s fortunes during the winter but Ian Evatt has been delighted with the way his last remaining centre halves have clubbed together.
The performance against Derby was particularly impressive, helping the preserve a 10th clean sheet of the season. And while Tuesday’s point felt a little unsatisfactory on home soil, the Wanderers boss said his players’ attitude to make sure it was the bare minimum they took from the game was exemplary.
“In the last 18 months we have lost games like that, the big encounters and occasions,” he said.
“I think we had the better of it, I genuinely do, but I also think there is more to come and that we can be a lot better than that also, especially in possession.
“I was delighted with the way we defended, back to front, and the back three were excellent.
“We had one or two scares in transition, and that is because we were loose with the ball, but the way we defended one-v-one situations – Jonno in particular first half, and Eoin and Will second half – I thought those lads haven’t played a great deal of football together and they can be pleased with themselves.”
Wanderers were caught out by a formation switch from Paul Warne’s visitors, who have played 4-4-1-1 through most of their recent games.
Evatt named an unchanged line-up for only the second time this season, looking to get playmakers Josh Sheehan and Aaron Morley on the ball, but the majority of their work on the day was spent wrestling control of a busy midfield and winning second balls.
“It confused us, really,” Evatt said of the formation switch. “Derby have predominantly been 4-4-2 and we thought with that extra player in the middle of the pitch we could dominate the ball and have more control, but it is credit to us that they changed to 4-2-3-1.
“It took us a while to get used to it and we didn’t have that control in the middle of the pitch but what we did out of possession was excellent and the times we were composed and link passes we looked like we could hurt them, we just didn’t take those big moments when they came.”
The attendance of 25,428 was the biggest Bolton have welcomed to the stadium since the Premier League days and more than 11,000 more than attended the last home meeting with the Rams in the Championship during 2018/19.
“If ever there was an occasion to signal the progress this club has been making it is today,” Evatt added.
“We’re delighted that both clubs are back on a sound footing again, it is credit to both sets of owners for that, and it shows what can be created when you have a stadium and an atmosphere like this. It was a real full throttle, energetic game.
“At times it might have lacked a bit of quality but I think both teams gave it their all and it was played at such a high tempo that you could see both teams had been functioning really well.”
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