The Big Match Verdict by Marc Iles

Leyton Orient 1-2 Bolton Wanderers

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Sure, they can pass the ball and win with style and swagger at this level, but can Wanderers roll up their sleeves and take games against the grain?

Accusations of Bolton’s soft centre have followed them throughout Ian Evatt’s four years at the helm and intensified after their Wembley catastrophe against Oxford United just 12 short weeks ago.

While opposition managers and players regularly throw out lavish praise for the style of football played by the Whites, that flattery normally arrives after the team in question has frustrated the hell out of them for 90 minutes and grabbed points most would feel undeserved.

So often last season, Evatt was left talking about chances that had gone begging, games which had been controlled but domination that had gone unpunished. And many felt a lack of tactical flexibility was at the heart of the problem.

One game into the new season, one Bolton hope will end with them finally climbing out of the League One tar pit and back into the Championship after six long years away, they may have made a crucial breakthrough.

Victory was achieved at Leyton Orient not with commanding spells of possession nor with especially free-flowing attacking football. Bolton had to get their hands dirty and now appear to have the necessary players to cope with a different way of approaching the type of game this level so often throws at you.

When Jack Iredale’s slip allowed Charlie Kelman to cancel out Dion Charles’s eighth minute opener there was a sense of ‘we’ve seen this one before’ echoing around the Wanderers fanbase.

Leyton Orient are an inherently awkward team. They have physical presence, enterprising set pieces and are usually aggressive from minute one. And they had managed to strangle Bolton’s midfield to the point where they too had to play over the press and go direct.

By half time the grumbling was seismic. Pre-season had been about new formations, an experimental style of play, but the Whites were being dogged by familiar problems and struggling to make their way out of the mess.

But an unprecedented spending spree this summer has left Evatt with options he simply didn’t have last season when this sort of conundrum came his way. Instead of replacing like for like, willing his players to find a gear they simply hadn’t reached to that point, he brought on some heavy artillery in John McAtee, Jay Matete, Victor Adeboyejo, Klaidi Lolos and Jordi Osei-Tutu and was able to wrestle back momentum they had not enjoyed since Charles’s early strike.

Adeboyejo scored with nearly his first touch, reward for what had been an excellent pre-season. The Nigerian striker could consider himself unlucky not to have started ahead of Charles, given his form, but reacted in exactly the way his manager would have wanted.

That the cavalry was able to make such an impact was mainly down to the goalkeeping heroics of Nathan Baxter, who had pulled off a string of excellent saves to keep the O’s at bay, particularly down the right where Kelman had tormented Iredale and exploited space left behind the ultra-attacking Szabolcs Schön.

Baxter reserved his best save for the very end – a full-length fingertip to push Kelman’s curling shot around his post and end any debate about who would be awarded man of the match.

Some of Bolton’s second-half substitute cameos deserve a mention, however, as they maximised their time on the pitch to leave Evatt with some thinking to do ahead of Wrexham’s visit to the Toughsheet Stadium next week.

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McAtee, courted by the Welsh club and offered an eye-watering contract, stepped into one of the two supporting-striker roles effortlessly. His name had been bouncing around the away stand for a full 10 minutes before he replaced Scott Arfield and he wasted no time ingratiating himself to his new supporters, winning possession back several times deep in Orient territory.

Matete also looked a good fit. Josh Sheehan had not been given the time nor space to play his natural game so once the Sunderland loanee stepped in, his more defensive nature helped tip the scales back in Bolton’s favour.

Evatt did not have any central defenders named on the bench, Gethin Jones and Will Forrester still injured, and Chris Forino pencilled in for his debut against Mansfield in the League Cup on Tuesday night. Iredale’s struggles against Kelman needed to be addressed, however, so he improvised by bringing on Osei-Tutu as the right wing-back, moving Josh Dacres-Cogley to centre-half.

Necessity being the mother of invention, the change worked well. And given the number of jibes aimed at the Wanderers boss post play-off final, it is only right that his substitutions and tactical shifts in this 90 minutes are highlighted and celebrated.

Baxter’s refusal to concede a second time earned him the headlines, and deservedly so, yet the story of this game was also one of options. Very few sides in this division have the resources now available to Evatt and it will be a new challenge for him to keep players content. Equally, the size of his squad now makes departures almost inevitable before the close of the summer window, and a few may now question how many games they are likely to play with so much competition around.

Wanderers finished last season with a handful of their players operating way below their best, patched up to stave off injury. Bringing in seven new signings this summer seems to be a reaction, and if the club can avoid the wretched bad luck they suffered at the start of the year losing the likes of Baxter, Santos, Charles and Adeboyejo, there is every reason to believe they can compete again at the top of the table.

We wondered what fight would be left in the Whites after Wembley but on first viewing there is a renewed desire to put things right. And long may it continue.

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Bolton Wanderers 1-1 Mansfield (Wanderers win 5-4 on pens)

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Wanderers pulled off a magnificent penalty shoot-out comeback to put themselves into the second round of the Carabao Cup at Mansfield Town’s expense.

Davis Keillor-Dunn struck late on to cancel out George Thomason’s spectacular opener for the Whites and fire up a game which – in all honesty – had lacked any sense of excitement until the bitter end.

Bolton looked to have fluffed their chance in the shoot-out too, Thomason and Randell Williams missing their kicks to give the Stags two chances to go through.

But debutant Luke Southwood came to his team’s rescue with two huge saves from Will Swan and Aaron Lewis, Hiram Boateng also putting his effort well wide.

Wanderers made nine changes from the side that had beaten Leyton Orient, captain Ricardo Santos and number 10 Scott Arfield the only men asked to go again. There were full debuts for new signings Southwood, Jordi Osei-Tutu, Chris Forino, Jay Matete and John McAtee and a first start since May 2023 for George Johnston on the left side of defence.

With so many changes and fresh faces a certain amount of disjointed football could be forgiven. It took Evatt’s side a fair while to grow into a first half played in a perpetual downpour, the grey football often mirroring the dour weather above.

Bolton’s best chance fell to Victor Adeboyejo, Saturday’s matchwinner and showing here his improvement as a number nine who is able to hold up play. Unfortunately as a dull half drew to a close he pulled his shot wide of the far post after being fed by a clever ball from McAtee.

That triggered a spell of decent pressure for the Whites, with Forino going close from an Aaron Morley corner and Jay Matete also seeing a goal-bound shot deflected wide.

Only in fleeting moments did Bolton get their regular passing game going, otherwise the more fluid stuff came from the Stags. Osei-Tutu made one excellent intervention to clear Tom Nicholls’ low cross and deny debutant Ben Quinn a tap-in, and in doing so went headlong into the advertising hoardings. In a week where Wanderers have lost Will Forrester and Klaidi Lolos to injury, the last thing they needed was another man in the queue for the treatment room, and thankfully the former Arsenal trainee was okay to continue after treatment.

There was more to appreciate in a defensive sense from Bolton in the opening 45 minutes, Santos making a couple of vital challenges to rescue some of the sloppier moments in possession at the back, and new boy Matete really showing up well as he mopped up in midfield.

Mansfield had also made nine changes to the team which had bettered Barnsley on Friday night but they went back down the tunnel feeling better about their night’s work and the possibility of picking up a first win in Bolton since 1987.

Eoin Toal came on at half time for Santos – presumably a pre-planned substitution – and Wanderers made a positive start to the second half, Johnston playing a great ball out of defence to McAtee, and Osei-Tutu driving his shot narrowly wide on the overlap.

Mansfield, who had made two changes of their own at the break, hit straight back and had a goal ruled out for offside when Will Swann’s shot was pushed aside by Southwood and Nicholls found the back of the net with the follow-up.

Substitutions were the magic ingredient in the capital on Saturday and Evatt freshened things up further on the hour mark, bringing Aaron Collins, Dion Charles and George Thomason into the game. And within a few minutes of entering the field, all three had played a part in the opening goal.

After Collins and Charles had combined to launch an attack down the left, Deji Oshilaja tripped the latter as he looked to surge into the penalty box to earn a yellow card. Thomason’s free kick bounced off a defender, but Wanderers were able to keep the pressure on, and the same player made sure his next shot counted – a brilliant 25-yard effort that bounced off the underside of the bar and into the net.

It was a rare moment of excitement on a night that screamed ‘early rounds of the cup’ but for a £10 ticket price, probably covered the cost on its own.

Suddenly there was a bit of spark about the game, both sets of fans suddenly found their voice. That seemed to rather over-stimulate Hiram Boateng, who was lucky to stay on the pitch after taking a wild swipe at Matete, then trying to pick a fight with anyone in his path back to the halfway line.

Evatt’s incredulous protests earned him a yellow card from referee Adam Herczeg, and even his punishment could have been more severe.

Wanderers could have wrapped things up completely after Collins had one shot bounce off the backside of a defender, then fizzed another one just wide after taking the ball off the toes of Williams.

Any hope of an early night was extinguished eight minutes from time, however, as sub Davis Keillor-Dunn surged past Josh Dacres-Cogley into the left side of the penalty box and produced an excellent finish into the bottom corner.

Collins was frustrated twice more, keeper Christy Pym making two big saves before Osei-Tutu then drove another effort inches wide.

All the excitement had been shoehorned into the final stages but the Whites couldn’t find another clear moment in the four minutes of added time to save us the peril of a penalty shoot-out.

Adeboyejo scored with his opening spot kick, Jordan Bowery pulling Mansfield level. Thomason saw his effort pushed away by Pym at the same end he had previously scored and the experienced head of Lee Gregory nudged the visitors in front.

Aaron Collins tucked his penalty away well, Elliott Hewitt blasting his effort into the roof of the net to make it 3-2.

Randell Williams was next up, putting a poor effort well wide of the target, which left Boateng – the villain of the piece – with a chance to win it. There was some karma in seeing him put an effort even wider than Williams.

Charles had to score – and did – but Aaron Lewis could still have won it. Southwood came to the rescue with a fine save to bring the shoot-out to sudden death.

Matete’s cheeky effort was borderline outrageous but Callum MacDonald held his nerve to bring up Josh Dacres-Cogley; he did the business, piling pressure on to Will Swan, and aptly Southwood’s dive was correct.

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Bolton Wanderers 0-0 Wrexham

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Wanderers certainly showed all the grit they will need for an automatic promotion push in League One but none of the subtlety in a tense goalless draw against Wrexham.

Questions have been asked of what scars would be left by the play-off defeat exactly three months earlier and Ian Evatt will undoubtedly draw some positives from the way his side handled the Welsh side’s relentlessly rough-and-tumble approach.

An endless stream of set pieces were repelled, shots blocked, challenges won – but when Bolton needed to find a moment of quality at the other end of the pitch it was a different story.

Good chances fell to Dion Charles and Aaron Collins but the Whites found ex-Arsenal keeper Arthur Okonkwo in terrific form, and he walked away with the man-of-the-match award as well as a first clean sheet of the season.

There was no Ryan Reynolds or Rob Mcelhenney in the directors’ box and no Hollywood glamour over 90 minutes. At times it had all the glitz of a Ken Loach kitchen sink drama.

But Evatt’s men showed fight, and at times those qualities have been doubted, especially since Wembley.

Wanderers made two changes from the side that beat Leyton Orient on the opening day of the season, bringing George Johnston in for his first league start since the play-off semi-finals in 2023, replacing Jack Iredale, and John McAtee for Scott Arfield in the front three.

Anyone expecting a free-flowing football classic probably hadn’t done their homework on the opposition – Parkinson’s side just as scrappy and physical as the one he created at Bolton to get promotion from this very league in 2017.

For the first 15 minutes the visitors struggled with Wanderers’ movement, particularly down the left where Szabolcs Schön, Johnston and George Thomason found some early successes.

On the other side, Josh Dacres-Cogley also stole an early march on James McClean, albeit the experienced Northern Irishman, being used as a wing-back, got back on equal terms as the half wore on.

Okonkwo was definitely the busier of the two keepers and was needed to push Aaron Collins’ bouncing shot wide after just six minutes. From the corner, he struggled to hold the ball amongst a mass of arms and legs but Tom O’Connor came to his aid with a clearance before it could be forced over the line.

Wrexham survived that spell of pressure to start applying some of their own. What the Welshmen offered was mainly restricted to set pieces and, pleasingly, Bolton defended them well, even 5ft 7ins Hungarian Schön – watched by compatriot and ex-Whites keeper, Adam Bogdan – chipped in with some important clearances.

Bolton continued to carve out reasonable chances. Collins arrowed a low cross to Charles, whose flick landed on the roof of the net, and Josh Sheehan had a curling free kick pushed over by Okonkwo.

Midfield was a mess of snapping and snarling challenges, the game balanced in a perpetual state of transition. Wanderers might have been ahead on points in this slug-fest but they were struggling a little to land a clean blow.

Likewise, Wrexham did not spark into life until the second half. Tom O’Connor blasted one shot a goal, blocked bravely by Ricardo Santos, but only mustered a real shot on target a couple of minutes after the restart when Nathan Baxter got down to push Jack Marriott’s effort wide.

Almost immediately, McAtee put an excellent ball through for Charles, who had slipped the other side of his marker. Unfortunately, he could not beat Okonkwo with his weaker left foot.

Wrexham were given another free kick in a good area when Santos made a clumsy challenge on Andy Cannon. When the ball was launched into the penalty box it took a vital clearance from Thomason in his own six-yard box to prevent problems.

Whether it was the occasion, or an element of over-excitedness, but Wanderers had not been as exact in possession as they needed to be. Even the safest hands - Sheehan or Collins, for example – were just off the mark. Just before the hour, though, it nearly all clicked into place as Sheehan, McAtee and Thomason conspired to give Charles a chance, his shot clawed wide by Okonkwo at full stretch.

Still the game hung in the balance. Elliott Lee smashed a shot from 25 yards which had Baxter momentarily shifting anxiously back towards his line and McClean laced a volley over the bar after yet another corner.

The 13th corner of the game nearly proved a lucky one for Bolton as Eoin Toal climbed to beat his marker, his effort cleared from close to the line. Santos then followed up, his header clearing the crossbar.

Evatt freshened his options with Kyle Dempsey making a welcome return from injury. Vic Adeboyejo, Jordi Osei-Tutu, Scott Arfield and Jay Matete also entered a game now looking like it would be won by whichever side could find some composure around the penalty box.

The two sets of fans kept themselves entertained with some light-hearted banter. The last time the two sides met in 1988 there had been fewer than 6,000 at the Racecourse Ground but five minutes before the end it was confirmed that the crowd of 25,957 was indeed the biggest Bolton had welcomed since dropping out of the Premier League in 2012.

The tension climbed as the second ticked down, each side knowing a mistake could cost three points. Sub Stephen Fletcher struck an effort from distance that Baxter could only parry away – thankfully only in the direction of one of his own defenders.

Dempsey had added some direct running and twice nearly carved out an opportunity for Adeboyejo, once again the crucial moment of quality was lacking.

There was a penalty shout at the bitter end, Santos appealing that his shirt had been pulled by Eoghan O’Connell – a view that seemed to be shared by Evatt on the touchline – but the protests fell on deaf ears.

Three minutes of stoppage time were almost all used up as Bolton got one more chance to load the penalty box, Osei-Tutu winning a free kick on the right. The home fans had been crying out for their team to launch something forward but when the ball was cleared, referee Ben Speedie was quick to end the game as Johnston tried to dig out one final cross.

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Charlton Athletic 2-0 Bolton Wanderers

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Defeats always sting but that feeling is much worse when the outcome is, in Ian Evatt’s words, “self-inflicted”.

The first goal at the Valley was of Wanderers’ own doing, with skipper Ricardo Santos losing possession cheaply while looking to build from the back.

It still needed a fine strike from Greg Docherty to beat Nathan Baxter from the edge of the penalty area.

But it was a blow for the Whites after a fairly positive start against the Addicks, with John McAtee and Aaron Collins finding space to run into.

Evatt refused to point the finger after the final whistle, insisting the responsibility falls on his shoulders because of the way he wants Wanderers to build from the back.

The first goal is always important in League One but against Charlton, it had a massive impact on how the contest panned out.

Once Nathan Jones’ side got their noses in front, they were generally happy to sit back and look to frustrate Wanderers, who dominated possession but failed to make that translate into chances in the final third.

Without getting too technical, the heatmaps told an interesting story. Charlton were often penned in on the edge of their own box but, to their credit, defended resiliently to keep the Bolton attack at bay.

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Evatt’s men saw plenty of the ball in and around the penalty area but couldn’t quite get the final pass right.

The manager admitted that his side’s decision making wasn’t good enough on the day but is confident it will improve with more time on the training pitch.

John McAtee is still getting to grips with Bolton’s system and how his new team-mates operate, in fairness, while others have slightly different roles from last term as part of the tactical tweak.

But the frustration for supporters is that the game felt too similar to many occasions over the past few years.

It is a problem that even the top teams in Europe have when coming up against sides who look to sit deep and frustrate. In those instances, you simply cannot afford to give the opposition a head start.

After the opener, Wanderers did not have many moments of note in front of goal. Dion Charles forced Will Mannion into a decent stop low to his right after reacting quickly to get a shot away.

At the other end, Baxter made a good stop with his legs to deny Docherty a second after Thierry Small’s cross eventually dropped for the midfielder.

George Thomason delivered a dangerous cross on the stroke of half time that was not too far from curling into the bottom corner.

Evatt made a double change at the break, with Victor Adeboyejo and Jordi Osei-Tutu replacing Charles and Josh Dacres-Cogley after the latter had picked up a knock.

There has been plenty of debate over whether Adeboyejo is more suited to the Whites’ current system due to his physical attributes. However, it would be a big call to drop Charles, who has been the club’s top scorer in the past couple of seasons.

Adeboyejo showed glimpses of his hold-up play to bring the likes of Collins and McAtee into the game, but not much changed in the next 20 minutes, in truth.

Kyle Dempsey and Jay Matete were also introduced off the bench in place of Josh Sheehan and George Thomason as Evatt looked to inject energy in the middle of the pitch.

Dempsey had a bit of joy as the game became more stretched but clear-cut chances were still hard to come by.

The dynamic midfielder is perhaps a better fit for these types of games on the road but is still building up his sharpness after missing most of pre-season due to injury.

Eoin Toal had a half chance after getting on the end of Szabi Schon’s corner but could not direct his header goalward.

Charlton nearly doubled their lead through a corner of their own but Chuks Aneke could not keep his header down after getting up highest.

McAtee let fly from the edge of the area but his strike flew over the bar. Moments later, Aneke had another sight at goal but sliced an effort wide of the near post.

The end-to-end nature continued and it felt inevitable a goal was coming, but unfortunately it went the hosts’ way.

Wanderers lost possession in their own half again, although this time it was forced by Charlton’s aggressive pressing. Aneke picked out Matty Godden in the box with a pinpoint cross and he planted a diving header past Baxter.

Scott Arfield replaced Johnston for the final few minutes but the hosts preserved their clean sheet to continue an impressive start to the campaign.

It is still early days in the season and many teams will leave the Valley empty-handed in the coming months.

But even at this stage, Wanderers know they must offer more in front of goal with the firepower they have in the squad.

Evatt added after the match: “I said before the game I think (Charlton) will be in the top six, nothing has changed my mind about that.

“They are a different type of team to what we are, they are more robust, physical, aggressive, front foot and direct at times. There is no right or wrong way to do it, that has been successful in this league before.

“Nathan knows what he is doing, he has improved this team and that was an improvement from what I have seen in recent years.”

The fixtures now start to come thick and fast, and that is something Evatt is happy about as Bolton aim to bounce back quickly against Shrewsbury in the Carabao Cup.

There are likely to be more starts for some of the summer signings and players who have been returning from injuries, and it is a chance to prove why they should get the nod for the league matches.

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Bolton Wanderers 0-2 Exeter City - The Big Match Verdict

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Judgement is sometimes measured in timbre, the vocal overtones which accompany a misplaced pass, a conceded goal, or the final whistle which signifies the end of a damaging home defeat like this.

And sometimes these are passing fads. Football managers can be the cock of the walk one week and a human piñata the next, such are the emotions which flow within this apparently beautiful game.

So they flow readily at Bolton Wanderers right now.

Ian Evatt would have experienced this sort of disquiet had fans been allowed into the stadium in his first League Two season in charge, and he most certainly knew about it when the club made an inconsistent start to their first campaign after promotion.

But since that rocky New Year in 2022, before the board began to invest considerable chunks of cash in players like Dion Charles, Kyle Dempsey, Dan Nlundulu, Carlos Mendes Gomes, Aaron Collins, Szabolcs Schön, John McAtee and Aaron Collins, he has not sampled true unhappiness live and in person.

Wembley was a case of collective shock. Back in May you would have had to work hard to hear the grumbles from the Bolton end against the unbridled joy from the yellow shirts of Oxford to Evatt’s right. But this is a manager young enough to acknowledge the scope of social media, he is connected enough to know the dent that result put in his stock at Wanderers and also that he would start 2024/25 with a paper-thin advantage of goodwill, which would soon be shaved away by a poor start.

And here we are.

Bolton sit 18th in the table after a 2-0 defeat to Exeter City, a team which had been vanquished ruthlessly by seven goals to nothing on the same pitch back in November.

We had previously witnessed a patchy, functional win at Leyton Orient, a stoic draw at home to Wrexham which barely raised a smile and a drab defeat at Charlton which was roundly condemned by everyone who laid eyes upon it.

The fourth game, in front of a bumper gate swollen by discount tickets, had to be one that sent a convincing message. But in the end, it did completely the opposite.

New shape, new personnel but the same old issues dogged Evatt’s side as they were continually outbattled in midfield and stifled in attack. And while the manager was entirely correct in his summation that Exeter had only won by succeeding with two set pieces, his point was buried with the same enthusiasm by his critics as the captain of the Titanic saying the voyage would have been a roaring success had it not been for the icebergs.

Bolton look undercooked and have done since they stepped foot on the pitch in East London on the opening day of the season. This is of course a problem which can be rectified but let us not pretend that it is not an issue in the first place.

For Evatt, the calls for his head are nothing new. He has battled against the grain in some quarters for four years and is probably rather accustomed to it now. Wanderers’ owners stuck with him loyally after the play-off final and now seems a tad early for a change of tack, but nothing is eternal. Evatt continues to hold a win per centage of more than 50 per cent in the job – which would be ample for most folk – but such are the stresses on success this season, taking his presence in the dugout for granted would be foolhardy.

Wanderers have ploughed sums of money which are unprecedented in the post-Premier League era into the team without obvious demand of return. It seems unlikely, however, that the ownership group will approve of the league table view if they glance upon it over the international break.

Evatt has tried to temper the disappointment by saying he had expected a poor start, given the legacy injuries his squad had carried from the summer and the fact his signings had not arrived at the club as match-ready as he would have liked. But the audible evidence around the stadium on Saturday afternoon indicates that the fanbase have very little sympathy indeed.

At this point it is worth making a note in the margin of this negative critique, Evatt and his team have produced answers to all these questions and evaluations before, many times in fact. He seems to thrive on the prospect of being written-off, and certainly makes notes in times of hardship to reference when he comes out the other side. He is, in short, a survivor. And that is an admirable quality indeed.

But after seeing his side slip behind to Kamari Doyle’s superb free kick in the first half, the Whites boss took the decision to sit down and observe from the dugout once his team had gone two down through Milienic Alli just after half time.

As someone used to prowling the technical area and snarling at the officials it was a jarring, if submissive, move. And with his team struggling to find a higher gear on the pitch it became harder and harder to substantiate as the game wore on.

Football can feel like psychological warfare sometimes, and the lack of direction on the pitch cannot simply be pinned on the man – Ricardo Santos – wearing the armband. This isn’t Year Seven inter-school football, there are more bodies who have to take responsibility.

There was finger pointing, gesturing and shrugging in the final 20 minutes but precious few who took control of the ball and made something happen. Evatt, perhaps to make a point, watched that from a seated position.

Had Aaron Collins scored a few moments after Exeter had gone two up, rather than guiding his shot on to the crossbar, then who knows? Exeter never really looked solid at the back, and the collywobbles may have set in.

Ifs, buts and maybes are no good to Bolton after this unsatisfactory start, however, and what is abundantly obvious is that Evatt is going to face much stronger criticism if form does not turn around soon.

This writer has seen Wanderers managers swallowed up by the toxicity and has no interest in seeing it happen again for a person who has poured his heart and soul into turning the club around over the last four years.

Everyone has their own view. Some will choose to voice theirs in a way that can he clearly heard. And that volume has increased since Ben Toner blew his final whistle on this deeply disappointing 90 minutes.

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Barrow 2-3 Bolton Wanderers - big match verdict

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Wanderers earned themselves a welcome bit of breathing space during the international break by rescuing a win at Barrow in the opening group match of the Bristol Street Motors Trophy.

Trailing 1-0 at the break with a strong side, the fallout from a defeat against Ian Evatt’s former employers would surely have made for an uncomfortable 10 days to the Huddersfield home game.

John McAtee found a vital equaliser to cancel out Sam Foley’s header and Aaron Collins produced his best half of the campaign, scoring an excellent second before Kyle Dempsey grabbed a third. Andy Dallas scored almost immediately to keep the tension high – but a win of any kind will feel like a good one for Evatt right now, and while his side never looked at their very best, they did enough.

Wanderers made just three changes from Saturday’s defeat at home to Exeter City with Jay Matete, Jordi Osei-Tutu and Aaron Collins coming in for Dion Charles, Josh Sheehan and Chris Forino – who was drafted into the Northern Ireland, Wales and St Lucia squads, respectively.

The strength of the starting line-up may have surprised some, and particularly those who feel this competition should be relegated to the very bottom rung of the priority ladder this season. It did, however, give Evatt a chance to bed down the slightly altered shape which has brought decidedly mixed results in League One so far. And given the reaction to the previous defeat, this really was an opportunity to shift the narrative just a little during the international break.

The first 45 minutes summed up Bolton’s season so far.

While they enjoyed the lion’s share of possession, Barrow racked up the better chances and got themselves ahead. Added to that, Jordi Osei-Tutu limped off with what looked like a knee injury midway through the half having been his team’s brightest player to that point.

Barrow got off to a flyer. The League Two side had knocked Derby County out of the Carabao Cup and kept three league clean sheets out of four, and despite making several changes to their weekend win at Harrogate, proved no pushovers.

Katia Kouyate had a near-post effort deflected wide with barely two minutes on the clock, Andy Dallas seeing another effort go close moments later as the Whites struggled to get out of their own penalty box.

The home side hunted down Bolton’s attempts to play out from the back and possession in the early stages was all-too-often sloppy, inviting Barrow to take the advantage.

Wanderers got their act together in fits and starts. John McAtee snapped one low shot at goal, pushed aside by Wyll Stanway, and Dempsey drilled a fine ball across goal to which neither McAtee nor Collins could get a decisive touch.

Dempsey and Osei-Tutu did make inroads down the right, and looked the best shot of finding a goal, but the final bass – as so often has been the case so far this season – was never quite sharp enough.

Nathan Baxter made a good one-handed save to push away a shot from Dallas, who should probably have done better after getting to the rebound ahead of Johnston, only to prod his shot just over the bar.

Thomason put his side in trouble a couple of minutes later with a sloppy pass on the edge of the box, ex-Bury man Dominic Telford curling another effort at goal which was palmed away by Baxter.

Collins went very close to opening the scoring after taking Thomason’s smart pass on the turn and curling a shot just wide of the upright. McAtee also had a goal chalked out after latching on to a similar pass, only to find himself just offside.

But what turned the half from a frustrating exercise into a potentially damaging one happened in the final 10 minutes. First a relatively innocuous collision between Osei-Tutu and Junior Tiensia on halfway ended with the Bolton man being helped off the pitch in pain, with Luke Matheson replacing him from the bench.

And to rub salt into the wounds, the Bluebirds nudged themselves ahead when Sam Foley got forward from midfield and headed home Ben Jackson’s cross ahead of Szabi Schon.

There was a brief flicker of hope for an equaliser right on half time as Stanway got caught miles out of his own goal with Dempsey scampering through, but the Barrow keeper did well to scramble the ball behind for a corner in the end.

The 700-or-so travelling fans were hardly voicing their displeasure in the same way as 21,000 had done at the Toughsheet on Saturday but they definitely demanded better than they were seeing. And, in fairness, things did pick up after the break.

Foley might have made things very awkward had he repeated his trick of the first half and got a header on target from Jackson’s free kick.

But Bolton were that bit quicker and sharper, and Collins – who had been inconsistent in possession in the first half – suddenly started to look like his old self.

Home keeper Stanway made a couple of good stops to deny Schon and Collins but as the rain started to drive down in Cumbria, Bolton were finally able to make their pressure count.

McAtee scored his first Wanderers goal after Collins’ shot was initially saved by Stanway but the former Barnsley man was quick to the loose ball, sliding into the net along with it to the delight of the away supporters.

A lead followed quickly, Collins turning on the corner of the area to drive a brilliant effort into the bottom corner. The mood, like the scoreline, had also flipped completely and suddenly the drive back down to the M6 felt that bit closer.

Dempsey then grabbed a third, stabbing a shot at goal which dribbled under Stanway’s body and apologetically over the line. That should have been game safe but Dallas – who had been a handful all night – took advantage of Santos’s positioning to grab a second, with Bolton left protesting offside.

Wanderers saw the game out from there, Collins and McAtee having half-chances to extend the lead in stoppage time. But considering where they were at the break, there were a few looks of relief as Thomas Parson’s brought the game to a close.

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