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Carlos Mendes Gomes provided the biggest highlight of his Wanderers career to date at Cambridge – but Ian Evatt is convinced there is more to come.
The Guinea Bissau international volleyed a superb winner at the Abbey Stadium to put Bolton level on points with second-placed Derby County.
The quality of the strike came as no surprise to Evatt, who had first tried to sign the versatile forward back in his Morecambe days.
“He has got that in his locker and it is why we signed him, why we’ve chased him for four years,” he said.
“He is multi-dimensional, he can play as the nine, a false nine, an eight, but he has got that final third bit which can hurt teams and he showed that.”
Mendes Gomes partnered Jon Dadi Bodvarson up front on Tuesday night in what was his first league start for Bolton since signing from Luton Town at the start of the season.
Evatt explained that by using him as a deeper-lying striker he hoped to cause Cambridge problems through the middle of the pitch.
“We wanted to overload their midfield,” he said. “If we could create them in the middle of the pitch with Carlos dropping deep into the top of the diamond sort of position we could cause them problems.
“First half we didn’t quite have that quality but second half we ramped it up. Carlos’s run and the timing of his run and finish, and a wonderful pass, those moments of quality have won us the game.”
Wanderers’ joy at beating Cambridge was tempered slightly by an injury picked up by on-loan West Brom defender, Caleb Taylor, who had been one of the more effective players in the first half.
Evatt was disappointed that the challenge which forced him off the pitch was not called as a foul by referee David Rock.
“I don’t know how it wasn’t a free kick at the very least, there were some baffling decisions again,” he said. “It is a nasty injury. He has a really swollen ankle at the moment and it could be ligament damage but we will have to see how it settles.”
Wanderers head to Blackpool this weekend with the prospect of bringing captain Ricardo Santos back in central defence. Top scorer Dion Charles and wing-back Randell Williams are also close to a return.
“Rico has done great today having been worked really hard at home,” the manager said. “The reports we have had are that he has done really well.
“Randell is getting there, Dion is getting there, so there is some light at the end of the tunnel.”
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