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Neil Lennon hopes Stephen Dobbie’s last-gasp equaliser against Nottingham Forest can ignite Wanderers’ season.
In what he admitted as a “last throw of the dice” the Whites boss threw on the experienced front man in injury time to try and rescue a point.
He touched the ball just four times – one of which was to nestle the ball into the bottom corner past Dorus De Vries – and send the Macron Stadium into delirium.
It had been Wanderers’ first competitive goal for nearly 11 hours, a club record, and was enough to lift them off the bottom of the Championship table ahead of Friday’s derby at Blackburn Rovers.
“That’s the monkey off our back,” Lennon told The Bolton News. “Now we’ve got to look ahead and make sure we keep up the momentum.
“If you don't score goals, it is going to prey on your strikers' minds, the team's mind. At times it can suck the energy out of the team when they are giving their all.
“Psychologically, that is a huge lift. We did more than enough to win the game and it has been the story of our season so far. We don't look like a team that is second bottom in the table.”
Wanderers were inspired at times by debutant Wellington Silva, and Lennon was encouraged by the way the Brazilian knitted into the team.
“It took us about 20 minutes to get the ball to him but once he got on it he made things happen,” he said. “He’ll get bigger and stronger as we go on but we worked some great openings.
“He wants to get at people. He’s got great feet and he’s very slight, as you can see, but he’s been playing in La Liga and he’s used to taking the hits.
“He went down with a bit of cramp towards the end but he’s deceptive, he has a great change of pace and he can go past players.
“His preference is to play on the left but he can play on the right side as well. He just gives us that extra bit of quality as well.
“What I like about him is that he doesn’t overuse the ball – he’ll get it, give it, and then get it again. He’s a very clever player in that respect.”
Lennon was also pleased with the input of second-half substitute Liam Feeney, who had replaced the out-of-sorts Tom Walker at half time.
“We thought Tom was a little bit off the pace and he’s got to start stepping up to things,” he said. “He put a couple of decent set pieces in but his play in general was off the pace.
“I thought Liam came on and gave us a little bit extra going forward; he was really quick, really strong, and that will do him the world of good.”
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In what he admitted as a “last throw of the dice” the Whites boss threw on the experienced front man in injury time to try and rescue a point.
He touched the ball just four times – one of which was to nestle the ball into the bottom corner past Dorus De Vries – and send the Macron Stadium into delirium.
It had been Wanderers’ first competitive goal for nearly 11 hours, a club record, and was enough to lift them off the bottom of the Championship table ahead of Friday’s derby at Blackburn Rovers.
“That’s the monkey off our back,” Lennon told The Bolton News. “Now we’ve got to look ahead and make sure we keep up the momentum.
“If you don't score goals, it is going to prey on your strikers' minds, the team's mind. At times it can suck the energy out of the team when they are giving their all.
“Psychologically, that is a huge lift. We did more than enough to win the game and it has been the story of our season so far. We don't look like a team that is second bottom in the table.”
Wanderers were inspired at times by debutant Wellington Silva, and Lennon was encouraged by the way the Brazilian knitted into the team.
“It took us about 20 minutes to get the ball to him but once he got on it he made things happen,” he said. “He’ll get bigger and stronger as we go on but we worked some great openings.
“He wants to get at people. He’s got great feet and he’s very slight, as you can see, but he’s been playing in La Liga and he’s used to taking the hits.
“He went down with a bit of cramp towards the end but he’s deceptive, he has a great change of pace and he can go past players.
“His preference is to play on the left but he can play on the right side as well. He just gives us that extra bit of quality as well.
“What I like about him is that he doesn’t overuse the ball – he’ll get it, give it, and then get it again. He’s a very clever player in that respect.”
Lennon was also pleased with the input of second-half substitute Liam Feeney, who had replaced the out-of-sorts Tom Walker at half time.
“We thought Tom was a little bit off the pace and he’s got to start stepping up to things,” he said. “He put a couple of decent set pieces in but his play in general was off the pace.
“I thought Liam came on and gave us a little bit extra going forward; he was really quick, really strong, and that will do him the world of good.”
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