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A dogged and determined performance saw Wanderers secure their first league victory of the campaign against Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday afternoon.
The deadlock was broken early on through Sammy Ameobi's long-range effort, while a Sam Hutchinson own-goal doubled Bolton's tally just after the hour mark.
And although Kieran Lee halved the deficit late in the second half, the Whites held out to pick up their inaugural maximum points haul of the season.
And speaking after the final whistle, manager Phil Parkinson covered the following points...
On securing our first league victory of the campaign…
We most certainly enjoyed that one – it was a huge win for us, but I thought it was deserved and at 2-0, we probably should’ve killed the game off.
That said, there were a lot of big performances from us today and we spoke to the lads about running those hard yards on the football pitch to earn that result and they’ve certainly done that today.
It’s a big lift for everybody though and the lads have worked extremely hard over the last couple of weeks on the training ground and it’s shown today.
On having Sammy Ameobi and Josh Vela back…
I’d spoken in the press about the importance of taking the positives from our performance down at Aston Villa a fortnight ago into today and I felt we did that – we looked a real attacking threat today.
Our attacking players were difficult to handle and that was extremely pleasing to see.
What a great finish it was from Sammy for his goal, but his all-round display was very, very pleasing and Josh, you’ve got to give him enormous credit.
We’ve thrown him in the team without any reserve football under his belt and he’s coped really, really well alongside running himself into the ground for the team.
We’re hugely pleased with both their performances.
On the fans’ backing…
They were absolutely superb today. When there’s almost 5,000 opposition fans inside the ground, you do worry, but in the second half, it was only the Bolton fans you could hear.
I thought they were great, as they have been all season long. It’s not been easy, but they’ve stuck with us as much as they possibly can and I’m pleased for them that when they’re driving home tonight, they’ve got three points to celebrate.
On the players raising their performance levels…
They had such high standards today. Ben’s save with his feet in the second half though was magnificent and you need big moments in games like that.
It was on a par with a Premier League quality save and he deserves that because he’s done well since he got back in the team.
On not dwelling on missed opportunities…
It would have been nice to have killed the game off and the penalty decision which I haven’t seen yet shouldn’t really be a talking point because we should have been out of sight by then.
We showed that we can dig in though and we certainly did that. It was a big relief when that final whistle went and although I’m not quite sure where he got six minutes from, it just added to the drama I suppose!
On dealing with the threat of Jordan Rhodes, a man with an impressive record against us…
He’s a great professional is Jordon and a top-class goalscorer and you never want to see anybody injured, but him going off was obviously a boost for us as they’d used all three subs at that point.
I thought our subs did very well though today and I have to mention them because it’s always disappointing when you’re not in the team, but I thought Noone, Cullen and Morais when they came on gave us a real lift of energy when we needed it.
And finally, a word on the midfield pairing of Karl Henry and Darren Pratley…
They were solid and professional in everything they did today and when you’ve got two athletic players in there alongside the quality around them, it looked a good balance today.
But we’ve got to get back on the training ground on Monday and have a good week this week as we look to build on this result and performance.
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The deadlock was broken early on through Sammy Ameobi's long-range effort, while a Sam Hutchinson own-goal doubled Bolton's tally just after the hour mark.
And although Kieran Lee halved the deficit late in the second half, the Whites held out to pick up their inaugural maximum points haul of the season.
And speaking after the final whistle, manager Phil Parkinson covered the following points...
On securing our first league victory of the campaign…
We most certainly enjoyed that one – it was a huge win for us, but I thought it was deserved and at 2-0, we probably should’ve killed the game off.
That said, there were a lot of big performances from us today and we spoke to the lads about running those hard yards on the football pitch to earn that result and they’ve certainly done that today.
It’s a big lift for everybody though and the lads have worked extremely hard over the last couple of weeks on the training ground and it’s shown today.
On having Sammy Ameobi and Josh Vela back…
I’d spoken in the press about the importance of taking the positives from our performance down at Aston Villa a fortnight ago into today and I felt we did that – we looked a real attacking threat today.
Our attacking players were difficult to handle and that was extremely pleasing to see.
What a great finish it was from Sammy for his goal, but his all-round display was very, very pleasing and Josh, you’ve got to give him enormous credit.
We’ve thrown him in the team without any reserve football under his belt and he’s coped really, really well alongside running himself into the ground for the team.
We’re hugely pleased with both their performances.
On the fans’ backing…
They were absolutely superb today. When there’s almost 5,000 opposition fans inside the ground, you do worry, but in the second half, it was only the Bolton fans you could hear.
I thought they were great, as they have been all season long. It’s not been easy, but they’ve stuck with us as much as they possibly can and I’m pleased for them that when they’re driving home tonight, they’ve got three points to celebrate.
On the players raising their performance levels…
They had such high standards today. Ben’s save with his feet in the second half though was magnificent and you need big moments in games like that.
It was on a par with a Premier League quality save and he deserves that because he’s done well since he got back in the team.
On not dwelling on missed opportunities…
It would have been nice to have killed the game off and the penalty decision which I haven’t seen yet shouldn’t really be a talking point because we should have been out of sight by then.
We showed that we can dig in though and we certainly did that. It was a big relief when that final whistle went and although I’m not quite sure where he got six minutes from, it just added to the drama I suppose!
On dealing with the threat of Jordan Rhodes, a man with an impressive record against us…
He’s a great professional is Jordon and a top-class goalscorer and you never want to see anybody injured, but him going off was obviously a boost for us as they’d used all three subs at that point.
I thought our subs did very well though today and I have to mention them because it’s always disappointing when you’re not in the team, but I thought Noone, Cullen and Morais when they came on gave us a real lift of energy when we needed it.
And finally, a word on the midfield pairing of Karl Henry and Darren Pratley…
They were solid and professional in everything they did today and when you’ve got two athletic players in there alongside the quality around them, it looked a good balance today.
But we’ve got to get back on the training ground on Monday and have a good week this week as we look to build on this result and performance.
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