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Ian Evatt admitted he was struggling to sum up a breathless 90 minutes at Accrington Stanley – but hopes the character his side showed to win the game will now be used for the rest of the season.
Dapo Afolayan was the match-winner, scoring the decisive goal in a second half which began with Wanderers going 2-0 down and clearing a potential third off the line.
Evatt had come in for major stick from some of the 2,600-plus travelling fans as his side stumbled on a ground at which they had never won before. But after a trips substitution midway through the half, the game was transformed – Kieran Lee drawing his side level after an own goal from Harvey Rodgers.
“That was a game of so many emotions,” grinned the Bolton boss. “It’s amazing and I’ve said in the last couple of weeks it takes so long to build confidence and then within three games, you can see it completely sap and drain away and I think we were playing first half devoid of confidence.
“Even though we had some good chances and some good opportunities, we became panicky and desperate because we’ve all made a big deal about the strikers not scoring, every single one of us, and they feel the pressure.
“When they concede such a poor goal like they did from a throw in, that’s just like us, and then all of a sudden, you could see even more confidence sap and drain away from them.
“At half-time we’re having to lift them all up and then they come out and we started abysmally and I had to change something and we managed to make three changes. We changed system and shape, we got a goal back pretty much straight away and you could all of a sudden see the confidence come flooding back and that’s football.
“We’ve gone through a massive range of emotions, you’ve got the fans singing ‘Evatt, sort it out’ and then 10 minutes later they’re singing my name again. It’s just an incredible game sometimes. We all love it and that was a game to enjoy.”
Wanderers had not scored in their previous three league games and their away form had been particularly poor for a side with ambitions to chase the top six.
Evatt felt the manner of victory at Accrington, magnified by more than nine minutes of tense stoppage time, could be a major psychological boost for his players.
“Any win is a good win and during that game we all felt those emotions of ‘here we go again’ – I know we did, we all did. And I know you guys will have done as well,” he said.
“We were all wondering what went wrong, what could it be? It is not us. We are better than that.
“Once we got that first goal you could see the confidence flow back and we turned it on. When we do that teams struggle to live with us.
“That is a fantastic result for them and hopefully it will lay down a marker now for the other away games to come.”
Wanderers made slow starts to both halves – and Evatt reckons the game showed the fragile nature of confidence in football.
“I just hope it reminds them how good they can be,” he said.
“What is the worst that can happen when you concede a goal?
“Bill Shankly said football was more important than life or death and sometimes it feels like that when you are out there. But what is the worst that can happen? Score again? So what?
“You have to have belief and confidence because if we don’t then we can’t be who we want to be.
“Second half we managed to turn it on and I am delighted for the boys. They have suffered and I know it has been in their heads as well, so hopefully that eradicates the negativity they have been feeling.”
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