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Wanderers salvaged a dramatic point at Barnsley – but it came at a cost!
Randell Williams followed up Josh Sheehan’s penalty to earn his side a deserved share of the spoils, sparking joyous scenes on the Bolton bench.
Victor Adeboyejo had signalled the charge, putting Wanderers back into the game after goals from John McAtee and Donovan Pines had seemingly put the home side into an unassailable lead.
Bolton missed a hatful of chances, with Jon Dadi Bodvarsson striking the post in stoppage time, before Cameron Jerome won a penalty. Sheehan’s effort was saved by Liam Roberts but Williams pounced to score a memorable effort.
Ian Evatt later admitted that he had celebrated so hard it had cost him a pair of his best suit trousers!
The Bolton boss had been through the mill in recent weeks after back-to-back defeats at Blackpool and Wigan but watching his side battle back from two down against the Tykes saw a smile brought back to his face, and no mistake.
“I have a little frustration because we should have won,” he said. “I think for the first 20-25 minutes we were dominant, we had started to build some momentum and had one or two chances.
“We do a lot of work on the opposition on their strategy and we knew we would find it really tough to play our usual build up because they are really aggressive on the press. We knew they would push bodies forward and leave Victor and Aaron two v two at the back.
“We just had to put the ball into good areas with quality, and we did that in the first half. But the first time we made a bad decision and played inside we concede a goal which completely rocked us. We lost our marbles or the next 15 minutes.
“We gave the same messaging at half time and then straight away we play another pass inside when it should have been in behind, it ends up with a corner and then we are 2-0 down. Barnsley hadn’t really had an attack.
“It’s great credit to the players because they showed belief and character, got the first one back and it was just a matter of time before we scored again. The downside is that we missed do many gilt-edged chances and some of the play was exceptional to get there, it wasn’t just direct, it was strategic, we were putting it into the areas, combining, and we had to make it count.
“In the end we got what we deserved. This group of players is immensely talented and when they truly believe in themselves they are a difficult team to stop. We have to keep working with them to reinforce that belief because there aren’t many teams who could come and dominate Barnsley in the way we did there second half.
“A little bit of me is frustrated we didn’t win the game. I don’t think anyone could have argued with it, either.”
Wanderers had needed some encouragement to play their best football but created enough chances in the last half an hour to have won the game comfortably.
Evatt was at a loss to make sense of it all after the final whistle.
“We were the ones in control for the first 20 minutes,” he said. “Then we shot ourselves in the foot once, then twice, giving ourselves a mountain to climb.
“We believe we can achieve good things, when we play the way we coach them to play, when we applied it we caused them problems.
“I am so proud of them to produce a performance of real balls. They showed everyone how brave they can be.
“When they are courageous and back themselves they can achieve so much.
“I have gone through so many emotions in that game. I have even ripped my own trousers.
“It has been one of those nights.”
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