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Ian Evatt hopes Aaron Collins’ perfect team goal in the five-goal rout of Oxford United might spare him from watching a classic from his own playing days over again.
Mark Davies’s brilliant goal against Evatt’s Blackpool in 2010 often ranks among the best scored by Bolton in their Premier League days – and still does the rounds on social media.
In Collins’ superb finish from an intricate move on the edge of the penalty box, Evatt reckons he might have found an equal, especially as it contributed to such a comprehensive win to keep the Whites firmly in the automatic promotion chase.
“It was a really well-worked goal and hopefully now we can move on from the Blackpool one, where I feature quite heavily,” he laughed. “We don’t really score tap-ins or scruffy goals, all of them are well worked, and I thought the ones on Saturday were very good as well.
“I am proud of the players because they have been asked a lot of questions and it was down to us to keep coming up with the answers. There is a lot of football to be played and we won’t get carried away but that is the standard now.
“I have just said to the players that if they dip below those standards I will tell you. That is the relationship we have and if we replicate that eight more times I don’t think we will have much to worry about.”
Nat Ogbeta, Josh Dacres-Cogley, George Thomason and Josh Sheehan also got their names on the scoresheet as Wanderers turned in one of their best home performances of the season in front of the TV cameras.
“Pre-match I had said I’d got a good feeling from the players that they had been coming back to themselves a little bit,” said Evatt. “We haven’t really got what we deserved from results in the last couple of games but in spells we have enjoyed some real dominance, but we haven’t been clinical enough. We have lost out on moments where teams scored literally from nothing.
“But this group of players is extremely talented and it doesn’t matter how many injuries we have got – and it has been really tough – but the next man steps up and performs. When they know their job like that it is great to see, great to watch.”
Asked what was the element that pleased him the most, Evatt added: “I just think our focus in and out of possession was excellent.
“The work-rate to get a clean sheet, it was collective, the front lads worked tirelessly.
“From back to front, to a man, our out-of-possession work was really good. We just looked really sharp with the ball – passing through lines, breaking lines, movement off the ball, we were at our fluid best and when we do that, we are a good team to watch.”
Whether the win was the most impressive of Evatt’s reign is up for debate.
But given the scrutiny that Wanderers’ promotion hopes had come under in recent weeks, to come up with such an unequivocal answer in pressured circumstances was a statement, Evatt said.
“There have been some good ones – there was a decent one at Wembley, another one when we beat Exeter by seven, and a few more. This was what I want my team to look like. All the hard work on the grass, the detail in the video analysis room, the coaching hours we spend, when the players execute the plan we can be very proud of them.
“When they play like that it makes me a very proud manager – but we just need to do it more consistently and more often.
“Everybody knows we are capable of that sort of thing, we just have to do it more often.”
On Saturday, Evatt takes his side to Derby County hoping to produce a similar level of performance.
“Huge game, we can’t deny that, but we must emphasise that is it not won or lost on Saturday. It is not all or nothing. There is a lot of football to be played for everyone, but especially the top teams,” he said.
“For us, we focus on ourselves, the processes, making sure we play like that if we can, because if we do, we’ll have a good chance.”
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