We not only ripped up the form book. We then took a dump on it, before taking a slash on it.
Nobody expected us to get a result in Fleetwood, those who haven’t lost since mid-November, but we did it, and we weren’t exactly hanging on at the end.
We elected to go 3-5-2, and there were a few curveballs thrown when the teamsheets were handed in. Darren Pratley returned to the side, while Jem Karacan, finally completing his signing, popped up on the bench.
Adam Le Fondre’s lack of goals had been a worry since he re-signed, but in the 17th minute, he was on the right wing, and what was almost certainly a cross beat Alex Cairns and had us a goal to the good, a lead which doubled when David Wheater scored. Kyle Dempsey pulled one back which a lovely looping finish, and while we had an effort tipped over and Josh Vela shot wide, Fleetwood offered moments of danger, with Devante Cole’s movement and David Ball being a threat.
The second half started brilliantly though, Mark Beevers popped up with the corner to make it 3-1 at the start of the second half, then Filipe Morais set up his third of the game as Le Fondre scored a second. Bobby Grant scored a second for Fleetwood, by then though it was party time in the Bolton end.
It was a much better performance, even though our possession was even lower than recent games, we felt more in control, Josh Vela was putting the tackles in, Gary Madine was holding balls up, Le Fondre was finding space, Morais’ delivery was magic, and the defence held up when it mattered.
The only negative mark was Derik’s performance, and arguably Liam Trotter when he came on, but overall that was the best Wanderers’ performance in a while, which keeps things in our hands.
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