Lukewarm Takes From Bolton’s Draw Against MK Dons

Long awaited, well maybe not awaited, but here are a few takeaways from the weekend as Bolton got their campaign off to an eventful start with that 3-3 draw against MK Dons…

New signings make an impact

The newest arrivals were arguably the biggest plus points of the day, Josh Sheehan scored a superb free kick to make it 1-1, while Amadou Bakayoko scored on his debut to put us ahead. Elias Kachunga may have only got 10 minutes after coming on as a late substitute, but he managed to set up Alex Baptiste for the stoppage time equaliser. George Johnston was the other man making his competitive debut for Wanderers, and while he must take some blame for the first goal he too had his good moments, including the block off the line,

Goals!

There were questions about who were going to get our goals if Eoin Doyle was misfiring or unavailable. While one game doesn’t really prove too much in the long term, it was at least promising to score three yesterday with none coming from a perhaps undercooked Doyle. Goals from midfield and the flanks have been spoken about by Ian Evatt, and yesterday was a good start. Now it’s just about stopping them at the other end,

That new walk-out music…

Maybe it could be more audible next time?

Confidence in possession

We were the best side with the ball in League Two last season, but then to go and play the best possession side in League One last season and virtually match them on that front, and create more chances, is a good marker that the way we want to play will do more good than harm ove the next nine months.

It’ll be a competitive league

MK Dons haven’t been massively touted as promotion favourites, but we still needed a late, late equaliser. We’ll have a lot of tough games this season.