Bolton needed a win this afternoon, and while it was done the hard way, a win is what we got.
Despite trailing at half time, Wanderers came away with all three points. The first half performance wasn’t good enough, and when Harrogate did go in front, Mark Beck seems to have been credited with the goal although Gethin Jones may have well had the last touch, it was completely deserved. As Ian Evatt put it, it may have been a hangover from Monday, but this was different. At Newport we had played well, here we weren’t creating the chances, save for a one on one which Eoin Doyle saw saved. The three behind him weren’t helping, and at half time, a change was made, and it proved to be crucial, as Marcus Maddison, who was given some rough treatment by the opposition, was taken off in favour of George Thomason, and that changed the game.
Thomason is a young player, and sometimes he has made the odd error or whatever, the odd pass is off and all that, but put simply, he’s very good. It was a big game to come into, a big situation. At half time we were losing and it could have been three without a win and successive defeats, but he wasn’t intimidated by it and stepped up, And the whole team just seemed to be doing everything a lot quicker. In the first half, the players appeared to run the fastest when they came off the pitch.
Eventually, the goals came. While Lloyd Isgrove has been credited in most as the goalscorer, Kieran Lee was given it by the referee. Bolton kept up the intensity, and it was that pressing which yielded Doyle another big chance, and this time he took it.
Results elsewhere went our way again too, which means we now have a two point advantage over fourth-placed Tranmere.
A good day in the end, now Evatt just needs to recover his abandoned car, which was snowed in on the way to the game.