Trotters making a worthy comeback
BOLTON BID FAREWELL TO GREAT MAGICIAN BUT ARE NOW CASTING NEW SPELL
THROUGH the painful years of decline, they were the only Trotters who made Del Boy, Rodney and Uncle Albert look like stockbrokers.
At rock-bottom, you would not have trusted Bolton Wanderers to polish your shoes, never mind your chandelier, without it ending in tears. Or bare feet.
But if Britain’s most in-form team wanted to harness more wind in their sails, a blustery hilltop up a dead end in the Cotswolds was the perfect excursion.
Eoin Doyle’s 16th goal of the season extended Bolton’s surge towards the League Two automatic promotion places to 13 games without defeat – the longest unbeaten run in the country – and a fantastic harvest of 35 points from a possible 39.
At the end of January, Wanderers were 19th and the season looked ripe for another burial – Only Fools and Hearses.
But manager Ian Evatt, above, is presiding over one of the grand old game’s feel-good stories, and Doyle cited the club’s assertive transfer window business in January as the telling factor.
Players such as Kieran Lee, Oladapo Afolayan and Declan John have added depth to Evatt’s squad and, all of a sudden, Bolton are like a supertanker once grounded in the Suez canal – now back in open water, they look unstoppable.
Only goal difference separates them from the top three and Doyle, whose acrobatic volley from Nathan Delfouneso’s cross was like finding a jewel in a compost heap at the New Lawn, said: “The last window was massive.
“The new personnel coming in made a big difference. They adapted straight away, and a lot of credit has to go to the people upstairs for backing the gaffer in the market.
“When we were 19th at the end of January, everyone would have snapped your hands off to be where we are now.
“We have nine cup finals left and we need to stay consistent.
“Six or seven weeks ago, we were nowhere near it [the top three] so we don’t want to get too carried away.
“But I think we are the best team in the league on our day, the boss has got his man-management spot-on and it’s enjoyable to be part of a team who know what they are trying to do.
“I’m the type of striker who thrives on service and good delivery into the box and, in fairness, Nathan’s cross was better than the goal itself. I don’t think it was a great spectacle because it was very scrappy, but it’s a massive win.”
The continued revival of an English football giant was gratifying after a week in which Bolton said farewell to one of the game’s genuine sorcerers.
Frank Worthington’s goal of the season for the Trotters in 1979 – that famous juggling act, see-you later to the Ipswich defence evacuating their penalty area and perfect volley into the corner – was pure genius.
If dear old ‘Elvis’ was spinning a dozen plates, not a single one would suffer a fragmented fate. And there is little sign of Wanderers’ promotion dreams being shattered.