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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
John McDougall

Bolton Wanderers boss Ian Evatt on Sunderland rout, message for fans and transfer window update

Bolton Wanderers produced an astonishing performance to put six goals past a dismal Sunderland in League One.

Dion Charles put Wanderers ahead before Dapo Afolayan added a second before half-time.

Charles bagged his second after the break before Kieran Lee added a fourth as Wanderers blitzed the Black Cats.

READ MORE: Bolton Wanderers player ratings as Dion Charles and Dapo Afolayan brilliant in Sunderland rout

Danny Batth put through his own net to add a fifth for the hosts before Declan John rounded off the win with a sublime sixth goal as a rampant Wanderers made it three victories on the bounce.

After the game, Wanderers boss Ian Evatt gave his immediate reaction to the stunning victory and here's what he had to say.

What was the most pleasing aspect of that?

“I’d probably say the clean sheet to be honest! I think for almost 19 months I’ve been in charge now, a lot of people will say that’s been coming.

"It hasn’t felt like that the last two months, but everything went right today and we’ll enjoy it because we’ve suffered for two or three months with some pain but getting players back, getting players fit again, bringing people in has helped us.

“But we’ve got a lot of hard work to do and that’s three wins and three clean sheets, but it’s only a small step, we’ve got more work to do to get anywhere near where we want to be because we’re not there yet.”

It’s the best ever win any Bolton team has ever had at this stadium…

“That’s nice and that’s good for us. It gives us something to aim at for the future, but for now we’ll enjoy tonight. But it’s going to be really different on Tuesday and more difficult, probably half of that crowd, not many away fans, so we’re going to have to create our own atmosphere and strictly business and focus after what was a good performance today.

"We know how hard it is to back up performances like that and we need to go again on Tuesday.”

You were always pretty confident with a really possibility that you could turn it round when you got new recruits and one or two recovering from injury?

“Yeah. I’d like to think I’m a young manager that’s had a lot of success very early, but I’ve been in the game a long, long time and had a long career. I like to think I know what I’m talking about and know what I’m doing.

"We knew that we needed to improve, we knew that there had to be some maintenance, ingoing and outgoing and we’ve done that and today I thought you saw the fruits of what I’ve been able to do.

“Huge credit to the board for giving me the opportunity to strengthen the squad the way we have, but also I’m most pleased for the fans because them more than most have suffered these past couple of months and the Wigan result really hurt them and hurt us so hopefully today then can really enjoy that.”

The transfer window is still open and incomings and outgoings, is there any update?

“No, it’s progressing. We know there’s still work to be done. It’s well publicised the one player we’re trying to get, or the one position, and once we get that, we will be finished.

"Possibly some outgoings as well but we’ll see, but it was just great today to look back at the bench and have serious options to come off that aren’t going to necessarily weaken the team and it’s a good day all round.”

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