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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
John McDougall

Bolton Wanderers boss Ian Evatt on Wycombe win, counter attacking & improvement from Ipswich

Bolton Wanderers put in a hugely impressive performance as they beat Wycombe 3-0 at the University of Bolton Stadium.

The Whites began the season last weekend with a point on the road against Ipswich Town. This afternoon the Chairboys were the visitors for the first home game of the campaign.

They took the lead in the first half when Kyle Dempsey finished to give the Whites the advantage following good work from Liverpool loanee Conor Bradley. They doubled their lead just before thee break when Aaron Morley slotted home from Dapo Afolayan's pass.

READ MORE: Bolton player ratings vs Wycombe - Dempsey, Afolayan, Morley & Liverpool loanee Bradley great

Dempsey added his second after the break as Wanderers ran out worthy winners. It leaves Wanderers third in the League One table after two matches so far.

Here's what Wanderers boss Ian Evatt had to say in his immediate reaction to the big win.

That wasn’t too shabby, was it?

“It was a good performance and a good three points, but that’s all it is. It’s only three points. I’m really pleased and a huge step-up from last week. We looked more energetic. We looked braver and more courageous in possession and that’s what we ask for.

“We do ask for bravery out of possession, but that should just be a given to win tackles and headers and 50/50s and duels. That’s a given. When we speak about bravery and courage it’s receiving the ball in tight areas, having the bravery and the courage and the execution to play forwards in transition, run forwards in transition and I thought we did that really well today.”

Some of the counter-attacking play was really exemplary?

“Yeah. We looked like a good team. We looked energetic, we looked forward thinking, we looked like we were proactive. They’re a really good team and they ask you loads and loads and loads of questions and they’re one of those teams that regardless of scorelines, they’re never out of the game. We said that to the players that they’re constantly knocking on the door, they have lots of final third entries and we have to defend those manfully and then make sure we are precise with our counter-attacks and I thought we were today.”

Lots of positives overall and at times, it looked like Afolayan was unplayable at times?

“I don’t think there’s one player out there today that you could think underperformed and that’s a sign of a good performance. Dapo was excellent but so were they all. I’m not here to single out individual performances, I’m here to say what we did well and what we didn’t do so well and today we did a lot more things right than we did last week.

“I was frustrated because I think we’re better than that and I know it’s a good point and people say it’s a good point (vs Ipswich), but I didn’t really feel like that. This week, I felt a lot more positive and happy. We’ve done lots of hard work on the training pitch and it came to fruition today. We’re not going to get carried away though - it’s one win, one three points and lots of work to do.”

17,500 almost were here as well and a great day with the opening of the Fan Zone - it’s been a fabulous day?

“The football is obviously the biggest part of this football club, it really is but so much hard work goes on behind the scenes with the way the stadium has been spruced up. The Fan Zone opening, all the contractors and the full-time staff here that don’t get singled out and don’t get praise, they deserve immense credit.

“Neil (Hart) who is heading all of that is fantastic. The board have really backed some projects and putting this club back on the map again. That’s really pleasing and football is obviously great when it goes like that.

"But I just think as a football club in the two years that I’ve been here, today was one of those good days and you can enjoy those as supporters and football fans and regardless of my job title, I am a football fan and I enjoyed that today.”

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