Ian Evatt believes he now knows Manchester City youngster James Trafford well enough now to know that he was not seriously injured in Bolton Wanderers' clash to Cambriddge United but believes the goalkeeper made a fantastic stop to keep the League One side in the encounter.
In a first half which did not sparkle, Wanderers came closest to taking the lead firstly through Jack Iredale's deflected effort which Amadou Bakayoko almost got on the end of. Then Elias Kachunga volleyed over from the edge of the box as the deadlock remained at the break.
Early in the second half, Trafford produced a marvellous save to deny Harvey Knibbs the opener. Wanderers broke forward not long after and Dion Charles eventually blasted over, while Gethin Jones nodded wide from close range from a set piece which could have seen Wanderers go ahead.
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Kyle Dempsey was given his marching orders with 15 minutes to go after bringing Knibbs down, following an earlier booking on Jack Lankester. And Knibbs saw an effort savd by Trafford from eight yards out with the last act of the game as the spoils were shared and Bolton ended the game with 10 men.
Trafford went down midway through the first half as there were fears over his fitness moving forward in the game and if he might need to be taken off following a collision. But Evatt was not concerned about the goalkeeper as he now knows the Man City prospect well enough now to know when he is seriously injured.
He believes the England under-21 international made a brilliant stop to dney Knibbs but that Trafford is part of the overall defensive un it. Evatt adds he feels his side stood up to a physical set-up the U's displayed.
Evatt said: “I know Traff well enough now to know when he’s properly injured or when there’s just a knock. Fortunately for us it was just a dead leg from the challenge.
“It was a brilliant save but that’s when your goalkeeper is called upon to make saves like that, especially away from home on tight pitches where long throws are being utilised, set plays are being utilised, you have to defend your box and Traff is part of that defensive unit defending his box and I thought it was a great save.
“I thought it was an aggressive and intense performance. I thought we showed moments of quality with the ball. We conceded still a slight lack of confidence at the top end of the pitch but I think we did some good work today.
“You don’t get many better chances than that one second half and if it goes in, we win 1-0 and everyone is walking away happy, but the pleasing thing for me was that could have easily rocked us after Gethin’s missed chance and then a minute later, Dempsey is off the pitch. It would have been easy for us to crumble a bit and get rocked, but we didn’t. We stuck together and I thought we were excellent second half.
I thought first half we were okay. We’ve had a nasty habit of conceding the first goal too often, so first half we were slightly more cautious and pragmatic. We spoke about that, especially away from home.
“You can’t lose games before you can win them and we had to grow into the game and I thought we did that perfectly. Second half we were in the ascendancy and I think we would have gone on to win it but for the red card.”
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