Bolton Wanderers remain on course for a top 10 finish in League One after winning their final away game of the season on the road to Cheltenham Town.
Kieran Sadlier put Wanderers in front after the break at the Jonny Rocks Stadium after great work from Jon Dadi Bodvarsson.
Afolayan won a penalty after going down under Lewis Freestone's challenge but substitute Amadou Bakayoko made it clear he wanted to take the spot kick in discussions with the Wanderers top scorer.
He converted in style with a low finish as Scott Flinders went the opposite direction, but the Robins set up a tense finish as Aaron Ramsey came off the bench to capitalise from James Trafford's error and halve the deficit just before full-time.
Following the three points, we analyse the ups and downs from a Wanderers perspective after a positive result in the penultimate game of the campaign.
Ups
Morley magical in the middle
Aaron Morley has been a revelation since joining for an undisclosed fee from Rochdale in the January transfer window.
The three-and-a-half year contract given to the midfielder shows the faith Wanderers have in the young player, who has recently turned 22, but has now played approaching 150 games in men's football for both Wanderers and the Dale.
Against the Robins was quite possibly Morley's most impressive display in a Wanderers shirt with the midfielder dictating the game in the middle of the park and being intelligent and consistent with his passing range.
Though he did not score or notch an assist in the clash, it was an incredibly encouraging display and is evidence the transfer fee Wanderers have paid could prove a snip in the long term.
Afolayan back to best as season climaxes
Afolayan remains the club's top scorer with 14 strikes this season in a great individual campaign following a permanent move last summer following his release by West Ham United on the back of a successful loan spell.
As all players experience, Afolayan has had a dip in form of late, but in recent matches appears to have been back to his form of earlier in the campaign and around the January/February period.
The attacker was perhaps the most consistent attacking threat against the Robins throughout the encounter and caused problems in particular for Freestone, who ended up giving away the penalty.
Though he did not end up taking the penalty he won, Afolayan made a huge contribution to the win at the Jonny Rocks Stadium and will be aiming to end the campaign on a high next weekend.
John impressive at left wing-back
Declan John has played at left wing-back since mid-January when Wanderers switched to a back three.
The former Swansea City man has been able to showcase his attacking talents more in that system and it has brought three goals and three assists in that time, with the defender having seven set-ups for strikes this campaign in total.
Against Cheltenham, John was able to get forward on multiple occasions and caused plenty of problems for the Robins on that left flank.
John recently admitted that the switch to the position has been good for him and the performance against Cheltenham was another illustration of that.
Seven unbeaten and three wins on the spin
The win in Gloucestershire was Bolton's third on the bounce and seventh game unbeaten as Wanderers hit good form as the season draws to an end.
Wanderers sit 10th in League One and are on course to finish on a total of 73 points should they beat Fleetwood Town at the University of Bolton Stadium next Saturday to end the campaign on a high.
The fact that Wanderers could reach such a high target and be around 10 points from the play-offs demonstrates how high the standard has been in League One this season.
But the positive end of season form and that shown in the second half of the campaign generally should give plenty of optimism that, especially with a positive summer of recruitment, Wanderers can be challenging for the play-offs next season.
Downs
Trafford error shows development still to come
Trafford has been a big part of Wanderers' success in the second half of the season since arriving on loan from Manchester City.
The stopper has been solid and got on with his business inbetween the sticks, providing a reliable and consistence precense at the back.
However, with being a young goalkeeper, there has been the occasional error which shows that there is still progress to be made.
It is perhaps credit to Trafford that his poor distribution which led to Cheltenham halving the deficit being only his second big mistake for Wanderers, the other being the opening goal in the loss to MK Dons at the end of February.
Fortunately, the late goal did not prove crucial in the encounter and is something that Trafford will learn from moving forwards.
