Ian Evatt says Bolton ‘at our absolute best’ during win at Northampton

Posted Wednesday, October 02, 2024 by PA

Bolton boss Ian Evatt felt his side were back to their best during Tuesday’s 4-2 victory over Northampton.

Bolton dominated from the moment John McAtee fired them into a sixth-minute lead, with George Thomason making it two midway through the first half.

Eoin Toal added a third after the break and Dion Charles scored a fourth before stoppage-time headers from Tom Eaves and Jon Guthrie gave Northampton something to cheer.

“It was a very, very good away performance,” said Evatt. “There was lots of good movement, the pressing was excellent and we scored some very good goals.

“We’ve had a reset and we’ve spoken about who we are and what we want to be but we never felt we needed to change too much because not a lot was broken from last season.

“We’ve reminded the players what we can do and what we’re good at and I think we’ve seen that in the last three games and at times tonight we were at our absolute best, especially the first two goals.

“We felt like we could go back to our usual selves tonight with the 3-5-2 and how we like to build up and the players executed it fantastically well. That’s 11 goals in three games and it’s much more like us.

“The two goals at the end are disappointing. It was harsh on the players but I did have a bit of a pop at them because it’s not something we can allow to happen.

“It’s complacency and a lack of professionalism and that can cost you on another day, but there can’t be too many disappointments tonight.”

Northampton boss Jon Brady said: “It was a very tough night. We’ve stepped on and with the high line we play, they have carved through us and played it around the back early with aggressive runs through.

“The first goal comes early and that’s really punished us and then the second one comes from a quick restart and we don’t adjust our line and they get through us again.

“That’s 2-0 and it’s too easy for them to get in. We did have some chances but their goalkeeper made a couple of good saves and that was a bit of a repeat from Saturday.

“But the goals we gave away were too easy and the difference at this level is the forward players. A lot of these teams have spent a lot of money on strikers and you see the two that start for Bolton and the two that come off the bench.

“That’s a big difference and it gives them so many attacking options but we were beaten by the better team on the night.”