Sharp-shooting Leyton Orient pile pressure on Ian Evatt’s Bolton

A stellar performance from Ross Embelton’s Orient team saw them run out as 4-0 victors against Ian Evatt’s Bolton Wanderers.

If Bolton Wanderers fans thought they had hit rock bottom after relegation to League Two, the club hit a new low on Saturday afternoon, when a 4-0 defeat at Leyton Orient saw them drop to 19th.

It was a fantastic result for the O’s, who triumphed emphatically through goals from Danny Johnson and Craig Clay, either side of the quirk of two different free-kicks scored for the same team in the space of three minutes by two different players.

A home rout smelt plausible from the first minute, when Orient started at a high intensity, encouraged to press by Bolton’s coy, backwards passing, of which Andrew Tutte was perhaps especially culpable.

Danny Johnson was set away within 20 seconds before being brought down by Wanderers goalkeeper Billy Crellin in the box and although the poacher was unable to convert his subsequent penalty, the fact he had won it and been denied only by a good low save meant he was not affected.

Instead, the save – Crellin’s second spot-kick stop in as many games – merely delayed Johnson’s attempts to get on the scoresheet, which he did in the eighth minute after a low cutback from the electric James Brophy, who was relishing the transitional opportunities his more advanced role afforded him.

Brophy’s direct running and Joe Widdowson’s astute use of the ball made for a fine left-sided pairing for the Londoners, who also dominated the right flank early on.

Nathan Delfouneso, who would be forced off through injury, failed to close down Tunji Akinola quickly enough while Ali Crawford, on paper the number 10 in Ian Evatt’s 3-4-1-2 setup, was slow to help out defensively.

That left exposed Tutte, who – having struggled with injuries in his previous stint at Morecambe – looked reluctant to engage in the physical side, much like Harry Brockbank.

The youngster was listed a left wing-back on paper, but shirked much of his closing down duties, leaving Ryan Delaney overworked on the left of the back-three.

All these issues allowed Akinola, Conor Wilkinson and Jobi McAnuff to run riot down the right and Johnson could have grabbed a second, had his effort not been cleared off the line by Delaney who, along with perhaps Antoni Sarcevic, was the only visiting player up for a fight.

Between the quarter-hour mark and the latter stages of the first half, Bolton mustered plenty of final third entries – Ronan Darcy replaced Delfouneso to offer some neat link-up between lines – whilst producing some of the initial patterns of play Evatt is hoping for but, unlike Orient during their best spells, did not pose a direct goalscoring threat.

Any hopes the Lancashire outfit had of building on the half-platform they established were dashed when evergreen playmaker Jobi McAnuff – surprisingly energetic at 38 – stuck the ball into the top corner with his free-kick, before Conor Wilkinson won another to produce a left-footed curler three minutes later.

Orient’s quirky, quick-fire double-salvo tripled the second-half work ahead for Evatt and Bolton who, despite a double-switch at the interval, were out of the game when industrial midfielder Craig Clay carved an unlikely route onto the highlights reel with his 57th minute curler.

It helps when ambitious efforts like that fly in, but Embleton will be almost as pleased with his side’s second-half game management as he will, their first-half incision.

Bolton had nothing to lose, so the hosts did well to avoid an ultra-defensive second half by retaining possession intelligently and draining their visitors, which required different qualities to the fast-paced gegenpressing on show early on.

With the contest buried, Evatt’s side launched numerous half-hearted attacks through wing-backs Peter Kioso and Liam Gordon who, along with Tom White, came on at the break.

A combination of poor end product, no trustworthy goalscoring presence and a perceived lack of desire when it came to gambling on goalscoring areas, Bolton could not accrue so much as a consolation goal.

Evatt will need plenty of consolation, therefore, following an afternoon that diminishes any notion of positivity that surfaced following good performances against Cambridge and Bradford.

Embleton, by contrast, can celebrate his side’s best performance of the season – and one that gives the O’s encouragement they can grow from being the steady midtable side we saw last season to one with the credentials to trouble the top seven.

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