Season Review: Bolton Wanderers are back on the rise following League Two promotion to end a decade of heartbreak

Bolton Wanderers made an immediate return to League One, finishing third in League Two, clinching the final automatic promotion spot on the last day of the season.

With great expectations for the season following the arrival of new manager Ian Evatt from Barrow in the summer, Bolton struggled and found themselves in 20^th place as recently as February 8 but completed a meteoric comeback in the second half of the season to earn promotion.

Following years of heartache, the Wanderers’ fans were able to party long into the night come the end of the campaign with many believing that this is just the start of a rise back up the league pyramid.

Transfers and their impact

Upon arrival into the University of Bolton stadium last June, Evatt was presented with the challenge of signing essentially a whole new squad. Still under a transfer embargo, the club were unable to pay money to purchase players but still managed to capture some big names as free agents in both Eoin Doyle and Antoni Sarcevic as well as dabbling in the non-league circuit to recruit Ricardo Santos.

However, some of the signings made in summer by the Whites didn’t go to plan. Young goalkeeper Billy Crellin cost the side points on a number of occasions through individual errors and both Liam Gordon and Jak Hickman were loaned out before the season was over after failing to impress.

As a result, more reinforcements were needed in January to turn the season around and this is where much of Bolton’s success came from. Amongst those to join at the mid-way point in the campaign were tricky winger Oladapo Afolayan on loan from Premier League outfit West Ham United and Welsh international left-back Declan John on loan from Swansea City.

To put it into context, of the starting 11 for Bolton at Crawley Town on the final day of the season, just four had started the club’s first game of the campaign – a 1-0 loss at home to Forest Green Rovers in September.

Five key moments/games

Barrow (A) – 3-3 – October 20

Returning to his old stomping ground early on in the season, Ian Evatt hadn’t got off to a successful start at Bolton and his side had won just one of their opening six games in League Two, picking up just four points overall.

Sitting 20^th, there were strong rumours that Evatt’s role as manager was hanging on by a thread, though this was never confirmed.

3-1 down after 20 minutes of the game, Bolton clawed it back and captain Sarcevic fired home a last-gasp equaliser in the 95^thminute, perhaps to salvage his boss’ job.

Salford City (H) – 2-0 – November 13

An important fixture and result for Bolton, a rare glimpse of positivity in the first half of the season in front of the Sky Sports cameras.

This was the first game in which experienced goalkeeper Matt Gilks came into the team in place of the aforementioned Crellin.

Gilks never let his position in the starting 11 slip from there and the only game Crellin played in after this was an inconsequential final group game in the Papa John’s Trophy against Newcastle United’s under 23s.

In a more general context, the victory was Bolton’s first in a spell of five consecutive victories in all competitions and their just their second success of the season at home. It coming against local side Salford was an added bonus.

Mansfield Town (A) – 2-3 – February 17

Bolton picked up the most points away from home (41) by any League Two side in the campaign and three of those were picked up in the most dramatic of circumstances at the One Call Stadium.

Having seen the match postponed due to a waterlogged pitch twice previously, the Wanderers finally played their game at Mansfield and conceded twice in seven minutes of the second half to find themselves 2-0 down with just 18 minutes remaining.

Unbeaten in three prior and with new January signings ready to rip up League Two, defeat at Mansfield could and probably would have left the side feeling incredibly deflated. But that didn’t happen, they completed the comeback of all comebacks, netting three times in ten minutes.

Declan John’s mishit cross flew into the top corner of the goal, Malvind Benning put the ball into his own net from a corner and then ‘local lad’ Arthur Gnahoua rifled a strike past the goalkeeper from the edge of the box in the 88^th minute to claim all three points. A victory described as a ‘fluke’ by Mansfield manager Nigel Clough post-match, whose side went on to finish 16^th.

Following this game, Bolton’s unbeaten streak continued and lasted for 14 games in all, before being beaten 1-0 by play-off contenders Newport County on Easter Monday.

Morecambe (A) – 0-1 – April 24

Of Bolton’s 23 wins this season, 17 were by a one-goal margin and 11 with a 1-0 scoreline. One of the most important of those came late in the campaign at Morecambe courtesy of a late first-half strike from Huddersfield Town loanee Ben Jackson.

Left-back Jackson started the game courtesy of an injury to Declan John the week before and scored one of the most vital goals of the season from a Bolton perspective to secure all three points.

Morecambe were the biggest threat to that third place in the League Two table and as it worked out, had they taken even a draw from the game would have gone up automatically instead of Bolton but did themselves no favours on the day as Kelvin Mellor was sent off for a stamp on Afolayan midway through the first half.

In reality, coming two games before the end of the season, this win at Morecambe let Bolton off the hook when they lost to Exeter City at home the weekend after and meant that going into the final game of the season, automatic promotion was still in their hands.

Crawley Town (A) – 1-4 – May 8

That final game of the season proved to be more comfortable for the Whites than many expected in the end. A 4-1 scoreline at the People’s Pension Stadium confirmed that League One football would return to Bolton next season and Evatt’s men finally claimed a dominant result that most of their performances over the season had warranted.

Prior to this, the only time that they’d won by three goals came in November with a 3-0 triumph over eventually relegated Southend United at home.

Skipper Sarcevic got the party underway before Afolayan grabbed his first Bolton goal to double their lead. Crawley’s captain George Francomb was sent off for a second yellow card before the break and from there on, the Wanderers cruised to victory.

Doyle got his name on the scoresheet, as did Welsh international Lloyd Isgrove and in all fairness, the squad were probably in dreamland by the time Davide Rodari pulled one back for Crawley in the 89^th minute. Well, all but ‘keeper Gilks who still proceeded to lay down the law to his defence.

Anyhow, champagne flowed, promotion was confirmed, and Bolton were officially promoted. They were given a hero’s welcome upon their return by the fans.

Key player(s)

Eoin Doyle – Having netted the League Two golden boot and player of the season last campaign playing for Swindon Town, big things were expected of Doyle when he completed the switch to Bolton in the summer and he delivered.

43 league appearances and 19 goals, captaining the side on numerous occasions in the absence of Sarcevic through injury. Bolton’s fans already have a chant for the former Irish international, and his absence from the League Two team of the season this time around is staggering.

Antoni Sarcevic – Eventually earning the fourth League Two promotion of his career so far, Sarcevic is another fan favourite at the Wanderers and deservedly so. There’s a real feeling that ‘he gets it’ as to how far the club has fallen in recent years and the work needed to get it back to where it perhaps should be.

‘Sarce’ did earn a place in the league’s team of the season, finishing with seven goals and five assists in 32 appearances during a campaign which saw him miss two large chunks through injury. It’s worth noting that the club captain took some stick from a small circle of Bolton’s fans in the early stages of this season but has undoubtedly proven any doubters wrong since.

Matt Gilks – Already mentioned in this season review, Gilks’ importance on the turnaround in Bolton’s fortunes this campaign is staggering and quite simply, without his presence, Evatt’s men wouldn’t have gained promotion.

Prior to his arrival between the sticks in November, youngster Crellin had kept just two clean sheets in 11 games – a rate of less than 20% – and conceded 17 (over 1.5 goals a game). Comparably, in Gilks’ 35 games, the side earned 16 shutouts -just over 45% – and conceded only 33 (an average of less than one goal a game).

Statistics aren’t everything either. Fans watching on iFollow heard Gilks from minute one to minute 90 in every single game barking out instructions to his defence, a man with vast levels of experience and it showed.

Ricardo Santos and Alex Baptiste – Though it will be Santos who claims the highest accolades of these two having not missed a minute of action in the league all season, they’re going into ‘key players’ as a pair and with good reason.

Though there’s no doubting Santos’ ability, he couldn’t stop opponents scoring single-handedly and it showed when he was paired with different partners at the back in the first half of the season including Ryan Delaney and Reiss Greenidge.

Around February – the same time that Bolton’s comeback really took shape – veteran Baptiste formed a solid defensive partnership with the Portuguese national, and both brought out the best in each other.

Season verdict

7.5/10 – This verdict might seem harsh given that Bolton eventually claimed a promotion, but I feel it’s a fair one for various reasons including the fact that before the season started, promotion was expected in mass by the Whites so in essence, they’ve achieved what they set out to do.

Make no doubt about it, the first half of the season – if not more – was dire so the respect earned by the team from February onwards is absolutely monumental and they’re the only reason that the mark is what it is. Without that comeback towards the end of the season, I dread to think what mark the season would have got because ‘impressive’ doesn’t even begin to describe it.

To come from 20^th in the league table in mid-February to finishing third is an absolutely remarkable achievement and kudos must go to Evatt and his staff for recruiting so well in January. It’s just a shame for Bolton that they didn’t have the post-January squad from the start of the season because I really believe it would have blown the rest of the league away.

At the halfway mark in the season, the Wanderers had just 28 points from 23 games but finished on 79 points. 51 points from a possible 69 in the second half of the campaign racks up to an average of approximately 2.21 points per game. Over the course of a season, that adds up to 102 points.

And while we’ll never know for sure if it would’ve happened, 102 points has Bolton winning League Two, ahead of second-placed Cheltenham Town by a meagre 20 points, which wouldn’t have been bad going!

Hopes for next season

It’s really difficult to predict what will happen with Bolton in League One next season. There are some big clubs in there and they are one of them despite being a newly promoted side. Manager Evatt clearly believes in the process of ‘Kaizen’ – continuous improvement – and will undoubtedly be aiming for the top end of the league which isn’t a bad thing.

A struggle to stay in the division is unlikely, it’s just a case of how far up the table they might be able to finish. After two successive relegations in 2019 and 2020, the Whites’ fans would love two successive promotions in 2021 and 2022 but that may just be a stretch too far.

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