The OSCAR season may be over… But that was one for the cameras!
Wanderers provided a real red carpet to convince play-off hopefuls Oxford United and show without doubt that they still intend to be in line for the trophies at the end of the season.
Wingers Nat Ogbeta and Josh Dacres-Cogley got the ball rolling in the first half, with the latter scoring to celebrate his 28th birthday in style.
But the really impressive part came after the break, when George Thomason, Aaron Collins and Josh Sheehan capped off a sensational win with top-drawer goals.
Considerable pressure had built up around the game and there was no shortage of people wanting to write off the Whites’ automatic promotion chances. Derby lived up to their end of the bargain, beating Reading to stay second, but this score sent a message loud and clear ahead of the trip to Pride Park.
Wanderers made three changes from the side that drew against Exeter City. Dacres-Cogley returned on the right, with Gethin Jones reclaiming his place in the back three in favor of Jack Iredale.
Nat Ogbeta replaced Randell Williams on the left and Jon Dadi Bodvarsson came on for the injured Victor Adeboyejo.
Evatt had asked for an intimidating atmosphere and certainly got a positive one from the start, with the crowd feeding off what was a very positive start from the Whites.
Eoin Toal teased an early cross shot across Jamie Cumming’s goal, which fell just wide of the far post, and Bodvarsson pulled off an excellent save from the Oxford keeper with a downward header, which was then flagged for offside.
Cameron Branagan’s shooting ability from distance is well known to Bolton, and the midfielder curled an early free-kick into the side netting of Joel Coleman’s goal to put the home side back into focus.
From then on, only one team controlled the match. Josh Sheehan and Paris Maghoma were brimming with confidence and resourcefulness in the center of the park and the two full-backs, Ogbeta and Dacres-Cogley, provided a target for an angled ball that often looked like it could unlock the visitors.
Ogbeta could have opened the scoring earlier than he did, dragging a daisy towards goal from Sheehan’s clever ball before getting it all right the second time.
Collins and Bodvarsson exchanged passes on the right from Dacres-Cogley’s delivery, George Thomason eventually finding space on the edge of the penalty area to roll a pass for the on-loan Swansea defender to drill a shot past Cumming – his first Bolton goal since scoring minutes. on his debut for Carlisle United.
The pressure eased somewhat and confidence in midfield really started to bubble. Sheehan had been picked by the TV pundits as the player to watch and although he fell slightly short in the 90 minutes at Exeter, this was the Welshman at his creative best once again.
Despite all the great things, it was a stretch of route one that gave Bolton their second goal. Santos looked for another of those booming passes to catch Dacres-Cogley but when Greg Leigh and Cumming collided the ball fell nicely to the birthday boy and he lifted a neat finish over the retreating Ciaron Brown to score his third of the campaign. .
It still wasn’t a piece of cake, but the party tricks were definitely starting to come out there. Maghoma was a one-man showreel full of twists, flicks and nutmegs, and seemed the one most likely to break into a third.
Another goal would certainly have killed it. But with St James Park still so fresh in our minds, the lack of a clear chance to complete the clever build-up left just enough doubt in the air as the two teams raced back from the field.
Oxford almost contributed to their own demise a few minutes after the restart, when another risky back pass from Elliott Moore left Cumming with no space at all, and Collins almost guided the ball into the net with his block.
Collins might have done better when he ran onto a ball over the top of Maghoma and fired an angled shot over the top, and Ogbeta skewed another effort wide after a smooth exchange between Collins and Dacres-Cogley on the edge of the box.
Bodvarsson took on a cheerleader role to pump some energy back into the home support, and they responded in kind. They didn’t have to wait long for a reward. But who exactly claims the goal could be one for the ladies and gentlemen of the dubious goals panel. Thomason will probably have the best claim, his powerful drive appearing to clip the back of Collins and the side of defender Leigh before looping past Cumming into the net. For once it is an investigation in which Bolton Wanderers have no problem being involved.
If Collins doesn’t get the third, he’s certainly claimed the fourth. And it will certainly go down in history as one of the best team goals of the Evatt era.
The Welshman finished well at the far post, but that was only half of it. A brilliant move from right to left, with Maghoma and Collins at the centre, the kind of football that really had a whiff of promotional class.
You could have forgiven Bolton for taking his foot off the accelerator at that point, but they kept pushing for more. And Sheehan fully deserved the fifth of the evening – a curling left-footed effort that simply had to be admired.
Thomason, Collins and Ogbeta were withdrawn with just over 20 minutes to go, allowing Bolton to think about Saturday’s match in Derby in a much more positive frame of mind.
If Cameron Jerome had been able to finish off a delightful run on Bodvarsson’s film, with Cumming pushing his effort away after beating Sam Long, it all came together, it really would have been the perfect night.
Morley also stepped up alongside Iredale with ten minutes to go, while his partner Emily had given birth to his first child, Dottie Rae, just hours before the match. He replaced Bodvarsson – as one astute reader tweeted ‘Daddy for Dadi’ – and played behind a front two of Dempsey and Jerome.
He tried to bow one shot in the top corner to mark the occasion, but for once he couldn’t get a moment in front of the cameras.