Wanderers made it a truly happy birthday for boss Ian Evatt as he shared his celebrations with the Whites’ fans.
Late goals from Connor Bradley and Dapo Afolayan saw Evatt’s men come from behind to secure a memorable 2-1 at Fleetwood Town.
And Evatt was delighted to get the party started as a third away win of the campaign and a place back League One’s top six was the perfect way to mark reaching 41.
“I’m so pleased for the fans. To come here and take over the stadium like they did today, they deserve comebacks and they deserve performances like that,” said Evatt.
“This team, the management team and the staff; we’re immensely proud to be part of Bolton Wanderers and the atmosphere at the end was just incredible to be part of and it was a very good birthday present I must say.
“The players have done it the hard way and it’s all down to them.
“We draw the outline and they go on and paint the picture and I thought today the way they performed was excellent.
“There’s a huge togetherness here. We love being at this club. We are massively proud of our fan base and we just want to make the fan base proud of us and I think we’ve done that today.
“Yes. We’ve gone about it the hard way but I don’t think anyone can be disappointed with the way we’ve played today.
“That was an excellent performance. Sometimes you don’t get what you deserve, sometimes you do. And today we absolutely did.”
Wanderers dominated for most of an entertaining game but still had come from behind after Carlos Mendes Gomes’ superb strike for draw specialists Town.
Fleetwood had drawn 10 of their games so far this season but couldn’t hold out once the impressive Whites turned pressure into points as Bradley and Afolayan both claimed their fourth goals of the season with well-worked efforts.
“We keep knocking on the door and eventually today we blew the house down,” added Evatt, whose side has now lost just one of their last six league games.
“Some of that football was exceptional. You have to remember we were away from home against a team that has only lost four games this season and we’ve totally dominated the game.
“It was almost like they had nine or 10 men in the second half. We were camped in their final third and we stayed positive and we stayed patient.
“Yes, we missed chances and they will start to go in. I have no doubt about that.
“Today was about the result and the performance and I thought our performance was excellent.”