Assistant manager Peter Atherton led the praise for hat-trick hero Victor Adeboyejo as Wanderers made it three wins out of three in League One, writes Pete Oliver.
Atherton took on post-match media duties after the game following a red card for Whites’ boss Ian Evatt.
New FA rules debar a manager who has been sent off from conducting media interviews and so Atherton tipped his hat to Adeboyejo, whose first-half goals secured a 3-1 victory over Fleetwood Town.
“We’re made up for Victor. All the strikers have been working hard to add goals to the team and it’s very pleasing for him to get a hat-trick,” said Atherton.
“Last year Dion was the main goalscorer. We’ve said that we need to share that throughout the team – the defenders, the midfielders and the strikers but it’s certainly nice to see Vic, having worked hard on the training ground, get the rewards.
“He’s been working hard - as all the team has - and getting himself into good positions and getting chances and it’s nice to see him scoring three.
“The three goals were almost mirrors of each other, but good goals from what we’d spoken about in training and what we’d been working on, so it’s pleasing to see that.
“He finished them well and we got ourselves in a strong position off that. It’s about winning and we’ve got another win on the board.
“It’s only a start but it’s a very pleasing start. We’ve got a tough game at the weekend but we go back into that on the back of three wins, which is pleasing.”
Early table-toppers Wanderers face local rivals Wigan on Saturday and will be missing striker Dion Charles after he was sent off mid-way through the second half.
Charles was shown a second yellow card following an incident involving Town goalkeeper Jay Lynch.
Wanderers felt the striker was the innocent party and Evatt was then dismissed for contravening a new rule which doesn’t permit reference to using video technology to review something that's happened on the pitch.
“I’m not quite sure what the referee’s opinion is, which we’ll see in his report, but from seeing live it looked like the keeper tripped Dion up,” added Atherton.
“With the manager, he said to the fourth official that he’d seen it back and it wasn’t a booking as the keeper had actually tripped Dion up.
“But apparently by the letter of the law, by him referring to the replay, it’s a red card. He hasn’t abused the referee or fourth official, but purely for making the comment that he’d seen it back.”