Ian Evatt admitted winning was the only thing that mattered as he chalked up his 100th victory as Wanderers’ manager, writes Pete Oliver.
Evatt reached the milestone – from just 194 games at the helm – with a 3-2 win over Leyton Orient.
And while the Whites made hard work of it after roaring into a three-goal lead inside the first 10 minutes, Evatt’s men got over the line to record a first success in four League One games and move back up to third place in the table.
“I’m delighted to get 100 wins but I'm more delighted that we managed to win again,” said the Wanderers’ boss. “Today was win at all costs. It doesn't matter how you win, you have to win, and we managed to win.
“At the end of the season all you see is three points and that's all that matters. It's one of those games where people can pick holes and pick faults in it, but the win was the all-important thing and you have to stay the course.
“As you've seen, there are people dropping points. It happens. We've had to react after two poor results but it's a long old season and we're not half way through yet.
“There are going to be games and times like that when you're going to need to dig deep and win football matches and we managed to do that today.”
Wanderers were irresistible in the opening exchanges as Josh Dacres-Cogley, Dion Charles and George Thomason put the Whites 3-0 up.
Charles then missed a clear-cut chance to add his 16th goal of the season in first-half stoppage time before Orient hit back after the break to make it 3-2 with half an hour to go.
But Wanderers – missing captain and defensive talisman Ricardo Almeida Santos through suspension – refused to buckle again as they ended their home campaign for 2023 on a high ahead of back-to-back away games at Lincoln City and Fleetwood Town to finish the year.
“The first half was scintillating at times,” added Evatt. “I was delighted with the first half, not so happy with the second. Second half we could have done things better but the all-important thing was to win the game. We haven't got time to even think about anything else. We have to get ready now for Boxing Day.
“The start of our last (unbeaten) run came with a game like that against Northampton and hopefully now we can improve from that performance and go into Boxing Day and perform for 90 minutes better than we have done today.
“The result is the main thing and most important thing. We’re back to winning ways and now we can re-set and get ready for an important game at Lincoln.”
Watch the manager's full post-match interview on Wanderers TV