Bolton Wanderers 2-2 Blackburn Rovers The Big Match Verdict

IT isn’t often you can say that Blackburn Rovers have done Bolton Wanderers a favour â€" but Saturday might well have been one of those rare occasions.

While the banter flowed freely between the two sets of fans, a to-and-fro which was much missed in the soulless stadia of League Two last season, the game itself proved exactly what Ian Evatt’s side needed as they prepare for life after promotion.

Firstly, there was a chance to showcase the exciting brand of football this manager has brought to the club, and not one that translated especially well on the laptop screen via iFollow.

With a fair wind, the sight of Dapo Afolayan galloping into the penalty box, Josh Sheehan spraying 50-yard passes to feet and George Johnston thundering into challenges will be one we get used to seeing in the coming weeks and months.

Wanderers had waltzed into a two-goal lead and were well worth the advantage. But the fact Rovers flexed their Championship muscles in the final half-hour to bring themselves back level might be even more important to Evatt and his team as they refocus sights on MK Dons next weekend.

As fans returned to the stadium to see football for the first time in 518 days, Bolton were clearly looking to make an impression. Not only did they conqueror their set piece demons â€" Johnston turning in Sheehan’s corner â€" they actually built on a one-goal lead with the irrepressible Afolayan drilling into the net via a covering defender.

Wanderers should have added a third. Sheehan got into two good situations, only for his touch to desert him at the crucial moment but had Evatt’s men walked away with a commanding score-line it would not necessarily have been a good thing at all.

Last summer’s hubris after a few excellent pre-season displays ended up costing the club and its manager a few uncomfortable months. This time around, Bolton have remained unbeaten, and though Evatt is typically setting his sights high there is no hint of over-confidence, or arrogance this time around.

One wonders if a 3-0 score-line, for example, would have inflated expectations for next weekend and beyond?

Ben Brereton provided the sobering note. Referred to by the Rovers faithful as “Diaz” due to his surprise appearances for Chile in this summer’s Copa America, the £7million man scored twice in eight minutes to bring the scores level and ensure Bolton had to switch on defensively for the last 25 minutes.

As with most friendlies, the narrative shifts when the substitutions start, and Blackburn certainly started to look more like a Championship side once they brought the likes of Joe Rothwell, Sam Gallagher and John Buckley off the bench.

But Evatt will be just as pleased with the resolve shown in the final stages as he would with the free-flowing football which had built the lead.

Johnston really made a good impression on his first outing at the stadium. The former Liverpool and Feyenoord defender took no prisoners, throwing himself into challenges on the edge of the penalty box to keep the visitors at bay. Alongside him, Alex Baptiste, turning back the clock against one of his former employers.

Ricardo Santos returns to the training ground on Monday after a foot injury and a spell of self-isolation but if the big defender is not ready to step straight back into action, the central pair in situ against look in good touch.

Evatt will have taken positive notes on the returning Lloyd Isgrove, who had also been missing for the last couple of weeks, and summer signing Sheehan whose passing range on the day was a joy to behold.

If there was any downside to the day, it was a minority of fans who booed Bolton and Blackburn’s players as they kneeled before kick-off.

Thankfully, it was a brief and irrelevant disappointment on a day where the performance was perfectly pitched in Wanderers’ final dress rehearsal.

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