MOTM: Northampton Town 0 Bolton Wanderers 1- Derik Osede

Today we saw yet another example of Parky's tactic of scoring early and hanging on. But thanks to an offside flag and a little bit of luck, Bolton managed to come out with the win and the clean sheet after Zach Clough's 25^th minute goal.

For me, the man who deserves the most credit for this is our makeshift centre-half, Derik Osede.

The Real Madrid youth product has some pretty big shoes to fill, quite literally, in David Wheater's but so far he is doing a brilliant job. Early on in the game you feared for him trying to deal with Alex Revell in the air and you felt as though Beevers was going to have to babysit him. As it happened, the Spaniard grew into the game and I lost count of the number of times he dug us out a hole.

The most impressive thing about Derik is his reading of the game. In terms of the argument about his best position: yes, in midfield we miss the killer passes that he can provide, but neither Wheater nor Beevers have his ability to see a chance coming and cut it out before it starts. I would love to know how many interceptions he made against Northampton.

I don't doubt that Wheater will slot straight back into the heart of defence when he returns but we have had 3 clean sheets in a row in his absence. This shows our strength in depth given that the likes of Derik and an ever-improving Tom Thorpe aren't guaranteed a start. On the defensive side, things are looking rosy.