Man of the Match - Bolton Wanderers 1-0 Bradford City

There were a number of strong performances. Shout out to Harry Brockbank who I thought was titanic in an unfamiliar position, putting in some incredible shifts to cover the entire left hand side.

Also, Andy Tutte who helped to run the show in the centre of the park with his closing and ball playing.

It is Tutte’s midfield parter I am going to award man of the match to though. Antoni Sarcevic was everywhere on the night with the complete captain’s performance, driving the team on.

Sarce came in for more than his fair share of criticism as Bolton Wanderers struggled to get going in the early weeks of the season. I noted following the cup matches that we needed to give the new signings time to bed in, in particular those who were shouldering the burden of expectation. Sarce is certainly one of those, who was expected to hit the ground running and spearhead a title push behind Eoin Doyle.

It was, with retrospect following my pre-season predictions, unrealistic to think that this bunch of borderline strangers would come together to form a well oiled machine from day one. A solid win against Accrington Stanley in pre-season kidded many of us into thinking HMS Piss the League had set sail.

Hopefully now we are starting to see this promised team fall into place. If we are, I have no doubt that we are in for many more all action captain’s performances and a few more goals. Speaking of goals, the one criticism of Sarce on the night is that he should have buried the chance which eventually fell to Nathan Delfouneso.

The small stain aside, the work rate and determination was glorious to behold. More of the same please captain.