Bolton Wanderers have added a steely core to the fire in their belly says manager Dougie Freedman after the Championship side stretched their unbeaten run to seven games at the weekend.
Bolton head into the international break on the back of 3-1 at home against Millwall on Saturday which was also their first league victory at home this season, moving Freedman’ side up to 17th in the table and away from the relegation zone.
Freedman says the team can be proud of their results as their rise continues following a poor start to the season.
“We have a bit of steel behind us now, we have the determination to defend and quality going forward,” Freedman told the club’s website.
“We deserved to win today, we now have a two week period without a game due to the international break.
“We can now look back at the last six weeks which has been good.”
Bolton’s victory over fellow strugglers Millwall came thanks to goals from Rob Hall, Jermaine Beckford and Andre Moritz.
Freedman was particularly pleased with the performance of top scorer Beckford as the former Leeds striker scored his fifth goal of the season.
“I felt throughout the match we looked a goal threat and Jermaine was excellent today. When Andre Moritz came on he showed clever movement.”
Mortiz was returning from injury and his late goal sealed all three points ending a run of four consecutive home draws.
“We showed good character and even in the last 20 minutes the mentality was good,” said Freedman.
“The team started the game well and our passing was fantastic and we took the lead and we showed good movement.”
However Freedman was most impressed by Bolton’s reaction after Jermaine Easter equalized midway through the first half.
“We were unfortunate to concede and from that we were put on the back foot.
“In the second half we dug in and we did what all good teams do and we defended well. We knew exactly what we were doing tactically and in the end I felt we were deserved and comfortable winners.
“The goal threat was always there and the timing of the goals certainly didn’t do us any harm. Even when Millwall was throwing a lot at us in the last 20 minutes I still felt we looked comfortable.”
Bolton will hope that they can continue their unbeaten run when they return from the break to face Gianfranco Zola’s high-flying Watford at Vicarage Road.
Image courtesy of BWFC official via YouTube, with thanks.
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