Neil Danns believes Bolton Wanderers are benefiting from new boss Neil Lennon stamping his own influence on the team.
Wanderers made it two wins from three games since Lennon’s arrival as a strong second-half display secured a 3-1 victory at Brentford at the Macron Stadium on Saturday.
Midfielder Danns, who opened the scoring with a superb long-range drive on the hour mark, believes Bolton can only benefit from Lennon’s approach.
“I think the gaffer is stamping his own game on the club,” the former Crystal Palace and Leicester man said. “He used to play with a lot of intensity and that is rubbing off on us.
“I think everyone can see the difference in the side at the minute and everybody is delighted. We’ve performed very well in the last three games.
“In training he is intense but in a good way and the boys seem to have taken to it. We’re thoroughly enjoying it, it’s hard work but we’re loving it.”
After a difficult start, Bolton grew into the game in the second half and Danns’ 25-yard strike broke the deadlock.
Mark Davies doubled the lead to mark his return from injury with a well-taken solo goal just two minutes coming off the bench.
After Jon Toral’s strike set up a nervous finish, substitute Craig Davies secured the win from long-range third after Brentford goalkeeper David Button had come up for a last-minute corner.
Lennon was delighted with his side’s performance and believes Bolton are becoming an exciting team again.
“I thought that in the second half we were absolutely fantastic,” he told the club website. “Did we deserve to win the game? Absolutely. Did we look an exciting team today? Absolutely.
“In Mark Davies and Lee Chung-Yong we’ve got players who can light up stadiums and they get bums off seats.
“What pleases me is that we’ve got three goals – two of them were Premier League quality. That’ll give our players confidence going forward.”
The Northern Irishman was also quick to praise the supporters and the level of atmosphere that was created to spur the team on.
“The atmosphere today was fantastic,” he said. “The supporters were magnificent all afternoon and the greeting I got as I walked out onto the pitch gave me goose bumps.
“Even when we had difficult moments in the game the supporters stuck with us, that’s going to be massively important going forward.
“We’re now within touching distance of getting out of the bottom three but we’ve got some very difficult games coming up and we mustn’t get carried away.”
Despite Lennon remaining grounded, Danns says the side are full of confidence and can achieve a positive result from a difficult trip to high-flying Norwich on Friday.
“At the moment we’re going into every game believing that we have a really good chance of getting the win and next week will be no different,” he insisted.
“All games in the Championship are difficult games and Norwich will be no different. We’re going in to it full of confidence and looking to take the three points.”
Main image courtesy of Bolton Wanderers FC via YouTube, with thanks.
