The start of a new season is always a day of renewed hope, friendships, and expectations. Today, it was greater than ever after the enforced isolation of the past 17 months. We are back and so are the Wanderers. Everybody was asking each other how we had coped and remembering friends who sadly had not made it through the pandemic. There was the magnificent Supporters Wall of Fame at Bolton Central to find your name if you bought a season ticket last season. The fans were certainly up for the occasion, judging by the singing outside beforehand and the queues to get in. There is genuine excitement around the stadium after last season’s virtual promotion and the well-planned recruitment during the close season, something we have not been able to enjoy for a long while. Hopefully the Wanderers would be up for it against the Dons from Milton Keynes, a club who themselves bounced back from League 2 at their first attempt three seasons ago.
Ian Evatt named his first squad in League 1, which naturally prompted the first debate amongst the fans, as we all have expert views. What a match followed, a six-goal thriller with the lead changing hands three times and a last-minute equaliser. Welcome to League 1, where our first priority must be to establish ourselves at this level, where the pace will be faster, mistakes will be punished more and the quality of players better than League 2. Overall, the Wanderers handled the match well with lots of positives like the creativity, three different goal scorers and the character to come back. Of course, there were things that could have been better, but these are for Ian Evatt to think about and work on. A draw was a fair result.
The important thing is to settle down in this league. We have got a point on the board, which will ease the pressure associated with a ‘nil points’ start. Let’s get some more points on the board, see where we are at Christmas and take it from there. The only other time we got promoted from the League’s basement, it took us 5 years to make the next promotion. The first home match that season attracted only 4,800 compared to over 16,000 today. We are making great progress off the field. We have got our club back. We are One Club, One Town, One Community.
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