OF course this victory arrived too late to rescue pride from a desperate campaign, but can Wanderers take some solace from the fact they are now on the right path?

The identity of the next Bolton manager is unknown, perhaps even to the co-ownership themselves, but the blueprint left behind by interim management team Jimmy Phillips and Peter Reid is looking better with each passing week.

A bedrock of young, home-grown, and, most importantly, cost-effective players has emerged from the wreckage of the 6-0 humiliation at Bristol City.

Phillips has found a perfect position for Derik Osede, discovered a potential hidden gem in Tyler Garratt and got Zach Clough buzzing again. Rob Holding continues to ooze class, and when you chuck in Josh Vela – injured in the warm-up, the suspended Niall Maher, newcomers George Newell, Alex Samizadeh and Jamie Thomas and sidelined Oscar Threlkeld, why can’t we view next season in League One with a modicum of optimism?

England Under-21 boss Gareth Southgate sat in the stands alongside co-owner and close friend Ken Anderson. He must be sick to death of the lack of opportunities afforded to English talent on his travels up and down the land… well here at Bolton we’ve got some good ones.

The crux of it all will be to find enough experience and quality to guide these young lads through a 60-game campaign and cope with the inevitable ups and downs therein.

David Wheater has filled that brief perfectly in the last few weeks, his was a gargantuan presence against Hull. Likewise Neil Danns, a player rarely given the credit he deserves and written off entirely by Neil Lennon. Both have been vital cogs in what has become a fairly effective wheel.

If Wanderers can knit things together like this next season and divert their funds towards a real goal-getter, maybe the smiles which filled the stadium at full-time on Saturday can be seen more often?

Make no mistake, this Hull City team were at the Macron in body, not spirit. The excellent debutant Brian Lenihan and goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic aside, the other nine Tigers were already warming up for the two-legged play-off against Derby County in a couple of weeks.

Steve Bruce, normally the most affable of chaps, had a face like thunder as he stomped around the corridors post-match, and rightly so. Travelling fans were right to chant “this is embarrassing” and no doubt their Wanderers counterparts can sympathise.

Considering the Tigers supporters’ stormy relationship with owner Assem Allam, failure to get promoted this season will also leave them in a situation which is all-too-familiar to folk in these parts. And no football fan would wish that on them.

As the old cliché goes, you can only beat what is put in front of you. And Wanderers have not done that regularly for a while.

Had this game ended in defeat, the current crop of players were on course to set all manner of new record lows. But aside from one Chuba Akpom effort which bounced off the underside of Ben Amos’s crossbar in the second half, Hull never looked interested in registering their first win at Bolton since 1935.

Lawrie Wilson had been drafted in at the last minute for the Whites when Josh Vela limped out of the warm-up with shin splints. Ignored for the majority of his stay at the Macron, the former Charlton man is another player contracted for next season who showed his worth.

After playing some neat football on the right with Neil Danns it was Wilson who crossed for Dobbie to slot home the winning goal midway through the second half.

It was no less than the Whites deserved at that point. They had created the only real chance of a nondescript first half when Darren Pratley’s close-range effort was saved superbly by Jakupovic and Clough’s follow-up charged down by Lenihan.

The second half was much livelier – Lenihan hooked a Darren Pratley header off the line, Akpom’s shot rattled the woodwork and Danns should have scored after springing the offside trap.

But once Dobbie scored his fourth goal of the campaign, all as a substitute, the lack of response from Hull was quite telling.

Wanderers’ fans, who have been quite incredible given what they have had to work with this season, suddenly went into party mode.

The last 15 minutes were an interesting examination of the young team’s psyche, and you couldn’t help but worry as they dropped back to defend their penalty box in an Alamo-like finish.

Thankfully, Derik and Holding defended with impeccable timing and Wheater – the old war horse – put any body part he could in the way of anything Hull mustered. In truth, it wasn’t that much, but forgive me for dwelling on a rare positive after the last nine months of dirge.

Even four minutes of injury time didn’t see the obligatory cave-in and ensured what would have been an awkward wave of appreciation from the centre circle turned into a slightly more expansive lap.

Some of the players were waving goodbye to a club which is now completely different to the one they signed for. David Wheater, Mark Davies, Jay Spearing, even Dean Moxey and Neil Danns, none of them would have realised just how much Wanderers were about to change when they were handed big contracts by a board whose financial management looks more laughable by the week. Performances this season will mean they are not remembered with much fondness, which is sad.

But the fresher faces applauding the crowd on Saturday afternoon have got a chance to carve their name into the history books and ensure they are remembered like the legends who will walk on to the pitch in a couple of weeks.

One more week before we put this nightmarish season to bed. Then it’s a fresh start with new heroes.