AFTER a fantastic start to our Grand Tour, it was time to take some home leave and welcome Matt Taylor, Greg Wylde and Keshi Anderson and the rest of their Northampton Town team-mates to the Macron.

The Doombar deliberations were particularly upbeat as the good news has flooded in this week.

The return of three experienced players – Dorian Dervite, Darren Pratley and Jay Spearing – has been like making three new signings.

Jem Karacan coming on board for a month has given us additional depth to our depleted resources, while the settlement between Messrs Anderson and Holdsworth can only be good for the club.

The fans are buzzing, eagerly waiting for each match now.

Fortunately, Phil Parkinson could name an unchanged team and was able to include Spearing on the bench.

Any thoughts of another easy victory were dispelled as the Cobblers put up a resolute display in the first half and they edged in front after the break when a superb cross from Taylor was prodded home by Michael Smith. I knew we shouldn’t have given him such a good welcome.

It was game on now as we finally roared into gear. Taylor handled as we laid siege to their goal and Alf blasted home the penalty.

Filipe Morais, who had had a quiet game, turned out to be the hero as he fired in the winner.

John-Joe O’Neill then had a goal disallowed for Northampton with virtually the last kick of the match. Our thanks go to the linesman for getting it right. Ben Alnwick tweeted afterwards that he wanted to hug the linesman. Well, get in the queue Ben with 14,000 Bolton fans. Phew!

We had to dig deep and battle to get the points but we had the quality to do it.

I’m still in amazement we have got ourselves into this promising position.

The true Bolton spirit is coming out now, living up to the town motto ‘Supera Moras’, which means ‘Overcoming Difficulties’. Maybe it should be ‘Supera Morais’?