THE atmosphere was positively euphoric as we held our pre-match Black Sheep lubricated talks in the Harvester.

Bolton Wanderers top of the league was no longer an oxymoron. Jay Spearing, top goalscorer, was another unlikely but pleasant surprise.

Sixteen months without an away win and two came along in five days.

We’ve blunted the Blades, whacked the Wombles and deflated the Gasheads. Life in League One is proving to be tremendous fun. Could we devour the Cod Army?

For those of us who managed to make it back from Bristol in time for this match, after the horrendous travel problems on Wednesday night, the answer was a resounding yes.

Phil Parkinson seems to be sticking with an experienced line-up, making changes as injuries dictate with Zach Clough coming in for Jamie Proctor.

In truth, he hasn’t got much to play with as the squad these days is painfully thin and it will be a real challenge to cover injuries and suspensions as the season progresses.

There is still plenty to work on as we seemed to be unsettled when Clough went off injured and our defensive frailties surfaced to give Fleetwood a first-half lead.

But whatever Parkinson put in the tea at half time worked wonders as we dominated the second half and ran out deserved winners with goals from Gary Madine and Josh Vela.

We might be driving our work colleagues and friends to distraction with our ‘top of the league’ banter – Bolton fans don’t do optimism very well.

Indeed most of us will have to look the word up in a dictionary after the years of pain we have endured.

Caution is the name of the game at the moment as ‘we are staying up’ was heard from the North Stand as the winner went in.

Four wins do not mean promotion, although it is encouraging to achieve them in August rather than in the new year. It’s only a beginning.

We’ve got to survive the transfer window. Is our financial position stable enough now to be able to reject Wigan’s insulting bid of 250,000 pies for Josh Vela? I’ll be very worried if it’s not.

We still face as big a battle off the field as on it but together we can do it.

The smiles are back on the faces of Bolton fans. Let’s keep them there.

The Valley here we come.