PHIL Parkinson was happy to say his gamble at Fleetwood paid off handsomely.

Sending Darren Pratley out to start the game without a single competitive outing since August, plus Mark Beevers and Josh Vela – both treading a tightrope on nine yellow cards before yesterday’s amnesty – represented some risky business for the Whites boss.

The build up to the game had been anything but straightforward; Vela’s indiscretions had hit the headlines and forced the club to take disciplinary action while an ongoing battle with the EFL meant the Whites boss had no idea exactly what players he had to work with until the final 24 hours before the match.

Jem Karacan’s one-month deal was only finalised on Friday and announced by the club 50 minutes before kick-off at Highbury.

So with so many indeterminable factors, Parkinson could have been facing very different questions at 5pm on Saturday evening.

As it happens, the mood after the final whistle was one of optimism. Wanderers had ended Fleetwood’s 18-game unbeaten run with arguably their most complete away display since the 5-1 thrashing of Leeds United three years earlier.

Pratley’s warrior-like display in midfield caught the eye of the manager.

“I felt the lads needed a lift and to have Darren’s character out on the pitch,” he told The Bolton News. “It was a risk. Playing the lads with nine bookings was a risk, but it paid off.

“I’d told Darren to feel his way into the game – but you can’t tell Prats to do that because he’s got so much energy. He just did what he does.

“It’s a credit to how hard he has worked on his rehab. It’s also credit to Matt Barrass and his team in the academy because without playing an Under-23 game, they have got him into that physical shape.”

Adam Le Fondre scored his first two goals back in a Wanderers shirt, and was a constant menace throughout.

The 30-year-old had to wait seven games to break the seal on his second spell with the Whites but Parkinson has been delighted with his input so far.

“That movement in the box for the second goal was what he is all about,” he said. “We felt last week against Wimbledon it was probably his best all-round game so far but he got sharper in training.

“He would love to have come in and gone ‘bang’ and grabbed goals but he hasn’t played many games before he came here and it’s only now you are seeing him step up.

“One thing I will say is that in every game he’s played so far he’s been great for the team without the ball. He has got a great tactical understanding of where he should be on the pitch.

“You don’t carry him. He puts a shift in.”