IAN Evatt was delighted to lay an old ghost partially to rest as Wanderers romped to a comfortable 3-0 win against Accrington Stanley.

Bolton were humbled 7-1 in the league last season – a game which marked one of the low points of a wretched campaign which culminated in relegation.

The Whites are determined to bounce back quickly, however, and new head coach Evatt feels the Accrington win will give his side a psychological boost.

“We dominated and it’s good for the lads to see that because Accrington are a League One side,” he told The Bolton News.

“I think there were some bad memories from that game last season and it was good to see that they can have success against that level of opposition.”

Wanderers have had a near faultless pre-season and secured a fourth successive win thanks to Nathan Delfouneso’s early goal, Eoin Doyle’s penalty and another spot kick converted by a trialist.

But the course of victory was not without some faults – and some of the work in possession at the back still requires some work.

“It’s another good result,” reasoned Evatt. “I was really pleased the first 65-70 minutes where we completely dominated. I think we got a bit tired the last 20 minutes but we’d worked very hard in the last week and when you start to make changes the game starts to become disjointed.

“I told the players we have to recognise and make better match decisions. It’s just game intelligence.

“They had good spells of possession in the first half and so the opposition are bound to change second half and throw a different look at you. It’s how quickly we pick that up and where the space is.

“If they are going on a high press and the space isn’t to play out from the back then there must be some one v one situations higher up the pitch. If we suss that, they soon drop off and we can earn the right to play again.

“Just those decisions we need to tighten up on but in general I’m really pleased.”

Some of the Accrington challenges in the second half – particularly on Antoni Sarcevic and Tom White – were decidedly ‘unfriendly’.

Evatt has warned his players, though, that they may need to keep emotions in check at times this season against more physical opponents.

“It is part of the game and it normally means you are playing well,” he said. “If you have a lot of the ball then the opposition are going to get the hump, they are going to want to kick you, and that’s exactly what happened with Accrington. I was really pleased with our discipline.”