IAN Evatt believes his gameplan worked to a tee at Cheltenham as Ryan Delaney struck a late winner to claim three points.

The Bolton boss had pinpointed the home side’s threat from Ben Tozer’s long throws – and true enough, his defence was put under considerable pressure throughout.

Delaney’s late goal provided the perfect finale, however, as he latched on to Ricardo Santos’s flick from Lloyd Isgrove’s corner to plunder his second goal of the season.

“We deserved that,” Evatt said. “We knew what was coming, I said in the press what was coming. But we defended our box excellently, to a man, the same with the goalkeeper coming to take crosses.

“We put our bodies on the line, we were physically tough, and this is not an easy place to come and they are second in the league for a reason.

“But first half we could have been two or three up with the chances we had. But second half was about grit, determination and fight, and there’s no better feeling in football than a last-minute winner.

“We were bombarded but that was the reason I picked the team I did and the system I did. We wanted to make things difficult for them and having Reiss as an extra header of the ball from set pieces helped.

“We did a lot of research on them and I told the players in the hotel earlier that we had to win at least 47 headers in our own box to stand a chance. I think we beat that stat tonight, we were excellent.”

Evatt was reluctant to pick out individual performances on the night but did praise teenager George Thomason for a mature performance in midfield.

“I believe in George, he’s 18 years old and we have to remember that sometimes,” he said. “But he has got a really bright future.

“I am really delighted for them all because we were upset with Saturday, we thought we should have got something out of the game.

“To come here and win in the manner we did is magnificent.

“We showed real desire and guts tonight and if we can match that up with the passing – which I think could have been better tonight, particularly second half – then we are going to be hard to beat.”