JOSH Sheehan hopes a win against Crewe will press the reset button for Wanderers in League One.

The Welsh midfielder scored from the spot in a 2-0 victory at the UniBol, Bolton’s first in the league since the start of September.

While far from the swaggering football played at the beginning of the campaign, Sheehan believes it was psychologically important to get three points on the board, any way possible.

“It was one of those games where maybe the performance didn’t matter as much, it was just about getting a win,” he said. “After the month we had last month, the confidence isn’t going to be high as a team but we have started this one better and we need to get back to what we were doing at the start of the season now. Hopefully that will kick-start us in the league.”

Crewe sat deep, defending with six across the back at times in the first half. But a midfield switch after the interval saw Sheehan pushed on alongside Kieran Lee, which brought instant rewards with two goals in four minutes.

“We knew they were coming here to defend,” Sheehan said. “They would have been happy with a point.

“If we could get that first goal, we knew we were getting another one, as you saw.

“It got a bit nervy in the first half probably because of the last month. It can build up with the players and sometimes the fans can get annoyed and wound up if things are not going how you want them. We believe in ourselves, so getting that first goal and not conceding anything really sets us up.”

Sheehan had missed the FA Cup first round game against Stockport County through injury but after recovering, says he will be ready for the replay.

“It was just a sore lower back,” he explained. “It happened before the Rochdale game but I played that, and then the day after it was bad, I couldn’t move too well. I couldn’t be in the squad on Sunday to help the boys but it’s fine now.

“The Rochdale cup win got the spirits up, we should have won against Stockport, but we’ll move on and take the replay Wednesday. In the league that has to move us on, now. Let’s get playing like we were at the start of the season and moving up the league.”