AH, Bolton Wanderers, the scourge of the journalist filing on the final whistle, the fan who heads early to the car park, or the gambler with their finger poised over the ‘cash out’ button, how we have missed thee.

Last season’s kings of the late goal in League One haven’t lost the knack this summer and Kieran Sadlier’s injury time rocket proved well worth a few more minutes queuing in the cashless car park.

Ian Evatt’s side fully deserved to finish an encouraging afternoon on a high and deserve praise just as equally as they deserved a kick up the backside after last weekend’s drab show in Carlisle. In both cases the outcome meant nothing in the grand scheme – but the order in which the results fell should mean fans will have that warm new-season glow heading to Portman Road next weekend.

Picking a team for Ipswich will not be an easy task. Sadlier has done a diligent job as cover man for Conor Bradley this summer, which has left him looking rather under-utilised.

At his best, the former Rotherham United man is one of Bolton’s most effective weapons with the ball at his feet and there are plenty who wonder if those creative skills are being stifled by specialising as a wing-back in the current squad.

Bradley had a fine game against Huddersfield. The Northern Ireland international was invariably the free man for much of the first half and revelled in the spaces afforded to him. After the break he made some important defensive contributions, too, which bode well for the campaign ahead.

When the flood of late substitutions began with 20 minutes to go, the normal course of action is for a pre-season friendly to lose shape, meander to a conclusion. Here, Bolton picked up purpose. Amadou Bakayoko had bite, Kyle Dempsey pressed with intensity and Sadlier offered something every time he got the ball, capped off by a stunning strike to level the game.

Realistically, Sadlier won’t start ahead of Bradley next weekend. Bakayoko nor Dempsey are guaranteed a starting spot either. Jon Dadi Bodvarsson – missing with a minor foot injury – may also have slipped a whisker behind Dapo Afolayan and Dion Charles on the evidence of this outing.

Evatt has the deepest squad he has yet managed at Wanderers but to keep each player on the bench, or out of the squad altogether, in peak readiness is a skill few can master. After the wholesale changes he has been forced to make in the last two years, however, you do not begrudge him the opportunity to try.

Huddersfield might have splintered their squad to play games at Bolton and Tranmere on the same day – but the starting line-up had five men who had started the Championship play-off final against Nottingham Forest at Wembley.

Just as they had against Watford earlier in the summer, Wanderers looked to enjoy playing against opponents with such pedigree. Sure, the Terriers’ got their press just right in the opening 20 minutes and the movement of their front line was a clear step up on what we see in League One week-in, week-out – a point emphasised by Danny Ward’s superbly-taken header just before half time – but Bolton sussed it out, eventually giving just as good as they got.

Huddersfield had laid a few markers down with shots from Josh Koroma and Kieran Phillips but James Trafford remained untested until he pushed over a header from his own player, Kieran Lee, who had been jumping to clear a Sobra Thomas cross.

It was at that stage Wanderers managed to get their wider players into the game. Both Bradley and Declan John looked happy to push on, picked out by raking diagonal passes from George Johnston, Ricardo Santos and Gethin Jones.

The front two of Charles and Afolayan also sparked into life at that point – one an utter pestilence who never seems to slow down, the other looking the cock of the walk this summer. If Evatt sticks with this pair at Portman Road, there can be no complaints.

Charles should have had a penalty after hunting down Tom Lees, blocking his clearance then being sent tumbling by the recovering defender.

Santos made a goal-saving block at the other end after Phillips squeezed a shot under Trafford but the Bolton skipper was out-done moments before half time when Ward timed his run and jump to perfection to head in Thomas’s cross from the right.

While the penchant for late goals is a habit you are happy to see Wanderers carry through to next season, those unexplained defensive 'switch offs' are something we could all do without. Huddersfield went from a throw in to celebrating an opening goal in the blink of an eye, and moments like that could be costly against the bigger clubs in the division.

Had Jonathan Hogg scored with a free header just after half time, the contest would probably have been beyond the Whites and we would have been in ‘looking for positives’ territory once again. As it happened, his wastefulness spurred Bolton on and with Afolayan now pulling his markers around the pitch on strings, chances started to arrive.

Santos hit the post with a header, painfully unable to break his scoring drought for the club, and Bradley had a fine shot deflected over the bar after a flowing move started by Afolayan on the left with a balletic turn to leave Ollie Turton swiping at fresh air.

Substitutions are usually a signal that things are about to wind down in a pre-season friendly but Sadlier, Dempsey and Bakayoko in particular appeared to have a point to prove. They picked up the pace and unsettled the Championship men, leaving some of them looking round anxiously for a clock to see how long there was left to play.

Sadlier created two good chances for Bakayoko, one blocked well by keeper Nicholls, but saved the best until last. Picking a pass up on the corner of the penalty box he dropped a shoulder, nudged the ball on to his left foot before arching a shot into the top corner.

The strike deserved a bigger attendance, for points to be at stake. In the event, it is a well-timed tap on Evatt’s shoulder to remind him that of all the talent at his disposal, Sadlier so often finds the key for the lock.

Touch wood, then, that Evatt has a full squad from which to negotiate a tough start to the season and that the patches of fine football they have shown over the summer coagulate into something more substantial when it really matters.

Dress rehearsal negotiated, it is on to Ipswich, a place where Bolton fans have regularly found themselves wondering whether to laugh or cry.

Wanderers remain the production you have to watch to the bitter end. And these days, you don’t often have to peek through your fingers!