Post-It Notes, Velcro, Penicillin… All inventions discovered by accident which went on to change the world to a greater or lesser extent.

Even the pacemaker – a gadget which might be in great demand at Wanderers if afternoons continue to be as dramatic as this – was created when engineer Wilson Greatbatch mistakenly attached the wrong resistor to one of his circuits, changing healthcare forever.

Sometimes, the best things come down to happenstance, and that is why Ian Evatt should heed the signs after watching his team fight back in the most thrilling of fashions at Accrington Stanley.

Ten minutes into the second half, the grey clouds gathering above the Wham Stadium felt like they had made a personal appearance for the Bolton boss.

Two goals down and with a bold decision to use Dapo Afolayan as a wing-back looking foolhardy at best, Ricardo Santos cleared a header from Shaun Whalley off his own line to prevent a third.

Bolton’s fans, flanking two full sides of a compact stadium and many other seats besides, made their feelings loud and clear. In the wilds of social media, even more outlandish statements were being made, to be deleted in haste later the same evening.

Evatt looked to his bench, bringing on Elias Kachunga, George Thomason and Jack Iredale, at which point he ripped up the original gameplan and went with something different.

Playing 4-3-3, Wanderers looked a completely different team, one able to feed the ball to Afolayan and bring out that devilish bravado we have missed so much.

All three replacements looked super-charged and poor Stanley, to that point superior, if horrendous on the eye, did not know what to do with themselves.

Harvey Rodgers was hassled into an own goal, Kachunga then hooked a far-post ball back for Kieran Lee to poke home an equaliser and then, with impeccable timing and footwork, Afolayan danced into the penalty box to drill a shot past Toby Savin to send travelling fans into a state of delirium.

Through nine minutes of stoppage time added by excellent referee Bobby Madden, the tension built further. Time-wasting tactics which Barnsley had employed the week before suddenly felt more acceptable – albeit Stanley had fired first on that front, dragging their heels from the moment they forged ahead.

It was a brutal comeback the likes of which we have not seen from a Bolton team since a muddy night in Mansfield in the middle of the pandemic, where the stands stood heartbreakingly empty.

That result proved the catalyst for a long run of victories in the League Two promotion season and ended – for a while, at least – the stigma which had developed over Wanderers’ ability to perform on the poor pitches and compact arenas that the division had to offer.

That same concern had built up in recent weeks with blanks at Cheltenham and Forest Green. If Bolton could not beat those so-called lesser lights, then how could they call themselves promotion contenders?

Those were not just questions being posed in The Bolton News or by the fans, they were legitimate concerns that played on the mind of players, and even Evatt himself.

Though goals had dried up completely in recent weeks, the Wanderers boss was adamant that the work he had done over the summer to improve his 3-4-1-2 system would pay off in the end. His concession at Accrington was to add Afolayan on the left in a position he had only rarely played in the past.

Necessity then became the mother of invention, and in shifting to 4-3-3, the team suddenly looked a completely different prospect altogether.

Of course, it was no complete accident. But the process that led to adapting the formation to a more attacking shape was not without good fortune. Had Conor Bradley not been suspended for the game, the permutations on the bench would probably have been very different – and had Bolton not grabbed a second and third goal as quickly as they did, both Josh Sheehan and Kieran Sadlier were poised to come on to the pitch – substitutions which were quickly abandoned at 3-2. That is not to mention the fact that Santos was in the right place to head clear Whalley’s effort on 50 minutes that would surely have killed the game stone cold.

Football management is basically a series of those micro-accidents. Being tactically flexible and aware of when something is not working is a skill the best possess – but that should not deter Evatt and others from trying something new. Had Wanderers been able to get Afolayan into the game during the first half, his experiment as a wing-back might have been deemed a masterstroke.

Few players did themselves justice in the first 45 minutes as the home side gnarled and barged their way to a 1-0 lead.

Kyle Dempsey was the stand-out, his physical, non-stop style suiting this type of passionate Lancashire occasion perfectly. And though wide men Afolayan and Lloyd Isgrove did not see enough of the ball to make a serious impression, their infrequent involvement was at least positive.

Both Stanley goals were eminently avoidable. From the powderpuff midfield challenges and poor positioning of Whalley’s opener to the dithering marking of the second, eventually diverted past James Trafford by George Johnston.

Wanderers have defended well of late, so perhaps it is unwise to be too harsh. But with two home games against Burton and Oxford on the immediate horizon, it would be nice to see a quick return to form.

It was only when that second goal bounced over the line that Evatt’s serendipitous formation switch took effect. And one wonders whether it will shape his thoughts for the next couple of games, both to be played on the bowling green turf of the UniBol against sides struggling at the wrong end of the division.

A first-ever win at the Crown Ground could be a game-changer for Wanderers, and one hopes that in the future we can look back at it with the same reverence as the Mansfield mud.