On a mild winter’s day, the Robins from Cheltenham Town flew in to face the Wanderers and the pre-match Doombar deliberations focused on the ins and outs of the January transfer window, our growing injury list and whether we could mount, what is becoming a tradition under Ian Evatt - a strong second half of the season and a push for promotion.

From kick off, Cheltenham showed they had come with a game plan to frustrate the Wanderers at every opportunity, ‘manage the game’ - modern parlance for time-wasting - and generally make themselves as difficult to beat as possible.

In fairness to them, they very nearly succeeded as the Wanderers struggled to break them down. But we stuck at it and Kyle Dempsey slammed in the winner 10 minutes from time. It was hard work but as they say ‘all’s well that ends well’.

The referee was poor, being slow to clamp down on their time-wasting and yet quick to book Conor Bradley for perceived time-wasting, costing him a two-match ban.

A lot of fans have voiced their opinions about the number of loan players we have, in respect of how it will affect team building for the future, especially if we cannot get them back next season.

Football has changed radically over the past 30 years, since the advent of the Premier League and the TV money. Long gone are the days when top league footballers, passing their peak would come down the leagues to see out their careers.

We can all remember great players like Peter Thompson, Tony Dunne and Alan Gowling gracing Burnden Park in their latter years. Nowadays, top players go out to seed, chasing lucrative deals in far-off places like the USA or Saudi Arabia, or join the media. Big money transfers from lower-league clubs to Premier League clubs are as rare as hen’s teeth now, as most Premier League clubs buy from overseas. So, the best way a club like Bolton can fill the gaps is to attract top young Premier League players on loan to help us and to help them in their development. This is something we are building a good reputation for because of the style of football we play.