EOIN Toal hopes he can cram one more winning moment into his perfect 2023.

The Northern Irish defender has enjoyed a magnificent 12 months, rising to prominence for club and country.

His winning goal against Lincoln City on Tuesday arrived almost exactly a year since he scored his first for Bolton, in exactly the same net. From there he became a first team regular, lifted the Papa Johns Trophy at Wembley in his first season in English football, and earned international recognition.

And with a beaming smile Toal looked ahead to Friday night, hoping there could be one last high at Fleetwood.

“It has been surreal, really, but 2023 has been really good to me,” he told The Bolton News.

“It makes it all worth it. Living away from home, I can tell you, it isn’t easy at this time of year. But moments like that goal – I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else.

“I didn’t know what to do when it went in. I said to the boys last week ‘if I score, I’ll do this, I’ll do that’ but then when it happens I never do it. I just went mad.

“Hopefully now we can take that on now and win again on Friday at Fleetwood. That would be incredible.”

Wanderers beat Fleetwood on their own patch last season, with Conor Bradley and Dapo Afolayan scoring two goals late on to spark memorable scenes in the away end.

Another sold out allocation will be following the club to Highbury again, and Toal is determined to send them home happy.

“We know we have to roll our sleeves up away from home – Friday is so important now, three points there would be brilliant,” he said.

“We just keep doing what we are doing. The manager will be the first to tell you, we do things our way. He is brilliant, I don’t have high enough words for him, we just play our way, stay patient, and the chances will come.”

Patience was certainly needed at Lincoln, where despite playing against 10 men for the last 20 minutes, the game seemed to be heading for a frustrating draw.

“The manager always tries to tell us to keep cool heads when moments like that come along,” Toal added.

“It wasn’t long ago we had our own man sent off, so we knew how it could be.

“I think if I hadn’t scored, someone else would have done anyway. But there was a bit of relief as well because had we drawn the game, I think we would have been disappointed.

“The fans at that end gave us a real lift. We felt something was coming and that the pressure was building, especially once they had someone sent off.

“We dominated the game, and it was only a matter of time.”

Ian Evatt has hinted that he will rotate some of his squad again at Highbury to try and keep energy levels up for what is traditionally a high-octane encounter.

“We have a good squad there, the manager made changes and we have got some fresh players to come in again too, which is pleasing,” Toal said. “It will be a good test at Fleetwood, I was on the bench there last season but it looked like a tough one, but hopefully we can take our confidence on now and get another win.

“We are only worried about ourselves. There are a lot of games in the Christmas period so we can only really focus on what we are doing. It has worked so far, we have got two wins, so we’ll take it all on now for Fleetwood.”