Dapo Afolayan responded with the correct attitude to being left out of the Bolton Wanderers team and Ian Evatt felt his Sunderland performance showed what he can do as he linked up with Dion Charles.
Charles put Wanderers ahead before Afolayan added a second before half-time of the 6-0 demolition of Sunderland at the University of Bolton Stadium.
Charles bagged his second after the break before Kieran Lee added a fourth as Wanderers blitzed the Black Cats.
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Danny Batth put through his own net to add a fifth for the hosts before Declan John rounded off the win with a sublime sixth goal as a rampant Wanderers made it three victories on the bounce.
Afolayan had been left out by Wanderers for the wins over Ipswich Town and Shrewsbury Town, but came off the bench to impact both encounters and was slotted back into the starting line up against the Black Catsa, playing upfront alongside Charles.
And Evatt believes the attacker has had the right attitude when being taken out of the firing line as he linked up well with Charles, as the Bolton boss had praise for plenty other members of the team following the emphatic victory.
He said: "Everyone knows what Dapo’s capable of, but we also must remember that it’s his first full season in men’s football. There’s huge expectation on his shoulders and he’s suffered as well as the rest of the team the last two or three months.
"He’s had a dip in form but he’s allowed to. There’s nobody bigger than the team here and if someone needs to take a rest and let someone else take the pressure for a period of time, we’ll do that and Dapo’s come out of the team and come on and affected it and had the right attitude.
"Against Sunderland, he’s shown what he can do. I thought the way he linked up with Dion was excellent.
“I think you can speak about most of our team today in that mould really. I thought Rico and the way he handled (Ross) Stewart, who is an excellent player and a fantastic player in this division, I thought he was absolutely brilliant.
"The back three defended superbly well, the midfield two are getting what we need from them in this system. There was some teething problems early on, but the more that we work on it, the more we understand it.
"The wing-backs are being really effective getting on the last line. Some of our rotations, I don’t know if it was the third or fourth goal, the rotation with Marlon (Fossey) and Gethin (Jones) and the third man run was outstanding.
"There’s lots of things to be pleased about, but also the most exciting thing for me is I know there’s loads more to come and that sounds crazy after that sort of victory but there really is.
“This group of players are really talented. They’re hungry for more, the work ethic on the training ground has been fantastic and they can’t get carried away, they have to keep that up.”
