Bolton boss Ian Evatt remained 'calm' watching on from the stands despite a frustrating goalless draw against Port Vale.
Evatt saw his side go down to ten men after a controversial Ricardo Santos red card in the first half, before being sent off himself in the tunnel - forcing him to watch the second half from the stands. Despite the frustrations with refereeing decisions on the day, Bolton maintained their unbeaten start to the campaign with a second successive away draw following their first away trip of the season against Ipswich.
Whilst Port Vale controlled the bulk of possession following the goal, Bolton had chances of their own to take the three points and defended well with ten men in sweltering heat at Vale Park.
“I watched it next to our directors’ box. To be honest, I was quite calm because I think we looked comfortable. Our shape was good, we do a lot of work with counter-pressing, defence to attack transitions, how we play forwards on regains, but also shuffling and shifting as a group, staying connected, staying compact, so I thought our shape was really good," Evatt said.
“We rode our luck one or two times second half but you’re going to. You’re in this heat for an hour. I thought we defended really well and looked comfortable. I thought we could maybe nick one on the break and that wasn’t to be but proud of how they performed.”
“We looked dangerous from set plays which is also pleasing. We’re giving them a huge amount of importance this season and I thought first half we had two or three really good chances from those. Didn’t quite take them but once you get a man sent off, you’re really in the lap of the gods as to what’s happened, all you can do is try and work as hard as we possibly can make sure you punish on moments and we didn’t quite punish those moments because we had quite a few, but we were really dogged, stuck to task and saw the game our relatively comfortable.”
