Post-game quotes from the manager following Wanderers' late victory at Prenton Park
Manager Phil Parkinson spoke to Wanderers’ official YouTube channel following his side’s last-minute 2-1 victory over Tranmere Rovers at Prenton Park on Tuesday night.
Falling behind early on to Connor Jennings' near post header, the Whites fought back after the break as goals from substitutes Dorian Dervite and Zach Clough clinched another dramatic late win for Bolton.
And offering up his thoughts on the game following the final whistle in Tranmere, Parkinson covered the following points…
On the team’s performance throughout the game…
We’re pleased to get the win. We got off to a bad start, the same as Saturday, but when that happens all you can do is respond to it and I felt that is what we did.
We worked exceptionally hard and although we weren’t always successful in certain things we did, the effort was always there and the application was excellent.
We asked the lads at half-time to keep doing what they had been doing. Could they be more positive in that final third and play with a little bit more belief in and around the opposition penalty box? If we were going to fail, fail by being positive.
I felt we did that in the second half. We were a lot more effective in our play and looked like we could create a lot more. We got the deserved win.
The lads who started the second half responded well. We had some good periods and then the lads who came on offered us fresh impetus. I thought there were some very good performances from the team that came on for the final 30 minutes.
On Saturday we were disappointing with the result but tonight we’re pleased. It doesn’t matter who you are playing against, when you go a goal down it is always good to see the character in the team to come back and we showed that tonight.
On Zach Clough's late winner…
Zach got a good goal on Saturday and he looked really bright tonight when he came on. He was really dangerous and what a goal.
It was a top class finish and before you could blink, the ball was in the back of the net. That’s what he offers, he is such a clinical finisher and it is pleasing to seen him score two goals so far.
On Tom Walker's contribution...
Young Tom came on and played with an attitude that he wants to be in the team. That is all I can ask from all the players, that every time they pull on the shirt they give us the impression that they want to play.
On potential future transfer activity…
The squad is far from complete and we’ve got a lot of work to do. We are looking at certain players in with us over the next week or so. We are also speaking to several other players.
We need to keep re-shaping the squad because it has been put on hold for the last week to ten days while the Rob Holding transfer was taking place.
If that gets finalised, hopefully we’ll have the ammunition to go out and make this squad really strong heading into the new season.
On upcoming fixtures against Crewe Alexandra and York City…
We’ve got Crewe Alexandra on Friday, against their first team, and then York City on Saturday.
My thoughts are to take the stronger team to York just because it balances out the week’s training better for us in terms of the Saturday games are what we are going to be coming up against when the season kicks off.
Friday will also be a good game for us. We’ll be giving a few of the Under-21s a game alongside a few of the lads who haven’t figured as much.