Ian Evatt was delighted to deliver a fitting result to mark Wanderers’ 5000th league game as the Whites turned on a five-star show at Peterborough.
Evatt’s men ran riot at London Road as a Dion Charles’ hat-trick and captain Ricardo Almeida Santos’ first two goals for the club brought the landmark up in style with a sensational 5-0 win.
Evatt called on everyone connected with the Whites to enjoy the historic moment before turning their attention to next Tuesday night’s bid to try and claim a fifth successive League One win and continue their climb inside the top six.
“I’m really pleased. We spoke at length this morning about what this game means to the fans and the football club,” said the Wanderers’ boss.
“I’m delighted for the fans. We are just custodians of this football club.
“I’m really proud to be the manager of it but this day is for them.
“Five thousand games is something to be extremely proud of, considering where we’ve come from in the last few years.
“We wanted to leave a little mark in the sand to show what this club means to us all and it really does mean an awful lot to all of us.
“In years to come we wanted people to remember this day as a good day.
“And it is a good day – but it is only one day. I have said to the players we can enjoy this is now.
“This is great but the minute we step off that coach back in Bolton we are focused on Tuesday.
“This means nothing if we don’t perform on Tuesday. It’s hard to win games, especially against good teams but we are really focused now on Tuesday. That’s the most important game coming up.”
Wanderers will face MK Dons at the University of Bolton Stadium in mid-week on the back of the club’s biggest away win since a 5-0 Premier League victory at Leicester City in August, 2001.
The victory eclipsed a 5-1 success at Leeds United in 2014 - the same year a Wanderers’ player last scored a hat-trick before Charles struck three times in nine minutes either side of half-time in a game-clinching burst to move to 17 goals for the season.
“I thought the way we went about our job today and worked tirelessly as a group – in and out of possession was fantastic,” added Evatt.
“We were very disciplined and took our chances when we needed to.
“It was great for Rico. I’m really pleased for him. He deserves that and Dion as well.
“He has worked tirelessly for us all season. He’s real talisman and a real number nine and to get a hat-trick here is a great achievement.”