IF Wanderers are going to follow ‘them down the road’ and make a concerted effort for automatic promotion next season, then notes should have been taken in a local derby of high tension but surprisingly low quality.

Ian Evatt’s side is barely recognisable from the one embarrassed by Wigan at the UniBol in October and the Bolton boss had already predicted that this would be an accurate gauge to see what more needed to be added this summer.

By half time on Saturday that yardstick had been pulled out of the ground and an orderly queue of people had formed ready to beat him with it. Wanderers looked flustered, disjointed but somehow still in the game at only a goal down.

Then, as so often has been the case in his first 100 games in the dugout, the Bolton boss found a way to adapt and reinvent.

Jon Dadi Bodvarsson’s superb 83rd minute header secured a point and with the Icelander spearheading a trio of effective substitutions in the second half, the result proved wholly merited.

To challenge for the top two next season, Evatt must practically ignore everything that happened after half time. His challenge this summer is to upgrade a very decent team to a very good one.

Some of that improvement will happen organically as new signings settle, younger players gain experience, but there are positions – central midfield and centre-half in particular – which need to be strengthened if the team is going to win this type of contest.

There have been occasions this season where you couldn’t take your eyes off Evatt’s side, as the possession football quickens to produce moments of pure electricity. But there have also been occasions where they have been knocked right out of their stride, made to look rather ordinary, in fact. And the first half on Saturday was one such occasion.

Wigan have enjoyed a successful season by playing a tenacious, high tempo game. Teams have been trampled and Bolton very nearly became one of them in the opening half an hour.

James McClean’s opening goal felt like a cheap one to give away – the Irishman collecting a short corner from Max Power before lofting in a cross towards Josh Magennis, which somehow bounced over Ricardo Santos and past James Trafford into the net.

Wigan were worth their lead, though, virtually camping out in the Wanderers half during the opening stages and seizing on every possible loose ball.

Aaron Morley and MJ Williams struggled to hold down a packed midfield and when Bolton did win the ball, their passing accuracy was unusually low.

McClean should have scored a second after Wigan turned over possession just outside the penalty box, instead skewing a shot wide.

And when Wanderers lost the ball once again less than 30 yards from their own goal moments later, only some last-ditch defending from Morley prevented Callum Lang from turning in Will Keane’s low cross at the far post.

Ten minutes before half time Wigan seemed to slow down, allowing Bolton just enough possession to feel they had a chance of getting back into the game. That task would have been made infinitely easier had McClean been given a second yellow card for his second foul on Dapo Afolayan – but acting on information from his linesman that the ball had bounced out of bounds, referee Samuel Barrott decided on the lenient approach.

McClean had momentarily lost the plot, leading with his hands as Afolayan danced round him on the right edge of the box. At another other moment it would have been a booking, so why not now?

No sooner had referee Barrott put the whistle to his lips for the interval, than Evatt set off on a collision course to voice his anger.

Boos rained down from three stands flecked with home fans but the Bolton boss did not care a jot. He emerged on the pitch 15 minutes later ahead of his players and made a similarly intentional beeline from the corner of the pitch through the Wigan ranks, exchanging a remark with McClean, then Latics skipper Tendayi Darikwa, before taking his place in the dugout.

Whether those exchanges mattered in the grand scheme of things we may never know. They did, however, sum up how Evatt is willing to lead from the front. Whether the wider world agree with him, like him even, is redundant, just as long as his players follow his lead.

And in the second half at the DW Stadium, they did. While neither keeper had a save to make, Bolton suddenly had more purpose on the ball. Afolayan had buried deep under the skin of the home crowd, his every touch jeered and heckled; just like his manager, it is the way he likes it.

Evatt made three quick changes. Dion Charles had touched the ball just seven times, MJ Williams had been uncharacteristically timid, and Elias Kachunga had been ineffectual despite dropping deeper and deeper to affect play. Their replacements Bodvarsson, Amadou Bakayoko and Kyle Dempsey, upped the tempo quickly.

Ricardo Santos had struggled early on against Bolton old boy Josh Magennis but he too had come out for the second half with renewed vim and vigour. All that said, his needless push on Max Power earned a booking which also put him in danger with a couple of challenges later in the game.

Wanderers slowly built momentum. Gethin Jones pushed further down the right, pinning Wigan in, and Morley started to spray passes around from a deeper position once paired with the dynamic Dempsey.

Afolayan and Bodvarsson went close but as the clocked ticked down to the final 10 minutes, the mood among home fans was buoyant – their club was topping the League One table.

Bolton, so often kings of the twilight minutes, were not done yet. Will Aimson’s day had been bang average to the point he swung a marvellous cross in from the right, met with arrow-like precision by the head of Bodvarsson. We had an equaliser.

The joy was instantly transferred to the 4,000 in the away stand, packed in like sardines by the police cordons.

Travelling fans had been given little to celebrate on the day, and scenes after the goal were delightful – but discriminatory chants aimed by a section of the fans towards an injured McClean during stoppage time stepped way over the line and could yet be picked up by the authorities.

What damage the dropped points do to Wigan’s promotion chances, we will find out in the coming weeks. In truth, they should have enough in the tank, even if McClean is side-lined.

Wanderers’ play-off chase is now entirely theoretical. There are players who could do themselves big favours in the final six games, however, as Evatt considers his next moves in the transfer market.