Wanderers boss Ian Evatt hailed Will Forrester for stepping into the heart of defence in difficult circumstances against Burton.

The young defender was thrown in at the deep end after skipper Ricardo Santos could not continue into the second half.

“I thought he was excellent,” said Evatt. “He stepped in really well, was calm and composed, and defended really well.

“As a team, we should have defended their goal better but we reacted in the right way, which is great.”

Brentford loanee Paris Maghoma also came into the starting line-up against the Brewers and showed glimpses of what he is capable of.

“I thought he grew into it, second half in particular,” the manager continued. “I thought he did really well.

“He is a player who gives us slightly different to the other ones because both he and Carlos can win one-v-one duels, drive past people, have goof energy good, speed and dribbling.

“We saw that in the second half. For him, it is probably just the end product and the final bit but there were lots of positives to take from today.”

Josh Dacres-Cogley has had a positive start to the campaign after arriving on a free transfer from Tranmere.

The pacy wing-back had plenty of joy in the final third, and Evatt is keen to keep getting him into positions where he can impact the game.

“It is something that we work on, to get our wing-backs in good positions, and Josh has really taken that on board,” he stated.

“He put it on a plate for Victor (Adeboyejo) and he should really score, which puts the game to bed.

“We got into some good positions and had some good build-up play at times but I still thought we were a bit sloppy with some of our play, maybe because we were a bit nervous and jittery following last week.”

West Brom loanee Zac Ashworth was not named in the squad at the Pirelli Stadium, but Evatt confirmed his absence was not injury-related.

The Bolton boss felt it would be more useful to have an extra attacking option on the bench against a Burton side who can be tough to break down.

Carlos Mendes Gomes, Cameron Jerome and Dan Nlundulu all came off the bench, while Jon Dadi Bodvarsson was an unused substitute following his recovery from injury.

“It was just about the balance of the bench,” Evatt explained. “Coming here, we knew we would probably need more attacking options on the bench and Jon being back gave us that.

“There is nothing Zac has done wrong, it was just the balance of the bench.

“Because of Randell, Josh and Gethin’s flexibility, we had cover in those positions so it was just really to get another striker on the bench in case we needed it.”