Leyton Orient 1-0 Bolton Wanderers - The Big Match Verdict

The plot points of League Two promotion, League One stability, League One play-offs are already set – the next logical step in the chain would be promotion to League One and a return to Championship football after five years, something that looked entirely possible just last Tuesday night as Bolton went toe-to-toe with Premier League Luton Town in the FA Cup third round.

But if you zoom in closely on the Whites’ journey you will notice some semi-regular outliers, results and performances that leap out of synch and make the overall trend harder to determine.

This defeat at Leyton Orient was one of those anomalies, or so one would hope. Ninety-seven minutes of regressive football in which they looked nothing like the team that had fought valiantly against the Hatters four days earlier, and more like the one that had been flattened 4-0 in their last visit to Brisbane Road, right at the base of the graph.

Not since those very early days of empty pandemic stadia, salary caps, and heads of football operations have Wanderers looked quite so disjointed, particularly in possession. And it was somewhat fitting that a series of poor decisions on the ball led to Dan Agyei scoring the game’s only goal just after half time.

Whether you love, loathe or tolerate the passing style that Evatt has ingrained, moving the ball around has become their forte. Coupled with an effective press, it has yielded results this season, and some quite beautifully crafted goals, 17 of which have been supplied by Dion Charles.

Quite what happened in East London to Dion and his team-mates, for that matter, is anyone’s guess.

You can search for reasons as to quite why Bolton were so bad. But it won’t do you much good.

The game had been in doubt up to 24 hours before kick-off because of freezing temperatures, and a pitch which had been placed under cover was hardly a Crucible baize. Orient did not seem to mind.

The exertions of that FA Cup replay might also have come into play. But as Evatt pointed out himself after the game, his players had only completed 25 minutes against Cheltenham before the tragic abandonment of that game a week earlier.

And if this is the result of a few midweek outings, goodness knows what Wanderers are going to look like when they reach the end of April.

Optimistically, we view this wretched outing as the bad day at the office, but once again, if you zoom in there are other factors at play here.

Wanderers are without Gethin Jones, on international duty with Australia, and Carlos Mendes Gomes, who is away with Guinea Bissau. The absence of the former has been felt – not least because it has placed greater strain on wing-back Josh Dacres-Cogley, who has undergone a slight dip in form compared with his earlier season outings.

Will Forrester’s injury against Luton also meant a shift in the back three, Jack Iredale playing on the left side, Eoin Toal shifted to the right. Neither would look especially comfortable, and the same could be said of young Zac Ashworth, who struggled to contain Orient’s lively wide man Shaq Forde.

Throw in Ricardo Santos’s unusually meek performance against Agyei, and you might suggest that not one of Bolton’s back ‘five’ are in anything approaching good form.

Evatt’s midfield had been first class in the cup. In the hurly burly on Saturday, however, George Thomason, Kyle Dempsey and Josh Sheehan collectively failed to control the game at any stage.

Thomason did create a couple of chances – more on this later – but for three players whose use of the ball has been so consistent this season, it was a real off day.

Finally, up front. Victor Adeboyejo had terrorised Premier League defenders in midweek but this 90 minutes was a tale of poor touches and chasing shadows. It was marginally more successful than Charles’s game, however, and having touched the ball just 15 times all afternoon the Northern Ireland international will want to quickly put this one in the bin.

Charles could have opened the scoring just before half time when he stooped to nod the ball against the post from close range, Thomason having chipped an inviting cross which was begging to be pushed over the line.

His high profile miss against Portsmouth last month had somehow managed to destroy his whole team’s confidence. When Charles was then denied an equaliser by O’s keeper Sol Brynn shortly after Agyei had put his side ahead, that impact doubled.

Wanderers were already shaken, having gifted their opponents the lead, the back line engaging in a game of ‘who can play the daftest ball?’ The Whites had already abandoned the short passing patterns they ordinarily employ, trying to pick out more direct passes to find the runs of Adeboyejo, as they had done quite well against Luton. The radar was well and truly broken here, and it was in trying to find one of those long balls that Toal had his pass picked off, the bounce landing well for Agyei to outmuscle Ireldale and finish under Nathan Baxter.

Evatt made an immediate triple substitution, hooking Sheehan and his two strikers rather symbolically. “I’d have taken off all 11 players if I could,” the manager later shrugged.

Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, Cameron Jerome and Aaron Morley added marginally more. An equaliser was not completely out of the question as the home side sat in to protect their lead and try to hit on the break.

Dacres-Cogley could have had that moment, picked out by Thomason he could see the whites of keeper Brynn’s eyes, but blasted a shot high into the jubilant home supporters behind the goal.

There was also time for some touchline drama as Richie Wellens got a red card for trying to stop Randell Williams from taking a quick throw. Pantomime stuff, dealt with rather too robotically by the officials. It was that type of day.

It is worth logging that for all Bolton's failures, Orient also earned their win. They played conditions infinitely better, worked harder, scrapped for the ball with more passion. And that will certainly hurt Evatt and his staff.

For Wanderers’ 1,200-strong support, it was one of those wintery days of suffering that they will think about in years to come, hopefully with their club playing on a grander stage.

The trouble with passing off poor performances as a one-off is that they can quickly become something more. Let’s be honest, this was terrible. But Bolton have enough goodwill in the bank.

Evatt is in the middle of a transfer window and presumably has options, even if the days before deadline are ticking down quickly.

Cheltenham and then Carlisle now have extra pressure, greater expectation, and should they replicate this kind of display then they should expect nothing from either fixture.

Once again questions are being asked of you, my dear Wanderers, do you care to answer them?