THERE is a very big decision on the horizon for Ian Evatt as his Wanderers look to make up ground on Portsmouth at the top of the League One table.

The first instalment of a £750,000 fee for Aaron Collins was repaid in double-quick time as he whipped in a majestic cross with his second touch in Bolton colours, headed home by Zac Ashworth, in what was a rare moment of quality and clarity in a frenetic 90 minutes of football.

Collins very nearly bagged his first goal too, a deflected effort desperately clawed away by Liam Roberts from under his own crossbar in the dying stages of the game.

The size of the fee – the biggest paid by Wanderers in a decade – was always going to beg the question: When does he start, and who does he replace? But in a game where both Dion Charles and Victor Adeboyejo failed to cover themselves in glory, the answer might arrive quicker than anyone could have expected.

The starting front two of Charles and Adeboyejo have been heavily relied upon this season, producing 25 goals between them.

Charles, who has supplied the lion’s share with 17, should have plenty of goodwill left in the tank despite not finding the back of the net in a league match since December 29.

He has single-handedly kept the goal column ticking over at times in recent seasons but there is little doubt that over the last month-or-so his form has faltered.

Adeboyejo has had to work hard to find his consistency, and indeed grace from the fanbase at times, and his situation is complicated further by continued rumours of interest from Turkey, whose transfer window will remain open until Friday.

Dropping one or both players would be considered a big statement – yet Collins and Bodvarsson’s entrance from the bench against Barnsley was arguably the game-changing moment for a Wanderers side who had struggled to play into their front men for most of the afternoon.

The general mood around the Toughsheet was a curious one. Whether expectancy was heightened by deadline day business, or the month-long wait for a Saturday league game had just put folk on tenterhooks, it was hard to tell. Or perhaps it was the powder puff defending four minutes in to gift an opening goal that got everything off on the wrong foot?

There had been a lot of talk about a ‘changed Barnsley’ playing more possession football but when a long throw was flicked on by Adam Phillips and finished by Dervante Cole, all that was missing from the well-executed gameplan of last season’s play-off conquerors was a damp red towel.

The Tykes were just that. Ex-Wanderers academy star Luca Connell wasn’t quite at his rambunctious best after a bout of illness, but still a menace, and Luton Town loanee John McAtee kicked lumps out of Josh Sheehan for 40 minutes before referee Leigh Doughty finally found his yellow card.

Barnsley pressed high, disrupted, niggled, all in the attempt to create the chaos on which their strong side thrives. Bolton managed to control the first half in methodical fashion, cutting through a couple of times on the right side with the energetic Kyle Dempsey and Josh Dacres-Cogley, but lacked bodies in the penalty box at the crucial points the ball was played across goal.

The first half had by no means been a disaster – indeed you fancied Bolton to get back into it once they had found the right final pass. This was all despite a huge chance pulled wide by Phillips which should really have made it two at the interval.

At the start of the second half, however, everything seemed to unravel.

Barnsley continued to press from goal kicks, squeezing every morsel of space they could from the pitch. Wanderers had coped well enough in the first half, albeit neither Charles or Adeboyejo were enjoying their best afternoon in possession, but for 10 minutes the seams of their gameplan were picked apart to the audible displeasure of the home supporters.

Time after time they lost the ball in their own half, even the uber-reliable Josh Sheehan joining in. Barnsley got a few clear sights of Nathan Baxter’s goal – the keeper making one fine save from Cole – and that profligacy would ultimately cost them two points.

It was a frantic spell of the match that was clearly still playing on Ian Evatt’s mind as he came up to speak with the press afterwards. But did the negative reaction come from Bolton continually losing possession, or did they do so because nervousness and negativity around the stadium had bled on to the pitch?

It is a chicken and egg situation that is impossible to answer, just as Evatt’s protest that fans should simply “back us” was never going to hold up in court.

Conventional wisdom suggests that Bolton should have reacted to Barnsley’s pressing by changing their approach to something more direct. Some termed it rather more prosaically, one fella screaming from in front of the press box for Sheehan to “just put your bloody foot through it!”

“Football is a simple game made complicated by people who should know better,” Bill Shankly once said. And who are we to argue with him?

If Wanderers were going to play up to their front men quicker then they had to give them a chance. Punting balls at the 5ft 8ins Dion Charles was only likely to make Josh Earl’s already fine afternoon a bit better.

The Whites failed to use Adeboyejo too. The Nigerian has got an air of physicality about his game and seemed desperate to impress against his old club – but the supply line was scattergun and neither player kept the ball anything like enough to cause Barnsley to slow their chase.

Bolton tried to pick their way through to the obvious displeasure of pockets of the supporters, and suddenly we were caught in a self-perpetuating cycle of missed passes and groans that threatened to ruin any chance of a recovery.

Baxter ushered his team-mates forward at one stage, eschewing the short ball to a centre-half, and got the biggest cheer of the day.

Evatt was not pleased – but it did spur him into action. Moments later he brought on Bodvarsson and Collins. The ball suddenly started to stick and with Dempsey still doing everything he could to link things up, things quickly improved.

A seven-pass move from Baxter to Ashworth provided an equalising goal, Collins taking two touches in the move, including a sumptuous cross. Suddenly, the scowl was gone from the manager’s face.

Ashworth, who had missed the deciding penalty at Blackpool, deserved his moment. He has recovered from frustrating run of injuries to show why Bolton brought him in from West Brom during the summer.

Collins nearly stole the show from him with that late deflected strike but the evidence suggests he will get his share of headlines in the end.

The big question now is, will he get centre stage at Cambridge United on Tuesday night? And who will be playing alongside him?