ANOTHER week of high drama and emotion at Wanderers concluded with a victory as calm and comprehensive as you’d like.

If Ian Evatt and his team needed anything from 90 minutes against Cambridge it was a positive result with no complications, and that is exactly what they got.

All around the pitch there were encouraging signs of a team in control – Paris Maghoma back to his teasing best, Aaron Collins off the mark with an immaculate finish, Eoin Toal commanding at the back and George Thomason giving another mature display at the heart of midfield.

But the battle scars from an intense and draining week were visible, not on the pitch, but in the dugout. Evatt had himself been put through the wringer with defeats to Blackpool and Wigan and one wonders just what toll that has taken on a young manager who has lived and breathed his job for getting on to four years.

Not since Sam Allardyce have Bolton had a manager who has enjoyed such longevity, and Evatt is now creeping up on the total number of games – 230 – achieved by the great Ian Greaves, Big Sam’s mentor.

John Coleman's departure as Accrington Stanley manager, confirmed on Sunday, makes him the ninth longest-serving manager in the Football League. 

In common with both his illustrious predecessors, Evatt shares a stubborn streak in how he sees the game being played. Indeed, it is hard to see how you would survive for any great length of time in this business unless you such courage of your footballing convictions.

Greaves, who brought the glory days back to Bolton in the late seventies, never had the distractions of social media and cared little about any public criticism he got from non-footballing folk, referring to them, lovingly of course, as “civilians”. That attitude extended to the press pack, too.

Big Sam developed a rhino-thick skin as he brought together Bolton’s Premier League dream, then extended the fantasy into Europe. Nowadays it seems fashionable to knock Allardyce for his supposed philosophy flaws but there were times in his seven-and-a-half-year reign that Bolton supporters were way ahead of that particular game.

Evatt assembled Wanderers, effectively from scratch, when they had dropped into the League Two. Each of his three seasons – promotion, mid-table in League One, beaten play-off semi-finalists, has shown progression. His team has spent just two of the last 23 game weeks outside the top three in pursuit of automatic promotion to the Championship.

Football offers little grace, however, and after a challenging February in which injuries, suspensions and other misfortunes have slowed his side, Evatt and his players took a real savaging in the past seven days.

Unlike Greaves and – to a large extent Allardyce – Evatt has had to conduct his business against the backdrop of a volatile social media world. And while publicly he claims to ignore whatever online reactions surround his team, to do so entirely in this day and age would be impossible.

Whether fair or not, over-reaction or otherwise, the response to results at Blackpool and Wigan Athletic cut the manager deep. Evatt had looked and sounded jaded at his press conference on Thursday and whilst there was an added air of relief on his face following a straightforward return to winning ways on Saturday evening, it is very clear he had taken the whole business very personally indeed.

Evatt has been through the rough times before, faced questions about his future, doubts over tactics, signings, decisions – all the usual managerial grist. Rarely, though, has it seemed to hit him this hard.

Automatic promotion is the aim for Bolton. It has been the aim for Evatt since he left the touchline last May at Oakwell. And though the Whites have made it tougher for themselves by dropping points recently it remains pleasingly within their own hands.

Whether they succeed or fail in that chase, or must endure another stomach-churning year in the play-offs, you do wonder how the manager will feel in the summer and whether the adage about being ‘careful what you wish for’ will be applicable for certain sections of the fanbase?

If only the rest of the season could run as smoothy as victory against Cambridge. Just as dominant in possession as they had been against Wigan a few days before, Wanderers also found more invention and incision in the final third, well, eventually.

Josh Dacres-Cogley’s glaring miss early on wasn’t exactly what 20,000 nervous home supporters needed. The wing-back managed to crash a shot against the bar from close range after connecting with Collins’ low cross at the far post.

Collins then missed another chance at close quarters, failing to sort his feet once Nat Ogbeta’s ball had fallen to him in front of keeper Jack Stevens.

The visitors asked few questions in the first half, Sulley Kaikai’s deflected shot the nearest they got to a meaningful shot on goal. But just as concerns started to creep in that Bolton’s control of the game was one again going to prove fruitless, Thomason buried a low shot into the bottom corner.

Josh Brophy did have a fleeting chance to make a game of it, screwing a shot wide soon after the second half began, but Wanderers flexed their muscles again and with Paris Maghoma looking in the mood, a second goal looked a foregone conclusion.

The Brentford loanee aimed a cheeky barb at the online “haters” after the final whistle, suggesting Evatt wasn’t the only one whose mental wellbeing had suffered in the days after the DW.

His pass for Collins – another player seemingly in need of a pick me up – was top drawer, and the January signing reciprocated with a delicate dink over Stevens to double the lead, his first Bolton goal.

The Welshman somersaulted in front of the North Stand, just about pulling off a successful landing. The acrobatic celebration may well be symbolic of his short time at Bolton thus far but fingers crossed he gets plenty more chances to get higher scores on the judges’ cards.

Wanderers might have driven home their advantage and scored more, with goal difference now a realistic consideration at the top of the table. There was merit, however, in maintaining their vice-like grip on possession and ensuring that Cambridge got no sniff of a late comeback.

Randell Williams came off the bench late on, offering another symbolic shoot of recovery after missing several game through injury. Dion Charles and Nathan Baxter are not that far behind as the roadmap to that final day showdown with Peterborough United starts to unfold and develop before our eyes.

Tuesday’s game at Barnsley has the air of make-or-break about it. Any positive result at Oakwell will send the Whites above Derby into second spot and stave off an in-form Tykes for the time being.

But pleasure and pain are fleeting senses in the heat of a promotion chase. There will be difficult days ahead for Evatt, his players and us civilians. How everyone handles them will probably define the outcome of a season that is far from through.