Port Vale 0-3 Bolton Wanderers: The Big Match Verdict

They tell you not to read too much into friendlies, but they say nothing about the portents supplied by pre-match music, and the words being growled by Burslem’s own Lemmy in Motorhead’s timeless anthem were striking a power chord.

Wanderers continue to play a game of poker in the last month of the transfer window, holding their nerve under pressure to secure the last few signings that Ian Evatt believes can turn his team from nearly-men to outright winners.

They have already pushed up the ante. If reports in Hungary are to be believed, an investment of circa £800,000 was made in wing-back Szabi Schön, who made his debut at Vale Park with just one training session under his belt and having played in the Conference League on Wednesday night.

That makes the one-time Ajax youth player the most expensive player bought by the club in more than a decade, surpassing the fee paid to Bristol Rovers for Aaron Collins in January. High stakes indeed for a third-tier club, and the chances are the spending has not finished yet.

Evatt remains locked in a battle to sign a new number 10, refusing to go beyond his valuation for targets like Luton Town’s John McAtee or Brest’s Karamoko Dembele; with other high rollers sitting around the table, that strategy is a brave one indeed.

Even the way Wanderers have tweaked their tactics this summer has ramped up the risk element. If Wembley heaped pressure on the manager to evolve his side tactically, then Evatt has leaned unashamedly into his attacking instincts – this team now boasting three forward players looking to hunt down the ball higher up the pitch and more aggressively than ever before.

“Double up or quit, double stake or split.”

New boy Schön looks like he will fit right in with this heavy metal approach. The diminutive Hungarian has played a lot of his career on the left wing and looked to run his full-back at every opportunity but it was his defensive work that caught the eye, chasing back to help out Jack Iredale, clattering into challenges with satisfying bite and winning a surprising amount in the air.

While true, the quality of his final ball was a touch inconsistent on the day, his presence as an outlet on the left gave Bolton an attacking balance they have struggled for since returning in the summer.

Eoin Toal, Aaron Collins and George Johnston at Port Vale (Image: Newsquest)

To this point, Wanderers have leaned heavily on Josh Dacres-Cogley to provide width, and his impressive run during pre-season continued with a fine cross to create the opening goal for Aaron Collins just two minutes in.

Vale keeper Connor Ripley made a fine save at close range from Scott Arfield to temporarily prevent Bolton from doubling their lead, something Victor Adeboyejo eventually achieved with a scrambled effort towards the end of the first half.

League Two Vale have made a cluster of new signings this summer after relegation, and Darren Moore’s side struggled for continuity until after half time when Ben Garrity flashed a shot just wide and big Swiss striker Lorent Tolaj started to make a mark.

Bolton absorbed the pressure and revved their passing machine back into life – George Thomason, Josh Sheehan and Arfield revelling in the one-touch fun of it all. Whether it can work in the November mud at Edgeley Park, who knows, but in shirt-sleeve weather in Staffordshire, some of the patterns were great to watch.

General scene from Wanderers' 3-0 win at Port Vale (Image: Newsquest)

Adeboyejo had played point in the Bolton attack and has probably done enough to start at Leyton Orient next week. The former Barnsley man was one of several players who had last season disrupted by injury, never quite getting back to his best in the final few months, but he has been one of Bolton’s brightest players of pre-season and caused Vale no end of issues.

Dion Charles replaced Adeboyejo for the last half an hour as his bid for full fitness continued. It was a pleasing sight indeed to see the Northern Ireland international sprint off the shoulder of marker Jesse Debrah and cooly slip the ball under Ripley to score the third.

You win some, lose some, it’s all the same in pre-season, or something to that effect. But the reality is that Wanderers needed to sign off on a positive note as they now begin their build-up to Saturday evening in East London.

Evatt knows full well that last season’s disappointment still lingers, if not in his own dressing room, then certainly on the terraces. And the importance of a good start to the season cannot be underestimated, lest the negativity be allowed to creep in again.

The Bolton boss knows he still has some work to do on the transfer front. Though the signing of Schön looks, at first glance at least, to be a move in the right direction, Wanderers need to prove they can compete outside of the ‘frees and loans’ market and get deals done. Evatt also must ensure his whole squad are on board with a spikier, more forceful brand of football than he has employed in his four years at the helm, which has not been an easy task with so many minor injuries racking up over the last few weeks.

Just a quarter of clubs who have ever been beaten in the play-off final bounce back to win promotion by any means the following year. Those are the type of odds Bolton will have to beat if they are to return to the Championship, and plenty would wish to see them fail.

But he favourites tag has never sat well with Evatt’s group, they have often needed something to push against, some difficulty to overcome, and that is why it would be unwise to write them off.

This is a team with focus. And where better to prove that than Leyton Orient, scene of that gloomy January defeat full of wasteful finishing, the first of several New Year body blows that eventually built towards the biggest heartbreak of all.

The time for bluffing is over, it’s time for Wanderers to lay some cards on the table.