WANDERERS made it back-to-back league wins for the first time since early April, surviving an ugly 90 minutes to take the spoils at Crawley.

Kyle Dempsey got the Whites off to the perfect start with a fourth-minute goal from Josh Sheehan’s corner but it wasn’t until sub John McAtee netted a second 12 minutes before the end that Ian Evatt’s side could breathe easy.

Dempsey was the only change in the side that beat Reading last weekend, replacing Jay Matete, and their midweek exerts against Arsenal just 64 hours earlier might have to be used in mitigation when assessing a truly bitty performance.

Crawley’s last goalless draw in the league was all the way back in April 2023, and within a couple of minutes you could see why.

Wanderers started with a good tempo and Victor Adeboyejo brought a save out of Jojo Wollacott with virtually his first touch. The corner – a clearly-rehearsed effort from the training ground – was drilled to the near post by Josh Sheehan and driven with venom into the net by Dempsey.

One should have quickly turned into two. Dempsey got wide after another high turnover and white shirts were queueing up to score from close range, nobody able to pull the trigger.

Bolton seemed happy to give up possession, almost to the degree that they did on Wednesday night at Arsenal. As a result, Crawley were able to slowly build up a feeling of pressure without actually testing Nathan Baxter’s goal.

Whites old boy Ronan Darcy had a shot blocked on the edge of the box, Cameron Bragg also arrowed one just past the post.

The most potent attacks were coming on the break for the visitors, however, and particularly when Dion Charles was able to isolate his marker, Toby Mullarkey. The Northern Ireland international clearly fancied his chances and twice out-paced the Crawley defence, only to see his left-footed efforts saved, or deflected wide.

There was an aggravated feel about the game from the early moments, one that referee Jacob Miles struggled to quell. His inconsistent decision making angered both sets of fans, and Ian Evatt’s protests also earned him a yellow card.

On the stroke of half time, moments after Mullarkey had finally put a shot on target for the Reds, Dempsey came within inches of scoring a second. Josh Dacres-Cogley pulled a good ball back from the right, and he lashed a left-footed effort off the underside of the bar, the ball eventually bouncing clear to safety and the half-time whistle.

The boisterousness continued into second half, the quality of football suffering badly under the weight of the foul count. Crawley’s players were mysteriously absent from the referee’s book for more than an hour, however, which was quite hard to fathom.

For the last half an hour it looked like a case of ‘next goal wins’ and had Crawley managed to seriously test Baxter then you would have fancied them for more.

Wanderers were backed by more than 1,000 travelling fans, and they had not seen much goalmouth action until Ricardo Santos’s header was tipped over the bar with about 20 minutes to go.

They certainly enjoyed what came next, however, as with the game finely balanced, Szabi Schon scampered down the left on a loose ball that looked suspiciously like it had gone out of play. The Hungarian played to the whistle, and his pass eventually made its way via Aaron Collins to McAtee to crash home from 12 yards.

Collins and McAtee had been on the pitch a matter of nine minutes, picking up from where they had left off against Arsenal in midweek.

Referee Miles finally booked a home player in the 87th minute, sparking a sarcastic wave of chants from the away end about him “finding his cards”.

Wanderers saw out the game without further incident, claiming three points with a most un-Bolton performance.