IAN Evatt hailed match-winner Klaidi Lolos for bouncing back so quickly from a nightmare start at Wanderers.

The former Crawley man suffered a serious ankle injury on his debut at Leyton Orient after a horror challenge from home defender Dan Happe.

Lolos got back ahead of schedule and made the most of his next opportunity, coming off the bench against Peterborough United to score a 98th minute winner at the Toughsheet Stadium to earn his new club a memorable win.

Evatt said his summer signing had pushed hard to start against Posh after an impressive week on the training ground.

“I’m pleased for Klaidi,” he said. “He was injured through no fault of his own, and he has worked really hard to get back fit, quicker than we expected.

“He has needed two or three weeks to get fully up to speed but this week we have seen some really positive things, where he was in pre-season. He was disappointed not to be in the team, but we had a conversation yesterday (Friday) and I said that if he trained like that, stayed engaged, he could come on and affect the game, you never know what might happen.

“And he won us the game in the last second, which is testament to how hard he worked to come back from injury.”

Evatt was also delighted with the atmosphere generated in the second half, as Wanderers attacked continuously looking to break Peterborough’s resolve.

“Last second winners are why we love this game,” he said. “The players played their part in it with the performance but the way the fans stayed with us and kept on supporting us, they could feel we were playing well, deserved more and deserved the win. They pushed us forward and those late victories are really why we love this game.

“But I think it’s also a celebration of togetherness. When you are together as a collective good feeling you can do really good things. I think that’s a shining example of what can happen when the players do their bit and the fans do their bit. We can all celebrate at the end.”

Wanderers kept their third clean sheet of the season against a side that had scored more goals than anyone else in League One before kick-off, and more than any other club in the Football League during 2024.

Eoin Toal returned to the back three successfully and former Posh defender Ricardo Santos produced a man of the match performance but Evatt praised the way his whole team worked to keep the visiting side at bay.

“I thought the back three, the way they contained their front three or four was great,” he said.

“We had two (midfield) pivots in there against their 10 but sometimes to balance that off with pressure against their sixes is hard. I thought we got the balance right there, and to get a clean sheet against Peterborough is a difficult thing to do, so I am delighted.”