Bolton boss Ian Evatt was full of admiration for his players after they moved to second in League One with a 2-0 win at Fleetwood.
In swirling winds and driving rain, Evatt hailed his side’s application as they dominated their hosts and took the points with second-half goals by Dion Charles and Victor Adeboyejo.
And the manager could not disguise his delight after Wanderers completed 2023 with three straight wins.
“I’m really proud of the players tonight,” he said. “That was a really professional, clinical performance in awful conditions.
“We always look to the past to judge our journey and how far we’ve come. I think in years gone by we wouldn’t have performed as we did tonight in these conditions.
“We didn’t panic in the first half when we had all the pressure, all the shots and all the domination.
“The goals didn’t go in but at half-time we just spoke about being calm and executing what we’re capable of in the second half and we went out and did that and we kept them at arm’s length in awful conditions, so that’s a proper away performance.
“We’re not always going to have it our own way but what we’ve managed to do is find different ways to win football matches. These conditions tonight are as bad as it gets for football and the way we want to play but I was so proud of the way we went about our business.
“We know what we need to do on nights like these, we know when to build and play and be expansive and we also know when to utilise the front lads, play into good areas and play for territory.
“There’s no right or wrong way to win football matches, it’s all about winning and that’s what we’ve done.”
Fleetwood manager Lee Johnson admitted his side are struggling at present, having not won since mid-November, but he insists they can drag themselves away from trouble in the second half of the season.
“It was a tough game,” he said. “We knew the quality that Bolton have and they’re a well established side that are up there. They’ve had time to build, it’s a good club, an ex-Premier League club, but we felt at half-time that we had a good chance.
“We’d defended ever so well in treacherous conditions and the spirit was good, we’re not affecting boxes anywhere near enough, we know that, and we have to because obviously wins are very important.
“But we came out for the second half believing conditions were in our favour. You’ve got to give credit to Bolton, but in the end we were masters of our own downfall again, with individual errors.
“And that feels a bit like the story of the calendar year for us and if we want to get out of trouble they’re the bits that we have to stop.
“I’m certainly up for the fight. We’ve got 23 games now and we’re going to need a number of wins so the first thing we need to do is stop the individual errors.”
St. Louis City v Sporting Kansas City: This rivalry is important to MLS, says Hackworth
John Hackworth believes St. Louis City's derby with Sporting Kansas City is key to MLS as they resume their rivalry on Saturday.
The last two meetings between the sides have finished level, with both ending in dramatic fashion.
St. Louis City come into the latest edition having lost just one of their last six outings, though that was their last home match.
They sit 13th in the Eastern Conference, level on points with Sporting above them, and Hackworth is now keen to build on the momentum from their win over San Jose Earthquakes last Saturday.
"We talked about trying to finish these last five games with a lot of momentum, showing our fans what we were capable of," Hackworth said.
"We knew we had to go on the road in one of these three games and be successful, and now we just need to build on that.
"This rivalry is really important to our league. It's two teams who are going to go after it and play by their principles, leaving it all out there to see what happens - two dramatic draws set us up for this contest."
Meanwhile, Kansas City have won just one of their last five matches in all competitions and suffered a 3-1 defeat to Los Angeles FC in the US Open Cup final on Wednesday.
Head coach Peter Vermes was left disappointed by the result but believes there are positives to take from the performance.
"I give the guys a lot of credit. I'm very proud of the effort that the guys put into that game," Vermes said.
"It never feels good to lose. But I also think that the group did themselves proud in the way they performed. We had good responses in that game, but in the end, we fell short."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
St. Louis City – Cedric Teuchert
Cedric Teuchert scored in the fourth minute in each of St. Louis City's last two matches.
Teuchert is one of six players to score more than one goal in the opening four minutes of matches this season and the second to do so in consecutive matches (Mikael Uhre).
Sporting Kansas City – Tim Melia
Both goals Sporting Kansas City conceded in their loss to Minnesota United on Saturday came in the final 30 minutes.
Sporting have allowed 31 goals in the final 30 minutes of matches this season, only San Jose (33) has allowed more, and Tim Melia will be hoping his concentration levels can improve ahead of Saturday's match.
MATCH PREDICTION: ST. LOUIS CITY WIN
St. Louis City have lost only two of their last 10 matches in all competitions (W4 D4), including picking up a 2-1 win at San Jose on Saturday. St. Louis have not won two straight matches in all competitions since wins over Minnesota United and Sporting Kansas City last September.
Sporting have lost 10 of their last 12 regular-season away matches, including a 2-0 loss in Seattle in their last league road match. Only league-worst San Jose (11) have lost more away matches this season than Sporting (10).
However, Kansas City are unbeaten in four straight meetings with St. Louis (W2 D2) after St. Louis won two of the first three encounters. This will be the eighth meeting between St. Louis and Kansas City, totaling 10.4 % (8/77) of all of St. Louis' games in all competitions up to this point.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
St. Louis City – 43.4%
Draw – 26.7%
Sporting Kansas City – 29.9%
Rooney lauds 'excellent' Plymouth defence in Luton victory
Wayne Rooney credited Plymouth Argyle's defensive showing as crucial in their 3-1 triumph over Luton Town at Home Park on Friday.
Plymouth took the lead in the eighth minute courtesy of Rami Al Hajj, with the Swede notching his first Pilgrims goal with a curled finish beyond Thomas Kaminski.
The hosts found themselves two goals in front 20 minutes from time after substitute Ibrahim Cissoko shifted the ball onto his left foot before firing a stunning effort into the far corner.
Plymouth's joy was short-lived, though, as Victor Moses chested down Alfie Doughty's cross to the back post before striking the ball beyond Daniel Grimshaw less than two minutes later.
The Hatters continued to pile on the pressure in search of an equaliser but were undone by a moment of individual brilliance from Cissoko, who danced his way into the area and saw his first effort blocked, but finished the rebound to move Plymouth up to 13th in the Championship.
Rooney has now guided his side to back-to-back home victories for the first time this season, and said his side had to adapt to Luton's relentless attacking to emerge victorious.
"I thought it was a good performance for different reasons," Rooney said.
"I thought first half we were good at times, controlled the tempo of the game and Luton tried to press us, and I think when we showed composure and played through the press we caused them problems.
"Second half we were a little bit sloppy with the ball and gave it away in dangerous areas at times, but I thought defensively our back four, and in particular the two centre-backs, were excellent.
"Luton are very good at set-pieces and I thought we were brilliant defending them and showed great character and desire to go and head the ball, and then the attacking players get all the praise when they score the goals."
For Rob Edwards, a run of back-to-back victories ended on the South Coast, with his side lacking a clinical edge in front of goal.
The Hatters registered 16 shots during the contest with an expected goals (xG) total of 1.07, but only two of his side's efforts were on target.
"Credit to the opposition, at both ends of the pitch they were better - they were more ruthless at one end and defended better at the other," Edwards said.
"I think we got into their final third 40-odd times, twice as often as they did, but we didn't make their goalkeeper work enough.
"We weren't clinical enough at one and end then didn't defend well enough at the other -it's not a good recipe to win a football match.
"It's really frustrating to come away losing a game talking about both ends of the pitch."
Paris Saint-Germain 3-1 Rennes: Barcola shines ahead of Arsenal clash
Bradley Barcola continued his scoring streak for Paris Saint-Germain as his brace helped the Ligue 1 leaders to a 3-1 victory over Rennes at the Parc des Princes.
The hosts were almost handed the perfect start when Marquinhos turned home Achraf Hakimi's corner, only for the goal to be chalked off by VAR after the Brazilian finished in an offside position.
But the Parisiens opened the scoring in the 30th minute through their star man as Barcola curled a fine effort beyond Steve Mandanda into the far corner after Christopher Wooh gave the ball away cheaply to Joao Neves.
Luis Enrique's side were unable to increase their advantage before the break but got the goal their performance merited shortly after the interval when Lee Kang-In headed into an empty net following Barcola's effort striking the post.
The result was then put beyond doubt 10 minutes later as a free-flowing move saw Hakimi's dangerous delivery to the back post turned home by Barcola.
Rennes would get themselves on the scoresheet from the penalty spot after Beraldo handled Hans Hateboer's goal-bound header, with Arnaud Kalimuendo stepping up from 12 yards and sending Matvey Safonov the wrong way.
Data Debrief: Barcola breaking Mbappe mould
Barcola netted his second brace of the season on Friday, taking his tally to six goals in six games so far, two more than he managed for the whole of last season (four goals in 26 appearances).
The 22-year-old also ended the contest with more shots on target (four), and touches in the opposition box (13) than any other PSG player, registering a team-high expected goals (xG) tally of 0.92 to the hosts' 2.72 total.
Dembele also impressed for Luis Enrique's side. He now has 11 assists since the start of last season in Ligue 1, at least two more than any other player over that period.
The France international has also been involved in a goal in three consecutive league games for the second time in 32 appearances for PSG (four from November to December in 2023).
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