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.”
Greece 0-3 England: Stunning Jones debut goal helps Three Lions go top
Curtis Jones’ brilliant backheel on his debut helped England win 3-0 against Greece to move top of Group B2 in the Nations League.
Lee Carsley’s men exacted revenge in Athens having been defeated 2-1 by Greece at Wembley. The result sees England overtake their opponents on goal difference with 12 points each.
England got off the mark quickly as Noni Madueke burst down the right wing, beating four players to the byline, before cutting back for Ollie Watkins to slot home from close range in the seventh minute.
Jordan Pickford was called into action to keep the scores level, first tipping over Kostas Tsimikas’ stinging shot before denying Fotis Ioannidis' effort from range after the break.
While Jude Bellingham hit the left post with a header from a corner not long into the second half, England would have to wait until the 77th minute to celebrate their second.
Bellingham was the instigator once more as he latched on to a first-time pass from debutant Morgan Rogers to charge in from the left and drive a low shot onto the left post.
The ball rebounded onto the trailing leg of the diving Odysseas Vlachodimos, who could not scramble back in time to prevent an own goal.
Jones completed the rout six minutes later as he latched onto Morgan Gibbs-White’s cross from the right to send an audacious backheel past Vlachodimos.
Data Debrief: Debut delight for Jones
Jones is the first Liverpool player to score on his England debut since Sammy Lee back in November 1982, also in an away game against Greece.
He is the ninth Jones to play for England, after Alf, Bill, Harry, Herbert, Mick, Phil, Rob and William. The only surname to provide more England players is Smith (20).
There were also debuts for Lewis Hall and Morgan Rogers. The latter became the 63rd player to make their England debut while with Aston Villa. It’s the first time they've had two in the same year (Ezri Konsa and Rogers) since 2007 (Scott Carson and Ashley Young).
At 20 years and 67 days, Hall became the youngest Newcastle United player to appear for England in a competitive international since Jock Rutherford in April 1904 against Scotland in a Home Nations match (19 years and 180 days).
Belgium 0-1 Italy: Azzurri advance to Nations League quarter-finals
Italy sealed their place in the Nations League quarter-finals and ended Belgium's hopes of advancing with a 1-0 victory in Brussels, courtesy of Sandro Tonali's goal.
Tonali – who recently returned to action after serving a 10-month ban for breaching betting rules – scored his first senior international goal in the 11th minute.
He fired home after Giovanni Di Lorenzo's cutback deflected off Zeno Debast and fell kindly into his path at close range.
Luciano Spalletti's visitors continued to enjoy the better of the play in the first half, with Nicolo Rovella going close when he fired high and wide in the 25th minute.
Mateo Retegui was denied by Koen Casteels when one-on-one after half-time, while Gianluigi Donnarumma was called into action at the other end by Debast and Lois Openda.
Belgium's best chance for an equaliser fell to defender Wout Faes seven minutes from time, but he headed against the post when left unmarked in the centre of the box, leaving the Red Devils locked in a battle with Israel to avoid finishing bottom of Group A2.
Data Debrief: Azzurri flying on the road
Italy have now won three competitive away matches in a row within the same season, beating France, Israel and Belgium.
They last achieved that feat between June and November 2019, winning five in a row in qualifying for Euro 2020.
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
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