Steven Schumacher praised the goal threat of Aaron Collins as the Bristol Rovers old boy gave Bolton a priceless 1-0 victory in the race for the Sky Bet League One play-offs.
Collins’ 18th goal of the season also keeps Rovers anchored at the wrong end of the table after losing for the first time on Trotters’ territory in 36 years.
“If you can get over 20 goals as a centre forward that’s a brilliant target,” said Bolton manager Schumacher.
“‘Collo’ has been really good and always looks a goal threat. He drifts around sometimes in games which is okay when we ask him to play as a 10.
“Today we asked him to play as a number nine and be central. Thankfully he was in the right place.
“But his strike partner (John McAtee) created the goal with a brilliant bit of movement. Hopefully his goal scoring can continue.”
Schumacher admitted Bolton were not at their best but, needing victory to bounce back into the top six, he did not complain.
He added: “It was a slowish sort of game. But the two most important things were we kept a clean sheet and we found one moment of quality to get the goal we wanted.”
Another positive for Bolton was the return of midfielder Kyle Dempsey after a knee injury for his first game since October 22. However, the downside was a hamstring issue for defender Will Forrester.
Rovers remain 20th, three points outside the drop zone. Head coach Inigo Calderon said: “It was a game of two halves.
“In the first, we were better with the control of the game even though we didn’t have too much possession.
“In the second, we started to struggle a bit more. Physically and mentally we struggled to keep the discipline to do things right.
“They weren’t coming massively against us. It was just a bad situation and we couldn’t keep the ball.
“It might be difficult to accept or understand I am seeing positive things. But it is true.
“Away from home, we have been really bad but this was a good game. We played against a top-six team that has quality and for the majority of the game we controlled it.
“It is not enough because we didn’t get any points. But I keep seeing the team improving in difficult times.”
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