WANDERERS fans saluted “one of their own” once again as Julian Darby signed off as interim manager with a 100 per cent record.

Climbing to seventh spot, level on points with Leyton Orient, Bolton were forced to work hard by Kevin Nolan’s Northampton, and didn’t look completely secure until Aaron Collins had fired them into a 3-1 lead seven minutes before the end.

George Thomason’s early goal was cancelled out quickly by Liam Shaw – and the Whites got a bit of good fortune on the stroke of half time when the same man fired spectacularly into his own net.

Wanderers saw the second half our professionally to make sure their new boss – which by the bookmakers’ reckoning will be Steven Schumacher – will start life this weekend with a chance to move immediately into the top six.

Wanderers made two changes from the side that beat Huddersfield Town at the weekend, bringing Josh Sheehan back into midfield for Klaidi Lolos and Jordi Osei-Tutu for Josh Dacres-Cogley at wing-back.

Nolan got warm applause as he stepped back on to the pitch and within a couple of minutes might well have been getting flashbacks from his last visit, as Newcastle’s United captain, in 2010. That ended in a thumping 5-1 defeat with two goals apiece for Kev Davies and Johan Elmander either side of one for Chung-Yong Lee.

Bolton exploded out of the blocks and got themselves ahead with a clever corner routine – Sheehan finding Aaron Morley at the near post and his first time pass rifled into the back of the net by Thomason.

No team in League One have conceded more goals inside the first 15 minutes than the Cobblers and their 10th of the season looked like being the start of a long night.

But to their credit the visitors stabilised quickly and got themselves level quickly. Bolton will feel they should have halted the progress of Mitch Pinnock on the left but when his cutback was helped on by Will Hondermarck, Liam Shaw was there to score his first goal for the club.

He would score a better one on the stroke of half time – but had less reason to celebrate.

Darby had suggested that Northampton would be a tough nut to crack, and so it proved for most of the first half. When given a chance to sit back and protect the penalty box, Nolan’s side looked comfortable. But when Bolton managed to hit on transition, they got chances.

Drawing the visitors out to find that extra space was the hard part, and by the midway point in the half there were a few familiar murmurs echoing around the stadium, which looked decidedly more populated than it had seven days earlier.

Aaron Morley looked Bolton’s best chance to make something happen and he provided the key passes to send Jordi Osei-Tutu and Adeboyejo in on goal on a couple of occasions, only for defenders to get back and cover.

Nik Tzanev pulled off a sensational save to deny Thomason a second goal, driven on the volley from the edge of the box.

Gethin Jones also had a big penalty shout turned down when Shaw left him in a heap close to goal. Referee Sunny Singh Gil only gave a corner, however, and booked Sheehan for his protests.

It would be wrong to say that Northampton sat back completely and they too looked to capitalise on the break. And Bolton’s defending – which was never quite in the same high category as it was at Huddersfield - gave them some encouragement.

As the interval approached the Whites were starting to put more pressure on, though, and they went back ahead when Shaw tried to hack Collins’ cross away but managed to find the top corner.

Adeboyejo continued his return to prominence, starting back to back games in the league for only the fourth time this season. He got little change in the air from Max Dyche – whose dad Shaun was in the stands watching – but he rarely gave his markers a moment to settle in the hour he featured, and created a chance out of nothing early in the second half with a piece of trickery on the edge of the box.

Darby changed the shape of his attack on the hour, bringing Joel Randall on for Adeboyejo, and also handing a debut to Newcastle United defender Alex Murphy, coming on at left wing-back in place of Szabi Schon.

Though Bolton had more of the ball than they had at Huddersfield, there was still something decidedly ‘Un-Evatt’ about it all. Moments of languid possession were few and far between and we were treated to at least two long bouts of midfield head tennis, which was practically unheard of in the past couple of years.

The gameplan was still stripped down and simplified but as the clock ticked into the final quarter there were also moments where you looked for more quality on the ball than the Whites were offering. They needed to find the moment of composure to put the points well beyond Northampton’s reach and it looked like we may be in for a nervous finale.

Collins thought he had changed that, turning his eyes to the sky when Tzanev somehow managed to keep out his header from close range with 10 minutes left.

But then from the very next attack, Wanderers found the moment of composure the second half had been screaming out for. Sub Randall played the ball out to Colins on the left, and he tore a route to goal, beating Jack Baldwin to curl a delightful right-footed shot into the net for his 15th goal of the campaign.

Another former Wanderer, Tom Eaves, went close to making it interesting in the last few minutes, heading inches wide. And having wobbled earlier in the game, Bolton’s defending in the latter stages was much more secure, George Johnston pulling off one excellent block on the edge of the box to deny Tariq Fosu.

Fans serenaded Darby as he led the players on a walk to all four corners of the ground, deserving every bit of adulation for restoring a lost connection in the last seven days.