Luke Steele was given his opportunity against Bolton because Martin O’Neill wanted to assess his goalkeeping options at Nottingham Forest, ahead of the summer.
The Reds boss confirmed Steele’s inclusion was very much motivated by the desire to see what the former Bristol City man was capable of, on the final day of the season.
Steele kept his focus to help Forest keep a third consecutive clean sheet - amid a generally quiet game, during which he was only forced to make two meaningful saves.
But, after seeing Costel Pantilimon impress against QPR, O’Neill confirmed the decision to change the man between the posts was not a reflection on the big Romanian’s form.
“It was very much a case of us just wanting to look at our goalkeeping options,” said O’Neill.
“Pantilimon saved the penalty at QPR, to keep our run going.
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“From that point of view, it helped us to get the away victory that we were looking for.
“But I also just wanted to see Luke play. He played against Sheffield Wednesday and we just wanted to have another look at him.”
Pantilimon has kept 15 Championship clean sheets this season, which is four more than Dorus de Vries kept, when he won the player of the season award in 2015/16.
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The game against Bolton also saw Tobias Figueiredo return to the squad for the first time since December, after recovering from a blood clot.
O’Neill said he would have liked to have got him out onto the pitch, off the subs bench - and would have brought him on, had Forest managed to secure a two-goal lead.
“We got him on to the bench, yes. If we had got another goal in the game, I would have liked to have got him on the pitch, just to get a feel of things again,” said O’Neill.
“He has not played that much since his injury, beyond an under-23 game.
“He has trained with us, but I would have been concerned about putting him on for more than a half.”
