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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
John McDougall

The table which Bolton Wanderers topped along with Premier League bound Norwich City and Watford

Bolton Wanderers will be a League One club next season after clinching automatic promotion with a win tally which merited a place in the top three.

Ian Evatt's Whites won exactly half of their 46 matches over the course of the League Two season to claim a place in the third tier of English football next season along with Cheltenham Town and Cambridge United.

Wanderers confirmed their place with a 4-1 win on the road against Crawley Town on the final day of the campaign, which proved to be the club's biggest win of the season.

Goals from Antoni Sarcevic and Oladapo Afolayan put the Whites ahead before goals from Eoin Doyle and Lloyd Isgrove ensured Wanderers went up in style.

The style of football implemented by Evatt at the University of Bolton Stadium has seen a high energy playing style based on possession and counterpressing high up the pitch being imposed at Wanderers and helped ensure promotion back to the third tier.

And a common winning goal margin for Wanderers in their promotion winning campaign was by one on a total of 17 occasions.

The most recent of these came on the road against Morecambe when Ben Jackson bagged what proved to be the winner towards the end of April.

It gives Wanderers the joint highest tally of wins this season in the top four tiers of English football along with Norwich City and Watford, who both picked up 17 victories by a single goal margin too on their way to promotion to the Premier League.

Morecambe, Forest Green Rovers and Barnsley have picked up 15 wins by a single goal, while several clubs have secured three points by this margin on 13 occasions.

These include Premier League side Everton, League One duo Lincoln City and Blackpool, as well as several League Two teams including Harrogate Town, Tranmere Rovers, Newport County, and the two sides which were promoted automatically along with Bolton - Cheltenham and Cambridge.

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