Bolton Wanderers of England youngster, Oladapo Afolayan got one of the goals that helped The Trotters gain promotion to the English League, as the lad on loan from West Ham United capped a brilliant season with a personal thrill, megasportsarena.com reports.
Afolayan was one among a quartet, as Bolton secured the third automatic promotion spot with goals from the Nigerian-born youngster, Antoni Sarcevic, Eoin Doyle and Lloyd Isgrove earned them victory over mid-table Crawley, who got a late consolation through Davide Rodari.
They all combined well to ensure Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha’s former club earned promotion back to the third-tier of English football at the first time try, with a 4-1 win against Crawley.
Ian Evatt’s men travelled to West Sussex knowing that they would return to the third tier if fourth-placed Morecambe failed to better their result, and could also be champions if they won, Cheltenham lost with a 13-goal swing and Cambridge failed to win.
With Cheltenham and Cambridge also both winning on the evening in League Two, Wanderers continued their upward swing as well, having won 14 of their 20 games prior to the trip south, having been sat 19th as recently as February.
They made the ideal start from their first attack when skipper Antoni Sarcevic notched his eighth goal of the season in superb style, running on to a pass from George Thomason and cutting inside before firing into the roof of the net.
It got better for the Trotters after 26 minutes when Afolayan doubled the lead with his first goal for the club at the far post after being set up by Gethin Jones, but Eoin Doyle had an effort ruled out for off-side, before Crawley’s problems increased when captain George Francomb collected a second yellow card and was sent off 11 minutes before the break.
Doyle, who scored a hat-trick for Swindon on his previous visit to Crawley, made it 3-0 with a cool finish four minutes after the break, his 19th goal of the season, after Afolayan and Sarcevic had combined.
Afolayan then headed over when well placed from a ball from Sarcevic as Wanderers continued to threaten, but Lloyd Isgrove put the seal on Bolton’s day of celebration by cashing in on a slip by Tony Craig to run through and score a fourth after 77 minutes.
