Chesterfield favourite 'extremely proud' after leading Bolton Wanderers to trophy success

The Trotters hammered fellow League One promotion hopefuls Plymouth Argyle 4-0 in the final on Sunday.

Evatt, 41, made more than 200 appearances for Chesterfield across two spells, winning the League Two title in 2014. He also had a short spell as caretaker manager in 2018.

The Wembley win means he adds another success to his CV after leading Barrow to the National League title in 2020 before taking Bolton up from League Two the following season. And there could still be room for more celebrations this year with the Trotters fifth in League One.

“I’m extremely proud of the way the players performed on the big stage and I’m extremely proud of this football club,” Evatt said in an interview with Bolton’s official club website.

“This is hopefully the first of many. Days like this are addictive. We want more of these days.

"We’ve built a connection with the fanbase, with the town, with the community. Bolton Wanderers is the heartbeat of Bolton. You could feel that connection with the 35,000 fans that travelled.

“We owed them a good day like this. I’m so happy that we managed to do it and perform the way we did.”

Evatt's men raced into a 2-0 lead after just 10 minutes before scoring two more goals after half-time.

“I still think we should have scored more!” Evatt added. “Plymouth are an excellent team with an excellent young manager and we knew it was going to be a tough game.

“But we also knew the game would suit us on a big pitch, a lovely pitch and big spaces to play into.

“I have felt that the players have re-energised over the last couple of weeks and I really felt a performance like this was on the cards. I’m really delighted they managed to execute the game-plan the way they did.”