Bolton Match Zone

Bolton 1-0 Fleetwood – Job Done, Just About

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Bolton did the main two things that would have been wanted last night – progression to the last 16 of the EFL Trophy, and although there was a moment or two when players went down, everyone made it through the night unscathed.

Only a single goal saw us through to the next round, with Kieran Lee’s first half goal seeing us past Fleetwood, now putting us three hurdles away from Wembley. The draw for the last 16 will take place on Saturday afternoon, where will be drawn against another Northern section side in a tie to be played during the first week in January.

1-0 was probably a fair scoreline. As expected, we didn’t make too many changes, with only Ricardo Santos the real notable exception and initially a strong starting line-up. There seemed to be an experimentation for a while with a back three as well, with Liam Gordon on the right, Declan John often available on the left, and Will Aimson, Alex Baptiste and George Johnston from right to left across the back three. We had control over a youthful Fleetwood side in the first half, but it didn’t lead to too many chances. On a night where there were less than 2000 in attendance, most of the noise seemed reserved for berating Billy Crellin, whose loan spell with us last season didn’t go well.

Wanderers may well have had control, but a lot of the ball ended up being passed across the back three, but ten minutes before half time we managed to get it into our forward players, Dapo Afolayan found Eoin Doyle who set up the advancing Kieran Lee to score the decisive goal.

After the break, there were changes made. Five subs can now be made in this competition and Ian Evatt did just that, giving time to all his outfield options, which included playing time for youngsters Mitchell Henry, Matthew Tweedley and Arran Pettifer. Perhaps it’s understandable that the game swung a bit, with Fleetwood having chances to equalise, Chris Conn-Clarke with a great hit from distance wasn’t far away, while Joel Dixon saved from Cian Hayes. With seven minutes of stoppage time to negotiate, it was a bit of a relief to be honest once the win was sealed.

There’s now a welcome weekend off. Well, welcome might be pushing it, being in the FA Cup would have been nice, but it might do us the world of good ahead of next Tuesday’s trip to Highbury in the league.

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