Bolton Wanderers crashed out of the EFL Trophy last night with a 2-0 defeat away to Accrington Stanley.
Goals at either end of the match did the damage. Offrande Zanzala, who struck twice in the 7-1 thrashing two and a half weeks ago, scored the opening goal in the 10th minute, while Colby Bishop, who also scored in the recent league meeting, finished the job late on after a solo run from Jordan Clark, who incidentally provided the assist for the opener.
Both teams juggled things a little bit on a cold, wet night. Accrington made many changes from their weekend game, while Bolton rested the main goalscoring source in Daryl Murphy, and Keith Hill experimenting with players in certain positions. It told in the first half, where we didn’t have a shot on target. Thibaud Verlinden was introduced in the second half, and we were better for it, with us pushing for an equaliser, but any hopes of progression went once that second goal was scored.
There won’t be too much of a reaction to us going out of this competition, and rightly so, but it is a shame we couldn’t have done better in this and even reached Wembley or win a trophy. But now the sole focus for the remainder of this season becomes the league, and our hopes of staying in League One, starting with Peterborough on Saturday.