Bolton’s hopes of a seventh successive win were dashed late on, but at least the unbeaten run continued after they managed a 1-1 draw away to Bradford City.
At one stage it looked like a third successive Saturday with a late winner, as Nathan Delfouneso had gave us the lead in the 83rd minute. However, Bolton couldn’t hold on in injury time as substitute Danny Rowe equalised to keep up the Bantams’ own unbeaten run.
If we had won today, there may have been a genuine argument of eyeing an automatic promotion spot. We’re still only six points off that with 13 games to go, but with other teams having games in hand, the playoff spots, which we still occupy, are probably the more realistic target at the moment.
It’s a result a lot of fans may have taken at the start of the day, although when you concede that late you’d hope we would have seen it out, and it leaves you gutted most probably. It was a scrappy goal to concede in the end, although the actual finish from Rowe was decent.
Up until then, Bolton were really good in the second half. The first 45 minutes, not so much. We were still better than Bradford, but good chances were at a premium for both sides, the flow of the game probably not helped by the over-officious Leigh Doughty. After that, we looked more of the Bolton we’ve seen recently, creating far more. There was a point around the 65 minute mark where we were really knocking on the door. Eoin Doyle, Ricardo Santos and Dapo Afolayan all had chances and Bradford were just trying to hold out.
Around ten minutes from time, we did get the breakthrough. Doyle’s curling shot took a final touch off Delfouneso, apparently anyway, and we were in touch of 7-in-a-row. That woke Bradford up a touch though, with Matt Gilks forced into a fantastic save from Anthony O’Connor, and Gilks was beaten in the 93rd minute by Rowe’s finish.
It was a good performance against a fellow in-form side, while that equaliser was a sickener, we were the better side for the most part, we’re still unbeaten, and we played a side who also probably expected to try and get a result they way they’ve been going. It’s just a case of moving onto another big game now as we host Cambridge in midweek.