Bolton Wanderers 3-0 Fleetwood Town - match review

 Refereeing in ruins 

 Bolton cruise home but at what cost

A great performance by Bolton Wanderers has been overshadowed by a horrific performance from the referee, both Charles and Evatt were sent off for what seemed like nothing. Fleetwood couldn't capitalise on the 10-men Bolton, without a manager but with Wigan on the horizon, that has become and even bigger game. 

Statistical review 

As expected, Bolton Wanderers dominated the ball but not by as big of a margin as in their other games. Bolton finished the first half with 57% of possession but finished the game with 51% of possession, this was likely due the red card and attempting to keep the clean sheet. Victor Adeboyejo was given man of the match and rightly so, the hattrick scorer was immense throughout the game and sealed his third goal in just the 37th minute. He scored all of his 3 shots on target and was on the end of excellent Bolton patterns of play. However, this performance wasn't as impressive statistically as previous games - Bolton had just 8 shots in the game, 7 of them coming in the first half, the red card came in the 68th minute so not all of the lack of shots can be blamed on this. 

The thing that impressed me most in this game was Paris Maghoma's positional understanding, for the majority of the game Bolton formed a 3-1-6 structure in build up and in attack. Maghoma would occupy the right half space of the pitch and this was how Adeboyejo's goal happened. Playing in the right half space allowed Charles to roam from his position and take up the best positions, Maghoma also got a good chance of his own because of his positioning. Adeboyejo and Charles were occupying the central spaces, when they both moved to get into space they left an opening for Maghoma. He drifted into this space and took it down well but couldn't get the shot off.

Overall review

The first half was a very impressive display for Bolton Wanderers, the football they were playing was beautiful and you could see the philosophies of Ian Evatt. Evatt made two changes to the starting line-up and brought in Paris Maghoma and George Thomason to replace Aaron Morley and Josh Sheehan, both Thomason and Maghoma were very good and didn't look out of place. Ricardo Santos was incredibly dominant and almost nothing got past him, Iredale was also good. Nathan Baxter showed who he was yesterday, not only a good ball-playing goalkeeper but a great shot stopper as well, he made 6 saves and 2 high claims and deserved a clean sheet. 

The first goal was very good team play, Gethin Jones had the ball on the halfway line and played a pass into the feet of Dion Charles. He turned with his first touch and played Paris Maghoma through, past the defensive line. Maghoma played the ball across the box into Adeboyejo's feet and he scored a very good first time shot to score his first of the game. The second goal came from a brilliant ball from the halfway line from Ricardo Santos. Dacres Cogley made a great run from out to in and found the space in the box, Santos picked him out with an unreal pass. Cogley passed it across the box for Adeboyejo to turn home to make it 2-0. The third goal was equally impressive and another assist for Josh Dacres Cogley, Gethin Joness drove through the pitch and played it down the line to Dacres Cogley. He beat his man with a brilliant first touch and then dribbled towards the by-line and with little pressure was able to pick out Adeboyejo, on the penalty spot, to convert for 3-0 and his hattrick. The Fleetwood goal came from a corner and unfortunatley it was poor defending from the team and the Fleetwood player had a free header to make it 3-1. There was a case that Baxter was impeded but it wasn't enough. 

The red cards

The first red card was for star-player Dion Charles. First, it is important to note that Omochore (Fleetwood, number 20) had been pushing people over without consequence and he floored Iredale on the halfway line, without punishment. Their goalkeeper claimed the ball and Charles gave him a small tug back, nothing really, the goalkeeper then proceded to kick out and trip up Dion Charles. Obviously, it was all very petty and it could be argued that both players should've received the same punishment. The referee then proceeds to stop play and book Dion Charles and send him off, the only explanation is descent but judging by Evatt's reaction nothing happened. Evatt then asked the fourth official why he had been sent off and the referee was called over to send Evatt off. It was incredibly unclear what happened and we will probably never know but I would encourage Bolton to appeal these decisions with Wigan coming up.