Bolton Wanderers 3, Bristol City 2: Brave Robins can't hold on
Brave Bristol City were unable to hold on as a Chris Eagles-inspired Bolton came from behind to win in fine style at the Reebok Stadium.
Steven Davies fired the Robins in front after three minutes and added a second from the penalty spot after Martyn Woolford was tripped by Tim Ream midway through the first half.
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Bolton Wanderers 3-2 Bristol City
But Eagles rammed in a free kick on the half hour to spark a fight-back and then turned provider as Jay Spearing and Martin Petrov netted second-half goals.
Liverpool starlet Spearing equalised on 62 minutes and Bulgarian international Petrov fired a dramatic winner to complete a remarkable comeback eight minutes from time.
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City pressed for an equaliser during the final stages, only for Sam Baldock to send his header wide of a gaping target.
Robins manager Derek McInnes urged his players not to respect Premier League reputations and to impose themselves on the game – and they took him at his word.
Adopting a positive approach from the very first whistle, City took the lead inside three minutes to add to managerless Bolton's problems.
Albert Adomah found Stephen Pearson from a short corner and the Scot curled an enticing cross beyond the white-shirted defenders to the unmarked Steven Davies, who pivoted acrobatically to beat Hungarian keeper Adam Bogdan with a brilliant volley from 15 yards out.
Low on confidence following a poor start to the season and the sacking of manager Owen Coyle, Bolton's players and fans were clearly stunned. Already frustrated, home supporters vented their ire on winger Chris Eagles, who elected to shoot harmless over when Kevin Davies was better placed inside the penalty area.
He did rather better with a free kick that required Cole Skuse to head clear under pressure from Matt Mills, but City were coping quite comfortably with the home side's physicality.
In fact, it came as little surprise when the visitors doubled their lead on 20 minutes. Skuse won the ball in the centre of midfield and fed Adomah, whose pass looked to have put Marty Woolford in the clear until the winger was upended by centre-back Tim Ream inside the 18 yard box.
Referee Mark Brown immediately pointed to the penalty spot and, after a delay caused by fruitless Lancastrian protests, Davies sent Bogdan the wrong way to register his second goal of the game and his fourth since joining City from Derby in the summer.
Bolton's body language suggested they urgently needed something to go their way and an opportunity presented itself on the half hour, Louis Carey bringing down Eagles on the edge of City's 18 yard box.
Eagles dusted himself down and drilled the free kick beyond Tom Heaton and into the bottom right-hand corner of the net to put the Trotters back in the game.
City came under sustained pressure as Wanderers forced a series of free kicks and corners, but survived until half time without further mishap.
Bolton set a high tempo at the start of the second period and danger-man Eagles was off target with an audacious attempt from range, while Mark Davies ought to have done better when meeting a Martin Petrov cross with a low shot that flew wide.
City still posed a threat on the counter-attack and Davies was unable to control his shot after being set-up by Adomah.
At the other end, Heaton dropped to his right to hold Jay Spearing's low drive and then kept out Petrov's first-time effort from a narrow angle as the home side built up a head of steam.
Heaton was again called into action, making a superb reaction save to deny Ben Afobe after another Eagles free kick caused mayhem at the heart of City's defence.
Bolton were threatening an equaliser and it arrived in the 62nd minute, City failing to track Spearing's run and the Liverpool midfielder accepting a neat through ball from Eagles to beat Heaton from 12 yards.
Deployed in a more central and advanced role in the second half, Eagles was causing the Robins all manner of problems and another mazy run culminated in Heaton making a smart save down at his left post.
Heaton made another vital intervention moments later, tipping Petrov's thunderous drive behind for a corner.
City appeared to have weathered the storm, only to concede again eight minutes from time. On as a substitute, South Korea international Chung-Yong Lee found Eagles, who played a delightful pass into the path of Petrov. Clean through and with only Heaton to beat, the Bulgarian steadied himself before shooting into the bottom corner to send the home crowd into uproar.
Bolton (4-4-2): Bogdan; Mears, Mills, Ream, Warnock; Eagles, M Davies, Spearing, Petrov (Pratley 86); Afobe (Lee 80), K Davies.
City (4-4-2): Heaton; Foster, Carey, McManus, Fontaine; Adomah, Skuse, Pearson, Woolford (Pitman 86); Davies (Taylor 63), Baldock.
Referee: Mark Brown (East Yorkshire)
Attendance: 17,259
Comments
by BinRelegated
Tuesday, October 23 2012, 11:56AM
“Bob,
First, you are not fooling anyone with the "i havent posted since the summer" line. Everyone knows you have numerous accounts under guises such as Ashton Alf, Royal Joe and probably some others and the fact you keep referring to me as "walter mitty" (which highlghts what a relic you are ) shows that you are simply judging by your own, very low, standards!!!
Im glad you agree with me that SL's cash is locked up shares and of course, he has already put large sums into the club since he has been at the helm (and since then). Also, if you kept up to date with the ongoings at the club you would have seen McInnes state that funds have always been available so blaming SL is wide of the mark (not unusual for you granted).
and he has been supporting the manager as he always does like when the legendary Gary Johnson got us to the Championship and kept us there.
If you want change, then i suggest you first change your whole attitude and stop slating the chairman, the manager, the players and anyone else connected with the club, including fellow supporters and get behind the team in a positive and passionate manner!!!!!!”
by Marksy
Monday, October 22 2012, 5:48PM
“It's getting nasty on here, must be something to do with the city losing all the time! If we get beat tomorrow it's going to be real bad!”
by dolman_bob
Monday, October 22 2012, 5:28PM
“keep your knickers on walter. i just giving you my honest assessment of what i saw at the reebok.
unlike you i don't wear blinkers when I am watching city, so i am much better placed than the likes of you to give a full, frank and honest assessment of the action, which is completely free from your repulsive vanity, prejudice and misplaced favouritism.
you really must learn not to lose your cool and totally embarrassed yourself with your pathetic churlish comments, you plum.
for your information, lansdown isn't running a small local sandwich shop, he is the major shareholder of a huge FT100 financial company. his personal wealth is reported to be around the £700m mark. i made the point that stock has risen approx 60% in the last quarter. i will leave you to work out how that has increased his own personal wealth.
of course the bulk of this sum is locked away in shares, but he can draw a dividend and he is capable of selling a very small proportion of those shares to finance an exciting mission towards premier league football.
with support levels dwindling and the mcinnes record starting to resembling that of the previous incumbent something has to change and my opinion is the investment must increase, we saw how the likes of buldock and davies have strengthened our front line. repeat that in defence and maybe we can avoid another relegation fight.”
by THEIRONS
Monday, October 22 2012, 4:51PM
“Monty 109-A new clown in town , when i post a comment it is open for it to pulled to pieces by facts . I was merely giving my take on how i see events at Ashton . So instead of coming up with a alternative vision of City's future , all you have to offer is silly remarks about the way i dress,what is wrong with my Russet Cords, and my Lime Green shirt it goes perfectly with my Pink tank top.As for me always being right, you flatterer you,. but very astute. As for my residing in Bath ,usually twice a day ,so much better than a common shower.
One criticism though what ever Charles Bridge is ,the one thing you could not accuse him of is being right.”
by BinRelegated
Monday, October 22 2012, 2:46PM
“Bob, stop pretending you went to Bolton!
If you did, you would have seen that McManus was probably our best player (certainly best defender) and if hadnt been for him and Heaton we would have probably conceded 6!
BTW, the Hargeaves Lansdown share price, associated with the business of which he is part, and is an asset and doesnt mean its in his pocket to shell out on Bristol City so the likes of you can continually **** him off you plank!”
by Vonner
Monday, October 22 2012, 1:48PM
“It has been the same story for several games now - able to score for fun but unable to defend. Two of those Bolton goals were very soft. So why are we not trying to shore it up with whatever personnel can do this job? If we can keep a clean sheet or even just let in one we will on average be picking up at least a point.
City are in dire need of somebody to REALLY stand up and take charge on the pitch. Fonts is not a leader but I can't offer a name of somebody who is and who looks like they want to die for the cause and hate losing. Hartley, Docherty - where is somebody who looks like they actually truly care?”
by dolman_bob
Monday, October 22 2012, 1:03PM
“great comments from monty_109.
lansdown is minted and the sums being banded around is comparatively speaking not big money for one of the richest chairman in the championship. take a look at hargreaves lansdown share price over the last year. mainly between £4 - £5 per share, but since july it has jumped up, is currently trading at £7.50 and still rising. that jump alone in stock would far outweigh the £30m+ he has put into bristol city over the past five year, it would wipe that debt off in the blink of an eye.
poor old binrlegated, once again sounding very tired and like a stuck record. spent weeks harping on about mcmanus, then when he comes in we let in three goals again. i didn;t see much leadership from mcmanus at the reebok on saturday. very poor.
like i said in my last post on this message board in the summer, we should never have re signed carey. we needed (and still need) a quality rcb and a top notch midfield general to replace the great paul hartley. and for gods sake give paul anderson a run out on the left wing.”
by Preder
Monday, October 22 2012, 12:00PM
“Is history repeating itself.
When Shaun Taylor finished all we did was spend millions on strikers and Zilch on defenders.
We got relegated.
In the meantime Elliott paired with Skuse in CM and the return of Cunningham is our best hope.”
by BinRelegated
Monday, October 22 2012, 10:21AM
“Sadly, what i predicted a few weeks back is now coming true. I said that if the defene wasnt sorted then the lack of confidence would flow through the team and this is whats happening.
I admire McInnes for showing faith in the players we had at the club but he has left it too late in my opinion and again we are suffering. The defence problem has spanned 4 managers now so lets hope he can sort it out. I noticed the problem years back and even cited Hudson (before he joined Cardiff in 2009) and Evatt (before he joined Blackpool in 2007) and signings that we should have made.
He need to put McManus and Wilson in the middle for starters.
Football is a funny game, a win and c lean sheet against Burnely and this will all be forgotton.
Preder, i agree, McManus is standard in this league but he looks quality for us as most City fans have forgotton was a good defender looks like it has been that long. At least McManus brings leadership to the table which was have sorely missed. Dont get frustrated about red arrows, there are some "funny uns" on here.
Re Lansdown, he has invested plenty in this club, more than anyone else and to start slating him is taunamont to suicide, absurd. He fortune isnt soley based on cash in the bank, alot of it is assests relating to his business.
Keep the faith Reds and the tide will turn!”
by DaveinSA
Monday, October 22 2012, 8:20AM
“@MONTY_109
I'm loving your rant mate, fabulous!
You say some things that are common sense. People won't come and watch a rubbish team. They get fed every hour of every day by SKY, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City....These teams win, nearly every clucking match. How dull to support them, you go to a home game and you win...two weeks later the same thing...oh and perish the thought that you might draw against Beyer Leverkusen away in the Champions League, what a failure...
BUT, people love to support winning teams.
I was a Liverpool fan until the age of 8 (they won everything), when my cousin and uncle took me to the gate for the first time. I was hooked. City had no cash and were languishing at the bottom of div 4 and there was 8000 there. Never mattered. I have been a city fan for 30 yrs. now!
City will get bigger gates if they are successful, I think when they were promoted from div 3 to div 2 (or the championship or whatever silly name they gave it then) average gates were over 15000. Bolton got 17000 on saturday.”