Wigan Athletic 1 – 3 Bolton Wanderers
Revitalised Wanderers break loosing streak
- Saturday, October 15, 2011
- Venue: The DW Stadium
- Attendance: 17,261
- Referee: Mike Dean
- Nigel Reo-Coker [4]
- Darren Pratley [23]
- Mohamed Diame [40]
- Franco Di Santo [45+1]
- David Ngog [45+3]
- Paul Robinson [63]
- Dedryck Boyata [67]
- Maynor Figueroa [71]
- Gary Caldwell [73]
- Kevin Davies (penalty miss) [73]
- Antolin Alcaraz [79]
- Martin Petrov [82]
- Chris Eagles [90+2]
Bolton Wanderers lifted themselves off the bottom with a deserved win away to Wigan. Loosing every Premier match since the first game of the season had left Bolton languishing at the bottom of the league. A two week break after the arduous defeats gave manager Owen Coyle a chance to imbue the squad with confidence and enthusiasm.
Reo-Coker and David Ngog ensured that The Wanderers were ahead at half-time — Diame’s super equaliser seemingly a minor setback in Owen Coyle’s plans. Chris Eagles ended a nail-biting second half in which Wigan fought to find another equaliser. The fans’ nerves could should have been settled with less than 20 minutes to go but Ali Al-Habsi saved his former team-mate’s effort from the penalty spot.
A drama-filled match which served as a morale booster for players and fans alike.
After Bolton’s victory Owen Coyle said;
“I thought we were terrific from the first whistle to the last. We scored three goals and, if the truth be told, we could have had five or six.
“It was never going to be easy – Wigan have a good squad and players like Di Santo, Rodallega and Moses have real quality. We had to make sure we played to our maximum and we did that.
“We trained very well over the last two weeks, coming off a difficult set of fixtures. We made the most of the international break, working at a high intensity in training and all I asked of the players before today’s game was to replicate that in the match.”
Full match reports can be found at BBC Sport, the official BWFC website or ESPN’s SoccerNet.
