Match Report: Shrewsbury Town 3 Bolton Wanderers 3

Bolton Wanderers went to Greenhous Meadow for a preseason friendly with Shrewsbury Town. In a few weeks they will make the same trip for a competitive match in the Capitol One Cup. After the loss at Rotherham United earlier this week, Dougie Freedman put out a slightly stronger lineup, with only four holdovers who started at New York Stadium.

Zat Knight returned to the starting XI. Adam Bogdan was once again in goal with Alex Baptiste, David Wheater, and Marc Tierney alongside Knight. Freedman switched to a five-man midfield with Rob Hall and Chris Eagles on the wings. After Chung-Yong Lee's international commitments this summer it's not surprising that these two are seeing the majority of play at the moment. Keith Andrews played from the start again, which is not surprising a she works his way back from injury. Medo Kamara, and Darren Pratley got the call in the middle of the park. Marvin Sordell was alone up top, as new signee Conor Wilkinson was uninvolved this time out.

Wanderers created several chances early on, so it wa sno surprise when they got the first goal. Rob Hall dodged a few tackles, shades of the goal against Rotherham, and crossed to Marvin Sordell, who finished well from the edge of the area. The 19-year-old winger is looking like a good bit of business for Dougie, although some might ask where this level of performance was against Blackpool in May. A lot of youngsters with pace can look good against lower division sides in the preseason.

Bolton was in the lead for 12 minutes before Shrewsbury leveled things up through John Marsden. Jon Taylor crossed from the right and Bolton's defense once again watched helplessly. Keep in mind, most think this will be the back four against Burnley on the opening day of the Championship season.

Pratley was not disheartened by the goal though. He played a nice combination with Chris Eagles, who was able to beat his man and the keeper with a low effort from 10 yards. Bolton finally looked to be in control 10 minutes later when Marvin Sordell got his second with a stunning strike from 25 yards out. Chris Weale may have been (slightly) at fault for Eagles goal but there was nothing he could do on Bolton's third. Wanderers had a 3-1 halftime lead, and despite some shoddy defending, were dominating a lower division side in the manner most of us would expect.

This continued for the first 20 minutes of the second half. Then Shrewsbury pulled a goal back. Paul Parry scored on a volley from the edge of the area. Some people are blaming Adam Bogdan, but he had no chance of stopping this one. The error came much earlier, before Parry even hit the shot. A fair amount of space is needed to even attempt a full volley, and for some reason Bolton defenders saw fit to allow such space.

Then, the the predictable conclusion. With about ten minutes left in the match, Zat Knight gave the ball away to Akwasi Asante in his own half, letting the Birmingham City loanee go one-on-one with Adam Bogdan. It's hard to blame a keeper in this situation, and I don't here, but some are better than others in one-on-one scenarios.

Dougie brought on Tim Ream (for Andrews), Chris Lester (for Pratley) and Craig Davies (for Sordell), but no one was expecting a comeback.

I know it is only our first two preseason friendlies,but I just can't write it off, mainly because it is all the same problems we have been dealing with for the last three years. Five goals conceded to lower division opponents is just not good enough, preseason or not.