Match Report: Bolton Wanderers 1-2 Derby County

Bolton Wanderers slipped to a home defeat and a place in the relegation zone following Saturday’s disappointing 2-1 loss against a well-organised and expensively-assembled Derby County side.

Former Bury striker David Nugent scored twice in the opening 20 minutes, which had home fans fearing the worst. Far superior to Wanderers, Derby attacked at will, and it was a surprise to all that they failed to trouble the scorers further throughout the game despite their obvious superiority.

This was the 14th defeat in last 20 home games in this level, though comfort can be found in Wanderers managing to keep Derby out. Can you imagine a start like that under Neil Lennon? Jesus Christ.

Wanderers struck back in injury time with a goal from Gary Madine who again had a good game. A couple of half-hearted penalty claims against Madine also went by the wayside as our often-used long field hoof was easily dealt with by their experienced backline.

The sight of £7m man Tom Lawrence making his Derby debut from the bench only further highlighted the gulf between the two teams.

It seems to me that our somewhat one-dimensional and agricultural style is being easily thwarted, at least from the evidence of games against Leeds United and Derby County. Fingers crossed that Phil Parkinson has an answer.

Bolton manager Phil Parkinson:

"You can talk about Derby's movement but the goals were soft from our point of view. Both we should have avoided and we gave ourselves a mountain to climb against a good side.

"The first one came from a throw-in and if you look at the footage and think in five seconds it was going to end up in the back of our net you wouldn't believe it.

"Simple things like that have got to be done better."

Derby manager Gary Rowett:

"Nugent is a brilliant all-round player for us in the Championship - his finishes were great.

"To score two goals in the way we did was great but we should have come in four or five-nil up.

"The fact we didn't made the game edgy in the second half. We started the second half a bit sloppily for five or 10 minutes and made a few poor decisions.

"That invited an opportunity for Bolton and their crowd to get a bit of momentum."

Quotes via http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40907801