Bolton Wanderers 1-0 Sunderland AFC: Immediate Reaction

It was an awful game, an ugly game, an abomination on the eyes but the manner of the result doesn’t matter in the slightest given the importance of the result. A win over relegation rivals, Sunderland coupled with every other result going our way gives a boost to our survival chances. There is now 4 points between us and the drop zone.

The line up was met with a great deal of scepticism which later seemed totally founded. Aaron Wilbraham started up top for the Whites, Andrew Taylor replaced Antonee Robinson, Filipe Morais came in for Mark Little and Jem Karacan came in for Josh Vela.

Wanderers started brightly but the quality was severely lacking. Wilbraham in particular seemed ineffective. Wanderers opened their account courtesy of a Morias free kick (35 mins) with the final touch being claimed by Clough and Wilbraham. From there Wanderers had a good spell on top but the game quickly descended in to pure crap. Beevers had a ‘mare as did Wheater with both giving away pointless corners and letting Sunderland have free chances. If it wasn’t for poor finishing, Sunderland could have had a couple. With that said Wanderers also should have had more than their one goal. A wonder save from Camp stopped a point blank, Adam Le Fondre header and Jem Karacan hit the bar. The end of the game saw Bolton desperately clinging on but cling on they did even through 6 minutes of injury time.

It was an important day at the bottom of the table making a result even more imperative. Elsewhere Barnsley, Birmingham and Hull all lost with Reading drawing with Forest. This puts the Whites 4 points clear of the relegation zone and brings other teams ever closer to the scrap.

This game should also put to bed the Wilbraham experiment. The big man was ineffectual, even winning headers and should be reserved for the bench at most. Jem karacan more than filled Josh Vela’s shoes in some good news with a performance worthy of a ‘man of the match’ nomination. The best performance in my opinion was Ben Alnwick, who kept Wanderers winning in the face of a faltering defence.

In a final insight of note, I don’t want to see Zach Clough stuck out on either side again. His game doesn’t suit it at all as was more than proven at Forest. Stick him behind ALF and Ameobi and watch the goals come for all of them.