If you gave me a point before the game yesterday, I’d have happily settled and felt that was a huge positive.
Give me a point as they needlessly concede a corner with 30 seconds left, and I’d have almost cried in your arms. Funny how perspective changes, isn’t it? Yesterday, our first point at the Toughsheet Stadium felt like tough sheet (it’s all in the pronunciation) to take. Let’s make no mistake: they’re one of the division’s best sides, full of talent and, in my opinion, destined for the top six this season.
This was a good point, but at full time, it felt like a consolation prize.
After the game, I stumbled rather foolishly onto social media out of morbid curiosity, and two comments struck me that I have to address before I move on. The first compared Michael Skubala to Gareth Southgate, and I don’t think that’s quite the slur it was intended to be. Imagine being compared to the most successful England manager, in terms of tournament finishes, since 1966. We know that our squad, while talented, is nowhere near the level of Bolton, yet we went there with a game plan, executed it and got something, and the manager gets likened to the last England manager to be knighted. Oops.
The other thing that made me laugh was discussing how we can’t hold onto a lead under Skubala. Yes, 2-0 against Reading, 3-1 against Harrogate, 3-2 against Plymouth and 1-0 against Northampton: all games where we scored first, all games we led for an hour or more, and all games we held on to win. Once, we let slip a 1-0 lead, and it is knives out.
Agendas do last over the summer, it appears.
The big news pre-match was the team selection. City went with three at the back, Tendayi Darikwa on the left and Tom Hamer on the right. It is worth noting that when writing up the game, it is evidence of that burning need for a left back. It is actually evidence of a need for another full back on top of the left back, but I doubt we will get that. Why? Because with Ten and Tom on either flank, we did not have an option later in the game. Bolton had pace and ability on their bench, and our wide defenders were sure to have a tough time. If we had options, maybe we would have made changes, fresh legs in wide areas, but we couldn’t, and that is one of the reasons the second half went as it did.
Ben House came in as well, and I was hoping for some Ben Housery on Ethan Erhahon, who was there to be tested. He started in the middle of the park and I was sure he would be booked, but if we could get him on a booking, it would dampen his game. That booking came relatively early, and he sloped off after 45 minutes, not exactly loving his first opportunity to line up against former teammates.
It felt like we had come to be tight, compact and hard to break down, but also hoping to put pressure on them in forward areas. James Collins, with plenty of minutes in his legs, sat this one out, while recent signing Ivan Varfolomeev was on the bench but unlikely to feature. It left Freddie Draper to lead the line, and he did so very well.
So well, in fact, that his strike inside 19 seconds was the fastest goal from the start of a League One game since Paul Mullin’s strike for Wrexham against Rotherham in October 2024. It came with a bit of controversy: Fred won the ball by bumping Erhahon off it, and then made his way into the area to nod home Reeco’s cross. It was Fred’s third goal in six appearances, and when you consider he only scored five all last season, that is great going.
The early goal unsettled Bolton, and without sounding too bullish, I thought the rest of the half was fairly even. They should have levelled on eight minutes, Simons and Randall both testing the excellent George Wickens and finding him hard to beat. At the other end, Tom Hamer had our best chance, bringing a save from their keeper, but things were fairly even.
The natives were not happy at all. Whether the foul on Erhahon started it or not, they laid into the referee on multiple occasions, and I can see why. We were 1-0 up and in no rush at all to get on with things. Tom Hamer would wander from one side of the field to the other to take a big throw, and it broke the game down nicely from our perspective. If it is 0-0 we maybe speed things up a bit, but it is game management. I recall praising Ian Evatt’s Bolton for the way they combined game management with ability and finesse, and we are moving closer to that, albeit with a bit more of a blunt edge.
The narrative of the first half was one of City doing what was needed. Bolton did not pour forward: they had five shots, two on target, with 1.19 xG. However, four of those attempts, worth 1.06 xG, all came in that single moment on eight minutes. Aside from an ambitious 28th-minute overhead kick by Mason Burstow, they did not threaten us seriously.
They have got some top players though. Amario Cozier-Duberry was a real danger, and Max Conway, who we reportedly chased over the summer, looked sharp. Burstow, another player linked with us at one stage, impressed too, while Randall also caught the eye. Make no mistake, this squad is not a million miles off the likes of Huddersfield at all, so to go in 1-0 and largely unscathed at half time was a real flex.
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