Bolton Wanderers 1 v 2 Burnley (Pre-Season Friendly)
Bolton Wanderers new manager Phil Parkinson welcomed Premier League Burnley to the Macron Stadium this evening as they continued their pre-season campaign.
Sean Dyche was forced into making four changes from saturday’s win at Bradford City with both Ashley Barnes and Lukas Jutkiewicz ruled out through injury. Whilst Fredrik Ulvestad and David Jones both reported in ill this morning and were advised to stay away from the squad to stop any illness spreading around the squad.
Burnley started the stronger of the two sides with Scott Arfield having two efforts at goal in the opening four minutes. His first effort was on two minutes following a long ball out of defence by James Tarkowski, his pass found Arfield but his shot was saved by Ben Amos.
From the resulting corner, the ball was cleared to the edge of the area, were Arfield took aim before firing a deflected shot, which Ben Amos gathered after scrambling across his box to gather the ball.
Bolton’s Lawrie Wilson meanwhile came within inches of putting the Whites in front after Gary Madine lofted a dangerous ball across the face of the Clarets goal, the ball eluded Tom Heaton, but the Bolton full-back couldn’t react quickly enough and missed his opportunity to poke into an open net.
On fifteen minutes, Andre Gray ran at the Wanderers defence turning David Wheater inside out, which lead to the experience centre-back upended Gray inside the area. The referee pointed to the spot and the Clarets frontman duly dispatching from twelve yards for his fifth goal in four games to make the score 1-0.
After twenty-five minutes, Wanderers were forced into a change with Danny Collins replacing the injury Dorian Dervite. Five minutes later, the Whites were almost back level when Jamie Spearing swinging free-kick took a deflection on to the Burnley crossbar before going for a goal kick.
Bolton should have drawn level on thirty-five minutes, but following a scramble in the Burnley area Gary Madine’s shot was blocked by Michael Keane in the six yard box.
The Clarets had the final effort of the half when Andre Gray shrugged off the challenge of David Wheater before seeing his effort well saved by the leg of Ben Amos, to leave the half time score 1-0 to Burnley.
Both sides made a number of changes at half-time and it was Bolton Wanderers who started the brighter of the two teams, when three minutes in the half Jamie Spearing collected Trotter’s dragback at the edge of the box, before firing home the ball home via the inside of the post to make it 1-1.
Following the equaliser, the Trotters had a good spell of possession and created some excellent attacks that forced England goalkeeper Tom Heaton into some excellent saves.
On the hour mark, substitute George Boyd had a mazy run at the Bolton defence before unleashing a shot at the Bolton goal, which Howard was equal to and comfortably saved the shot. A few minutes later Chris Long hit an excellent shot from the edge of the box which was again well saved by Howard in the Bolton goal.
Trotter, a key man for Wanderers all night, found Max Clayton in the box with seventy two minutes on the clock but despite his best efforts, his header was straight at Paul Robinson.
On the eighty-fourth minute Chris Long looked to have snatched victory for the Clarets with a thunderous shot from ten yards, but Bolton goalkeeper Howard managed to get a hand to the ball which was enough to ensure that the scores remained level.
Four minutes later, Bolton should have taken the lead as Max Clayton tried his luck from a tight angle in the six yard box, only to see Paul Robinson get down well at his near post.
The visitors were to have the last word however, when Josh Ginnelly somehow squeezing the ball home from close range after shrugging off the challenge of Alex Finney on the stroke of full time to earn victory for Sean Dyche’s men.
Speaking after the match Burnley manager Sean Dyche said, “I was pleased with the team’s performance in general, we are building the join between pure fitness and now fitness and performance, I thought there were lots of good signs around the whole group tonight.
There were lots of changes and everyone adapted well they looked like they knew how the team works and how the team operates. That is important because then you get clear mentalities and clear minds which I’m pleased with.
Match Details
Bolton Wanderers – Amos, Moxey, Dervite, Vela, Taylor, Spearing, Madine, Trotter, Eardley, Wilson, Wheater (Subs) Howard, Finney, Collins, Newell, Walker, Pratley, Woolery, Perry, Clayton, Beevers.
Burnley – Heaton, Lowton, Keane, Tarkowski, Ward, Arfield, Marney, O’Neill, Kightly, Agyei, Gray (Subs) Robinson, Darikwa, Mee, C.Long, Lafferty, Jackson, Boyd, Ginnelly, Hennings, K.Long, Pope.
Goals – (Bolton Wanderers) Spearing (49) (Burnley) Gray (16), Ginnelly (90)
Attendance – 3,766.
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