Town 2-0 Bolton Wanderers - Match Report Tuesday, 3rd Nov 2015 21:57 Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Brett Pitman were on target as the Blues beat Bolton 2-0 at Portman Road to end their seven-game winless run. Maitland-Niles put Town ahead in the 13th minute with his first senior goal, then Pitman smashed home a brilliant second on 70 to seal the three points. Mick McCarthy made two changes with Jonas Knudsen, back from his hamstring problem, returning at left-back and Pitman up front with Jonny Parr and David McGoldrick dropping to the bench. The Blues, without a win in seven but having won 13 on the trot on Tuesday evenings at Portman Road, began in a 4-4-2 formation with Freddie Sears on the left. Bolton started the brighter and Dean Gerken was forced into a save in only the third minute, the keeper blocking Max Clayton’s stooping header with his chest on the edge of the six-yard box after good work from Darren Pratley and Gary Madine. Three minutes later Kevin Bru struck the Blues’ first shot but curled his shot from distance well wide. On seven, Maitland-Niles was pulled back midway inside the Bolton half on the right by Jose Manuel Casado, who was booked by referee Darren Deadman. The freekick initially came to nothing but Bru picked up the ball on the right and drilled over a cross which Pitman headed goalwards, but too close to Trotters keeper Ben Amos. A foot or two either side of the former Manchester United man and the Blues might have been celebrating. But it didn’t take too long for the home crowd to have something to shout about. Town broke quickly in the 13th minute and Murphy sent Maitland-Niles away on the right with a superb pass. The on-loan Arsenal man cut in and curled a low shot which Amos reached but couldn’t prevent hitting the net. The keeper clearly thought he ought to have done better as the Town players congratulated the 18-year-old on his first senior goal. Bolton looked to get back on terms but Christophe Berra blocked Liam Feeney’s shot from the right of the area. Pitman lobbed well wide from a Sears pass on 20, then a minute later the former Bournemouth man was convinced he’d netted Town’s second of the evening. Keeper Amos collided with one of his defenders and dropped a cross which had come in from the left. Pitman reacted quickly to stab towards goal and made it clear that he felt the ball had crossed the line before Casado hooked away. Referee Deadman and his linesman believed otherwise. The Blues were by now dominating and on 24 Sears exchanged passes with Pitman and the ex-Colchester man broke into the area on the left but Amos came off the line quickly to block. There was a big scare for the Blues in the 27th minute when Clayton was sent away on goal and as he approached the edge of the penalty box Knudsen deliberately clipped him. Referee Deadman immediately went for his yellow card but the official might well have judged it an obvious goalscoring opportunity and dismissed the Danish international. The freekick was played to David Wheater but his powerful strike was blocked by a diving Luke Chambers. Bolton had got themselves on top having seeming to be on the ropes immediately following the goal and on 31 the Blues skipper made another important block, this time from Darren Pratley on the left of the box. The visitors continued to take the game to Town and on 36 Feeney crossed from the right but Clayton just couldn’t get a toe to it and Gerken claimed. Two minutes later the Blues weren’t far from a second when Knudsen crossed from the left, Pitman nodded back across goal and Sears, by now operating on the right, hooked over. On 41 Pitman sent Sears away down the left but the goalscorer looked to be hampered by an injury and failed to find Sears with his cross. Moments later, the England U19 international was replaced by Jonathan Douglas with Bru moving to the right. In the final moments of scheduled time Murphy fed Sears on the left of the area but Amos saved his low strike. Just before the whistle Wheater bundled the ball wide following a freekick from deep but the linesman’s flag had already. After starting slowly, the Blues grabbed the lead via Maitland-Niles and then looked likely to go on to add to their goals with Pitman unlucky not to have made it 2-0. But Bolton came back into it and might well have got back on terms, while Knudsen was perhaps fortunate to avoid a red card. However, by the end of the half the Blues had begun to regain the ascendancy. The visitors swapped Prince-Desire Gouano for Derik Osede at right-back at the start of the second half and four minutes after the restart Town were within a couple of inches of adding to their lead. Bru’s corner was cleared to the edge of the area from where Douglas struck a ferocious drive which seemed destined to rip a hole in the net until it struck a defender and hit the top of the bar and flew into the Sir Alf Ramsey Stand. So powerfully hit was the shot that referee Deadman missed the touch off the Bolton player and awarded a goalkick. The Blues had started the half well and on 51 Sears came close to making it 2-0. Knudsen did well to nod Murphy's cross from the right back across goal and a combination of Wheater and Amos kept out Sears’s header. Town kept up the pressure but without creating many chances. On 61 Casado did well to get back to stab the ball behind as the impressive Murphy brought the ball along the byline on the right. Wheater headed straight at Gerken in the 68th minute following a freekick which had been somewhat generously awarded to the visitors on the Town right after Pratley went to ground under the attention of Chambers and Bru. Two minutes later, Town’s second finally came and what a goal it was. Following another contested Bolton freekick midway inside the Blues’ half, the ball was cleared and Sears was sent away down the right. The striker cut inside a defender and played the ball into the path of Pitman, who had made a clever run across Osede, and the Blues’ number 11 lashed a superb strike past Amos from the edge of the box to claim a brilliant fourth of the season. Two minutes after Pitman’s goal, Sears went looking for a third but stabbed wide after chasing a ball over the top. The Blues continued to press and on 75 Pitman was unlucky not to claim his second when his header from Murphy’s cross from the right was headed off the line by Spearing with Amos beaten. A minute later, Pitman nodded Knudsen’s cross from the left over. Murphy headed over on 78, moments before Bolton brought on veteran former England striker Emile Heskey. Two minutes later, Chambers was booked for a foul on Pratley. As the game moved into the final 10 minutes, a third Town goal was looking more likely than a Bolton first. On 82 Sears, who deserved a goal, shot across the face of goal from the left. With two minutes of scheduled time remaining Sears hit a looping effort from more than 30 yards which Amos dived to his left to claim. Seconds later, McGoldrick replaced Pitman, who was given a standing ovation by the home support as he left the field. McGoldrick was immediately involved in the action, feeding Sears on the left and then just managing to slide in and get to the return cross but without being able to get in a significant effort on goal. With the match in injury time Feeney shot over when trying to catch Gerken off his line, then Sears was dispossessed when breaking into the area as he continued his tireless running on the left, before Amos blocked a Murphy effort from the right. That was the last of Town’s 20 attempts of the evening - 10 of them on target, not far off the 14 they managed in the whole of October - as their winless run was finally and deservedly halted. Skipper Chambers’s long-awaited victory fist-pump in front of the Sir Bobby Robson Stand - Town had failed to win their last five home games, drawing the last four - was greeted by some of the biggest cheers of the night as the Blues made it 14 successive wins at Portman Road on Tuesdays. Having been in front at the break, Town rarely looked in any trouble after the break and it was a case of when they would take one or more of their numerous chances and the scoreline could easily have been more comfortable than 2-0. The Blues are up to 10th ahead of Saturday’s trip to Rotherham, who remain bottom of the table. Town: Gerken, Chambers (c), Smith, Berra, Knudsen, Skuse, Bru, Maitland-Niles (Douglas 44), Sears, Murphy, Pitman (McGoldrick 88). Unused: Bialkowski, Malarczyk, Parr, Coke, Oar. Bolton: Amos, Prince (Osede 46), Dervite, Wheater, Casado, Vela, Spearing (Heskey 79), Pratley, Feeney, Clayton (Woolery 73), Madine. Unused: Rachubka, Osede, Danns, Dobbie, Twardzik. Referee: Darren Deadman (Cambridgeshire). Att: 17,017 (Bolton: 245).
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