Town recorded their fifth successive home draw at the start of the season as Bolton Wanderers left Portman Road following a hard-fought 0-0 stalemate, despite having been a man down for 47 minutes. The Trotters lost Marc Wilson to a red card on 34 after he hauled down Kayden Jackson but the Blues only created one serious chance - a Luke Chambers header brilliantly saved by Ben Alnwick - having been reduced to 10 men themselves late on when Jon Walters suffered an injury with all three substitutions already having been made.

Toto Nsiala returned to the Town starting line-up following the completion of his three-game suspension for his red card at Sheffield Wednesday.

The former Shrewsbury man is started at the centre of the defence alongside skipper Luke Chambers with Matthew Pennington moving to right-back with Janoi Donacien dropping out.

The St Lucian was again the loanee to miss out on a place in the matchday squad - only five are permitted in the 18 - with former Jon Walters fit enough to take a place on the bench after his achilles injury.

Bolton made four changes to the team which lost 2-0 at Middlesbrough in midweek with Mark Beevers, David Wheater, Gary O'Neil and Josh Vela dropping out of the starting line-up in favour of Wilson, Erhun Oztumer, Will Buckley and Craig Noone.

Jason Lowe scraped a weak shot wide for Bolton after five minutes following a long throw in an opening 20 minutes of little penalty area action. Town had most of the ball but without creating an opportunity.

On 21 Wilson scuffed a volley wide at the far post from a Oztumer cross after a corner, but Town were in control of the game even if they’d not been able to test Bolton skipper and keeper Alnwick.

In the 29th minute Grant Ward was bundled over by Craig Noone just outside the area on the left and Gwion Edwards, who had already sent in a couple of potentially dangerous crosses from the right, hit a powerfully-struck freekick into Alnwick’s midriff.

The visitors were reduced to 10 men in the 34th minute when Wilson was shown a straight red card for denying Jackson an obvious goalscoring opportunity.

Ward did superbly on the left to bring the ball out of a tight area following a Bolton attack, then sent Jackson away with a superb pass. The pacy former Accrington man burst away beyond Wilson, who dragged him back as he broke towards the area with only Alnwick to beat.

Referee Stephen Martin immediately awarded a freekick - with Town making few protests that it was a penalty - then showed Wilson his red card to little complaint from the Trotters players.

As Ward prepared to take the freekick, which was deflected wide off the wall, Bolton boss Phil Parkinson swapped Oztumer for Wheater.

A minute before the break, Trevoh Chalobah was booked for a foul on Will Buckley with Town subsequently making heavy weather of clearing the danger from the freekick and subsequent corner.

Town had continued to enjoy a great deal of possession and had passed the ball around confidently, although largely in unthreatening areas but still without testing Alnwick.

Seconds before the whistle, Ward ended a long spell of Town passing by scraping a shot well wide.

It had been a first half of few incidents aside from Wilson’s red card, which looked the correct decision, the Ireland international had been caught out by Jackson’s blistering pace.

Neither keeper, however, had been forced to make a save in the entire 45 minutes in which Bolton perhaps had the better of the chances - or perhaps more accurately half-chances - with the Blues backline not always defending with confidence.

Chalobah was replaced by Tayo Edun ahead of the second half with the Blues starting on the front foot.

On 47 Pennington scuffed a shot wide from distance after an Edwards cross had been cleared, then Jon Nolan mishit a bouncing ball well wide from 25 yards out.

Town, with Edwards and Ward having swapped flanks, continued to dominate possession but struggled to find a way through the unsurprisingly deeply encamped 10 men of Bolton. In the 59th minute Nolan found some space to hit a shot but curled it well wide.

Five minutes later, Nolan crossed into the box after a corner had been cleared and Nsiala nodded over.

Despite having had all the ball in the second half the Blues were still to test Alnwick and on 71 manager Paul Hurst made a double change.

It was little surprise that Walters was added to the attack alongside Jackson with Jordan Graham joining him on the left of a four-man midfield with Ward and Cole Skuse making way.

Walters hadn’t had time to make any impact before he pulled up with what looked like a recurrence of the achilles injury which saw him miss Tuesday’s game against Brentford in the 81st minute as he chased a ball on the right of the area.

The clearly anguished Ireland international was treated on the pitch before eventually making his way around the peripherary to the tunnel alongside physio Matt Byard with the game now 10 versus 10.

Bolton suddenly saw the chance of what had looked an unlikely victory and the Blues found themselves under pressure for the first time. On 83 a loose ball fell to Wheater inside the Town box but Chambers slid in to block.

Three minutes later, the Blues went close as close as they would come to a goal. Graham’s freekick from the left was flicked on towards the top corner by Chambers but somehow Alnwick was able to get across to brilliantly paw it out for a corner.

Despite the numbers having been evened up the game had returned to the pattern from prior to Walters’s injury.

Edun was booked for a foul in injury time as Town kept pushing in the closing stages but without being able to find the goal which would bring them their first win of the season.

The final whistle was greeted by boos - brief but far louder than than those at half-time on Tuesday - and then muted applause as the players left the field.

Having played 47 minutes with an extra man Town missed a big opportunity to finally grab that elusive first win of the season.

The prodded and probed but only seriously threatened once when Alnwick superbly saved Chambers’s header.

In some ways Town might have been better off had Bolton not been reduced to 10 men, the Trotters having defended staunchly and in depth after the red card. A more open approach from the visitors with 11 players might have suited Town more.

The draw will up the already significant pressure on manager Hurst, despite the Blues having climbed a place off the bottom of the table on goal difference courtesy of Sheffield United’s 3-2 victory over Preston, former Blue David McGoldrick having scored the late winner.

Town have their next chance to finally end their winless run and reduce that pressure when they travel to Birmingham - who won 2-1 at Leeds today - next Saturday.

Town: Gerken, Pennington, Nsiala, Chambers (c), Knudsen, Skuse (Graham 71), Chalobah (Edun 46), Edwards, Ward (Walters 71), Nolan, Jackson. Unused: Bialkowski, Harrison, Spence, Downes.

Bolton: Alnwick (c), Olkowski, Hobbs, Wilson, Grounds, Williams, Lowe, Buckley (Wildschut 87), Noone (Donaldson 90), Oztumer (Wheater 36), Magennis. Unused: Matthews, Vela, Doidge, O’Neil. Referee: Stephen Martin (Staffordshire). Att: 14,755.

Photo: TWTD

blueboy1981 added 19:12 - Sep 22 DebysAngel ........ absolutely agree with you - shouldn't happen.
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TB42 added 19:15 - Sep 22 "Bring back Mick" is NOT the answer to any of our current woes!! His dire style of football and relationship with the fans and corresponding falling crowd numbers support the rationale for not renewing his contract. We were going nowhere with him. Whether Paul HURST is the right man for the job remains to be seen. That was the decision of Marcus EVANS and NOT the fans who were unhappy with MM. I personally would have preferred Jack ROSS after looking at his previous achievements and watching his interview - he DOES play attacking football and it is perhaps ironic that Sunderland are up the top end of League One and put four past their opponents today. However, we have PH - 9 games have been played, that means we have 37 to go. I think the next 5 or 6 games will probably define the future course ........

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blueboy1981 added 19:19 - Sep 22 Let's lighten the load a bit - we're off the bottom, still unbeaten at home, and didn't lose. How the h*ll we win at Birmingham is another story - an ambitious aim for another day, certainly more in anticipation than expectation ....... !!!
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Sourdough added 19:24 - Sep 22 Solid point for Ipswich. Moves them up the table. Edges them closer to Leeds. Great point for Bolton, who organised well to repulse wave upon wave of Ipswich attacks. Stops recent rot and puts them in striking distance.
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Tony88 added 19:26 - Sep 22 I agree with a lot of the comments made except for the moronic person who said we should protest.
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Bluebongo added 19:26 - Sep 22 Oh dear Oh dear. Next seasons local derby could be versus Colchester.
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blueboy1981 added 19:26 - Sep 22 Anyone deluded enough STILL to believe that a section of fans drove McCarthy out should realise that Marcus Evans made that decision for McCarthy - no one else. Otherwise he would have continued taking his huge paycheque until the year dot, laughing all the way to the bank, and continuously treating the fans with contempt with his boring football and insults. But just about keeping us in the Championship year, after year. Alleluia - we wanted more, and still do.

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Carrotblue added 19:30 - Sep 22 Quite simply not good enough division 1 here we come Ain't no stopping us now
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Dermotoreally added 19:32 - Sep 22 This might be irrelevant to the article but I diddnt realise that we as a club have the 5th wealthiest owner in the Championship. And once again with the sales of Waghorn, Webster and reducing our wage bill he has come out with more in his pocket than he has put in this summer. Bart now on the bench now means the club value gerken more than him so if someone can put a price on gerken then we cant possible value bart higher. (Even though he is the fans player of the year once again). So we have de-valued our best asset within weeks of him signing a new contract. It makes no sense to me.... So much is wrong here. Paul hurst appealed to ME as he would have agreed to reduce the wage bill and bring in a team to which he foolishly thought could compete in the 2nd tier... how many of our new signings were we in a battle to sign. None. Anyone else. Windass. Nigel etc chose to go elsewhere. If I'm wrong please explain our owners motives as I cant figure it out.

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Dermotoreally added 19:33 - Sep 22 Sorry I ment Omar Bogel. Not nigel.
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Orraman added 19:41 - Sep 22 This was the first chance for PH to manage a reasonably big club and although not given huge amounts of cash to spend was still given more than he had ever been used to. As a result he was like a big kid let loose in a sweet shop. Rather than buy quality chocolates he darted all over the place pocketing all the cheap penny sweets getting all excited by the choice of so much rubbish and grabbing all he could as soon as possible. I suppose if he has spent his entire football life in the lower leagues it must be difficult to adapt to life higher up the chain

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itfchorry added 19:45 - Sep 22 I share the concerns already mooted this evening. If you take in to account pre-season, PH has now played some15 games. Save for the Blackburn game, we have failed to score more than once on each occasion. Today we were woeful- Never looked like scoring. This is a result of playing one up front We all know, that this is not working.
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TimmyH added 19:51 - Sep 22 There's no doubt Evans is part of the problem, as for McCarthy brought on his departure himself mainly through his 'divorce' from a majority of supporters and partly from his low enterprising style of football - Evans has made bad managerial decisions since 2008 (maybe hiring MM the exception due to the awful state we were in after Jewell), who's to say Hurst could be yet another one...not many managers start so badly and then turn it around in this uncompromising league.

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ITFCsince73 added 19:53 - Sep 22 Totally agree sourdough. Only positives I could think of.....Mick the mouth is long gone. And we remain unbeaten at home. Onwards and upwards.
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MickMillsTash added 19:59 - Sep 22 Waghorns goals and set pieces papered over the problems last year. Without Mcgoldrick we were sh1te. I'm not sure we're much worse now but there are no goals in the team. And this is the problem. It won't be fixed until January - we might as well all get behind the team and if things do not improve - politely ask hurst to do one 2 weeks before the transfer window opens. Could Huws playing sort this mess out?

2

brittaniaman added 20:01 - Sep 22 5pts out of 27pts. speaks volumes ? the crowd were behind the team today right through to the end but the final whistle and frustration was to much for the fans and the Boos had to come with Walters only playing a few minutes as well did not help, bad mistake from Hurst for even putting a less than 100% man on the bench, he would have been wiser to put Dozzel on the bench I am sure he would have lasted more than 10mins. come to that what has happened to Sears ??? Very dissapointed with today, and with Birmingham away, Middlesbrough home,Swansea away, where are our next points coming from ????

3

jas0999 added 20:03 - Sep 22 Nightmare journey home to top off a thoroughly miserable day. Woeful performance. Terrible result. Unable to beat ten men. Said it before, but the loanees are worse than our own youngsters. The squad overall lacks quality, ability and goals. I'm sorry to say, but so far, Paul Hurst looks well out of his depth. Then, we have an owner who remarkably manager to make a transfer profit this pre season. I seriously have no idea where we go from here. Depressing. One thing is for sure though, Evans needs to step up and sort this out. Quickly.

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BaaBaaBlue added 20:08 - Sep 22 A clean sheet, still unbeaten at home this season.. personally, I thought we'd draw today after they went down to 10.. I'm not going to fully judge or even criticise PH and the player's he's brought in until Xmas (then you watch me!) It's a massive task with all the changes this season at Town, undeniably.. and I totally understand the fans wanting/demanding results (and even PH's sacking) But I don't think too many teams so far have really shown us to be much off the pace, it's amazing what a little bit of luck can do in Football, and I don't think we've had any really so far this season..and we certainly have had the odd decent half. Just a bit more quality when attacking and I'll be a happy man

2

pazzy added 20:08 - Sep 22 get the clown out and burley in to try and sort it out if we have enough good players to do it
2

Skip73 added 20:11 - Sep 22 Anybody thinking that if hen we go down we will bounce straight back up like Norwich will be dissappointed. With this team you are looking at the new Charlton.
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MrJase77 added 20:12 - Sep 22 Burley and Butcher - get them in, see out the season.
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Carberry added 20:13 - Sep 22 Hust's inability to get the team going is irrelevant in terms of McCarthy having to go. The owner has got his money from transfer sales so he won't have to put his hand in his pocket again this season. However he's running out of assets because when Bart goes (maybe in January) where will the money come from then. I don't see any of these League 1 players commanding fees. Clearly, Hurst is having a nightmare, he may be out of his depth, but the owner won't sack him - that would require compensation.

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Lightningboy added 20:15 - Sep 22 Couldn't understand our owner's strange obsession with Hurst over the summer?..I found the constant waiting to talk to him whilst ignoring other candidates (Mowbray,Burley) increasingly irritating at the time and is probably one of the reason's I haven't taken to our new manager since (being botton & winless doesn't help!) Then the complete unnecessary overhaul of a very decent squad was imho very naive & he's struck me as being a bit of a clever-dick with what he's done..so far he's looking extremely out of his depth & more and more clueless with each game that passes. Personally i'dve given my left arm to see Burley or Magilton back here (preferably both) or even Mowbray & Venus...the thing is now I wouldn't wish this shower of sh1te that Hurst's assembled on anyone to sort out - it wouldn't even be fair on Roy Keane. Only 1 man is responsible to sort this mess out but I don't think he's anywhere near up to it. 😞

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BlueandTruesince82 added 20:16 - Sep 22 Even scum are winning
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ITFCsince73 added 20:16 - Sep 22 We won't see Freddie Sears again under this management. Showed PH from day one he wasn't up for it. Shame Chambo, Skuse, and Jonas wasn't as honest.
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