Open and Schut case as Trotters work to rule Baggies
LESS than a month after going out on strike, Phil Parkinson’s Bolton pickets got their season off to a flying start thanks to Yanic Wildschut’s debut goal.
Having downed tools briefly in pre-season, the Trotters delivered a hammer blow to West Brom thanks to Wildschut and fellow debutant Josh Magennis.
Harvey Barnes marked his own debut for Albion with a stunning goal in first-half stoppage time but Darren Moore’s men suffered defeat in their first game back in the Championship after eight Premier League seasons.
Parkinson’s men had refused to play a pre-season game at St Mirren in early July in a dispute over wages and bonuses.
“The strike thing was blown out of proportion a little bit,” claimed Parkinson. “They are a very good set of lads.
“We had a few issues in the club we had to sort out but the chairman has rectified that problem and the lads’ attitude in pre-season has been good – even though we had that blip along the way.
“Everyone knows how hard it is to get away wins in the Championship, how hard you’ve got to work and we gave that today.
“We had to put in a shift against a very good team with a lot of technical ability.
“We are very pleased. If we had got beat, I would have said, ‘it is the first game and we are not going to get too down’.
“So I am not getting carried away the other way, but it gives us great confidence going into next week.”
West Brom dominated early on and had the game’s first clear effort when on-loan Leicester midfielder Harvey Barnes fired straight at Bolton goalkeeper Ben Alnwick after a neat move.
Bolton threatened from a series of corners and led on 18 minutes when the Baggies failed to deal with a right-wing cross from Sammy Ameobi.
Magennis was unmarked and his header was inch-perfect to find the corner past a despairing dive by goalkeeper Sam Johnstone. Albion survived a further scare moments later, when David Wheater headed wide from a Josh Vela corner.
But West Brom might have been level on 29 minutes when Ahmed Hegazi headed wide from a smart Barnes cross.
They finally equalised in first-half stoppage time thanks to a stunner by Barnes.
He exchanged passes on the edge of the penalty area before curling a superb left-footed shot past Alnwick into the top corner. And with 12 minutes to play the lively Matt Phillips let fly with a low cross-shot that crept inches past the far post. But a minute from full-time the visitors snatched victory as a corner from Vela was flicked on by Wheater into a crowded goalmouth, where Wildschut was on hand to turn it home past Johnstone’s grasp. Albion almost equalised again in stoppage time but Hegazi’s header from Chris Brunt’s corner hit the crossbar. But they were beaten and boss Moore refused to discuss the futures of Newcastle target Salomon Rondon and wantaway defender Craig Dawson, who were both missing. Moore said: “It’s very hard when you have a team unit like Bolton getting men behind the ball it’s very tough to break down.”