[Archived] News Article -> 2012/13 Full-Time: Bolton Wanderers 1 Rovers 0

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It has become a familiar story for Blackburn Rovers over the past two seasons, but once again they lost a game late in the day and left the Reebok with nothing after an encouraging performance that warranted at least a point. Rovers hit the woodwork twice and possibly just edged the balance of play in an open game, but were punished when Chris Eagles scored with virtually the last kick of the game to win the match for Bolton.

For some weeks now, Michael Appleton has been saying that the players would be held accountable for their performances and that no place in the team was safe, and tonight he proved that to be the case as he dropped four players from the team that played so poorly against Peterborough on Saturday. Bentley, Rekik and Orr dropped to the bench and Murphy was left out of the side completely. The decision to leave the club captain out of the side will no doubt have sent a strong message to the rest of the players and they seemed to respond in the early stages of the match. Full debuts were handed to recent loan signings David Jones and Cameron Stewart, both of whom had impressed as substitutes last Saturday.

Rovers played with significantly more pace and purpose than they have in recent weeks and defended calmly and competently, something that had been missing in defeats to Peterborough and Leicester. The first half was open and end to end, but neither side seriously tested the opposition goalkeeper and chances were few and far between. Bolton had a strong penalty appeal turned down, but it was Rovers who went closest to opening the scoring late in the half when Pedersen's free-kick was flicked on by Hanley, but the defender's effort clipped the top of the bar and went over.

The second half opened in the same manner, although as the game drew on Rovers looked increasingly dangerous. Hanley hit the woodwork for a second time when his looping header was tipped onto the bar by Lonergan. It had looked as though it would be a simple save for the Bolton keeper, but he managed to get himself into a tricky situation and did well to get back and get a hand to the ball. With 10 minutes to go Leon Best was brought on to make his first league appearance for the team. The striker has been out for over 7 months with a knee injury that he picked up in pre-season and he nearly made an immediate impact when his perseverance led to the ball falling to Rhodes inside the area, but the striker failed to take advantage of the good chance.

Bolton also looked threatening and nearly took the lead when Kean could only parry Eagles' shot into the path of Lee, but he mishit his effort and Henley was able to get back to clear the ball off the line. Lonergan then made a mess of another looping header when he had to tip Rhodes' harmless looking effort over the bar and in injury time Jones nearly gave Rovers the lead when he attempted a clever chip that landed on the roof of the net. It looked as though that would be the final action of the match, but Bolton attacked straight from the goal-kick and Eagles' shot from just outside of the area beat Kean and went in off the left-hand upright. The former Burnley man had been the target of much abuse from the away supporters and clearly enjoyed scoring against Rovers, running towards the away end in celebration. It was a poor piece of defending from Rovers in a game in which they deserved a point and it continues a worrying trend of sloppy defending leading to avoidable goals.

The defeat sees Rovers drop into the bottom half of the table and it is safe to say that promotion hopes are now all but gone. The team is 11 points off the top 6 places and it looks as though the FA Cup is the last hope of salvaging a bitterly disappointing season. A worrying run of form has seen the side slip down the table and the FA Cup quarter-final against Millwall this Sunday suddenly looks like a must-win game. The return of Leon Best is encouraging and it looked as though he linked up well with Rhodes, but the recent form has revealed several major holes in the current squad. The centre of midfield is virtually non-existent and the defending is often comical. A trip to Wembley might not turn a disastrous season into a good one, but it might at least give Rovers supporters a reason to feel proud for a week or two, something that has been missing for quite some time now.

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