Oldham Athletic 3-0 Bolton

Posted: Wednesday 28th July 2010

Tags: Match Reports, Bolton Wanderers, Oldham Athletic

Bolton's unbeaten start to pre-season came to a crashing end at Boundary Park as they were beaten 3-0 by League 1 Oldham Athletic.

Tom Eaves scored a hat-trick for the Latics on a poor night for Wanderers, who fielded a strong eleven against Paul Dickov's men.

Bolton had numerous chances to get themselves back into the game in the latter stages, but were unable to find the net as they slipped to defeat for the first time since May.

Wanderers almost made a disastrous start to the game and were lucky not to be a goal down inside 60 seconds. After Zat Knight's wreckless challenge on Warren Feeney, Ryan Brooke curled the resulting free-kick inches wide from the edge of the area.

Matt Taylor was first to try his luck for Bolton, bringing Dean Brill into action from 30-yards, before Joey O'Brien headed over from a corner when he should, at least, have got the effort on-target.

Oldham were forced into their first change midway through the first half, with Eaves coming on to replace the injured Feeney, a change that was to pay immediate dividends.

After receiving the ball 20-yards from goal, Eaves turned and shot across goal, picking out the bottom corner of Jussi Jaaskelainen's goal and giving the Latics the lead.

Martin Petrov almost pulled Wanderers level on 40 minutes when he curled the ball just over the bar from a free-kick, but Oldham doubled their advantage just a minute later.

Wanderers appeared to have the situation under control, but Eaves somehow managed to force his way between Knight and Gary Cahill before poking the ball beyond Jaaskelainen at his near post.

Owen Coyle made three changes at the break, with Gretar Steinsson, Mark Davies and Johan Elmander coming on to replace the trio of Sam Ricketts, Joey O'Brien and Stuart Holden.

The substitutions made no impact on the game though and Eaves completed his hat-trick ten minutes after the restart.

Hitting Bolton on the break, Lewis Alessandra looked to have done it all himself, but when found one-on-one with Jaaskelainen, he opted to pass and Eaves slotted the ball into the empty net.

Lee Chung-Yong, returning from World Cup duty with South Korea, was introduced on the hour, replacing Taylor, as Wanderers looked to get a foothold in the game.

The change looked to give the visitors a little extra urgency and Lee came close to a consolation soon after coming on, volleying just wide of the target when he should arguable have headed the ball back across goal.

With Brill beaten, Petrov smacked the crossbar late on, before Elmander brought the Latics keeper into a fine stop two minutes from time, the final chances of a poor night for a team who looked nothing like their Premier League status would suggest.

Bolton will now head north into Scotland, where they will face Falkirk on Saturday afternoon, looking to improve on the defeat with the new season just over a fortnight away.

Oldham Athletic: Brill, Lee (Holdsworth 70), Black, Furman, Hazell (Carr 68), Jarrett, Jones (Bembo-Leta 68), Stephens, Brooke (Dickov 74), Feeney (Eaves 23), Alessandra
Subs Not Used: Abbott, Fleming, Kompany
Goals: Eaves 26,42,55

Bolton Wanderers: Jaaskelainen, Ricketts (Steinsson 46), Cahill, Knight, Robinson, J O'Brien (M Davies 46), Holden (Elmander 46), Muamba (Cohen 60), Petrov, K Davies (Blake 70), Taylor (Chung-Yong 60)
Subs Not Used: A O'Brien, Samuel, Gardner, Riga, Bogdan