Rochdale 1-1 Bolton Wanderers
Posted: Saturday 24th July 2010
Tags: Match Reports, Bolton Wanderers, Rochdale, Robbie Blake
Bolton's unbeaten run in pre-season stretched to four games as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Rochdale at Spotland.
A Robbie Blake penalty gave Wanderers the lead late in the first half, but a late strike from Chris O'Grady earned Keith Hill's side a deserved draw.
Rochdale started brightly and could have head the lead inside a minute. After a foul on the edge of the box by Tamir Cohen, Brian Barry-Murphy saw a free-kick deflected wide and Craig Dawson headed over from the resulting corner.
Scott Wiseman also came close to breaking the deadlock but found Gretar Steinsson in the way to clear the danger.
Wanderers, who looked to be struggling after their recent flight back from Canada, had to wait until the half hour for their first shot and it came through Stuart Holden, whose strike from range went harmlessly wide of the target.
That seemed to set the tone for the next five minutes and Owen Coyle's side almost took the lead on 33 minutes when Johan Elmander's cross was headed goalwards by Cohen, only to crash back off the crossbar.
But Bolton were ahead just two minutes later. After Steinsson's cross was handled by Dawson inside the area, Blake, just as he did in the shootout with Toronto, stepped up to send the goalkeeper the wrong way and give Wanderers the lead.
Moments later, Cohen almost doubled the lead but brought a fine save out of Josh Lillis, before O'Grady almost levelled just before the break as his curling effort flew just over the top of the bar.
Coyle made three changes to his Bolton side at the break, as Danny Ward, Chris Basham and Sean Davis made way for Mustapha Riga, Sam Ricketts and summer signing Martin Petrov.
The second half started slowly, with Jean Louis Akpa Akpro and Gary Jones having the only efforts for the hosts. Bolton reacted with a double substitution on the hour as Matt Taylor and Mark Davies came on for Cohen and Blake.
But it was one of the half-time substitutes who came closest to adding a second as Petrov cut inside and struck a shot from distance, only to see it stopped superbly by Lillis as Rochdale held on.
Dale pushed forward and almost equalised on 70 minutes when O'Grady sent a shot goalwards, but despite what appeared to be a fine save from Adam Bogdan in the Wanderers goal, a goal-kick was given, much to the frustration of the home crowd.
Joe Thompson somehow sliced a shot wide moments later but the home fans did have something to cheer about as Rochdale got a deserved equaliser just six minutes from time.
After cutting in from the left flank, O'Grady sent a curling effort low across the goal and finding the corner of Bogdan's net, a superb goal.
Both sides had chances to win it late on as first, Riga sent a volley over the bar before Matt Done almost picked out the top corner in stoppage time, only for Bogdan to claw the ball away as the game ended all square.
Bolton continue their pre-season preparations at Oldham Athletic on Wednesday evening as they look to step up a level with the new Premier League season just three weeks away.
Rochdale: Lillis, Wiseman, Dawson, Holness, Widdowson, Kennedy, Jones, Barry-Murphy, Thompson (Done 73), Akpa Akpro (Morgan 62), O'Grady
Subs Not Used: Goodall, Edwards, O'Donnell, Flynn, Gray
Goals: O'Grady 84
Bolton Wanderers: Bogdan, Samuel (J O'Brien 73), A O'Brien, Basham (Ricketts 46), Steinsson, Davis (Petrov 46), Holden, Cohen (M Davies 60), Blake (Taylor 60), Ward (Riga 46), Elmander (Muamba 71)
Subs Not Used: Lainton
Goals: Blake 35(pen)
Attendance: 1,833
