Fleetwood Town’s unbeaten streak in the league has come to an end after a 4-2 loss to Bolton Wanderers at Highbury.
Bolton opened the scoring early through Adam Le Fondre, with David Wheater doubling their lead just minutes later. Kyle Dempsey pulled one back for town before another set-piece goal from Mark Beevers and a second from Le Fondre. Bobby Grant got one back late on but it was only as a consolation.
Town made two changes to the side that beat Scunthorpe United last week as Amari’i Bell and Victor Nirennold came in for Joe Maguire and Markus Schwabl. Bolton also made one change to the side that drew to AFC Wimbledon as Tom Thorpe was replaced by Darren Pratley.
The opening ten minutes saw both sides try to set the pace for the game as most of the possession was in the midfield.
minute and it resulted in the opening goal, as Le Fondre ran down the right wing and looked like he tried to cross the ball into the box but it ended up eluding Alex Cairns, making the game 1-0.thThe first chance of the game in the 17
Bolton carried on attacking and they managed to doubled their lead three minutes later as a free kick from Filipe Morias was floated into the box and Wheater managed to tap the ball in at the back post.
The stadium erupted two minutes after that as Town managed to pull a goal back as Dempsey found some space on the edge of the box and drilled a shot straight past Ben Alnwick, into the top corner.
Wanderers tried to restore their two-goal lead with some instant pressure as Le Fondre came close from inside the six-yard box but Cairns got the better of him this time, pushing the ball out for a corner. From the resulting corner, Gary Madine headed the ball just wide of the post.
At the half hour mark, Nirennold found himself with a yard of space on the edge of the box but his drilled shot was blocked by an onrushing defender and went out for a corner, the resulting corner led to nothing and the game stayed 2-1.
Bolton almost added another just before the half as Wheater headed the ball from inside the box and hit the top of the bar, then Madine had a header tipped over by the busy Cairns and they were unable to clutch any other opportunities.
The second half started quickly as just two minutes in, Bolton restored their two-goal lead as Morias whipped in a free-kick from the left side and Beevers ran in unmarked and headed the ball past the diving ‘keeper, Cairns.
Fleetwood tried to apply some pressure to the visitors’ defence but the visitors saw the opportunity for a counter-attack as Josh Vela found some space at the edge of the box but it was easily saved and gathered.
Bolton made it four with just over ten minutes to go as Morias, had the ball on the right wing, got a yard on Ben Davies and cross the ball into the box where Le Fondre nodded the ball into the back of the net.
Town closed the gap to just two late on, after a chance from Ashley Hunter, as Grant got the better of his marked inside the Bolton area and slotted the ball inside the far post.
The final chance of the game fell to Hunter inside the packed Bolton box but his shot was deflected and was easily saved by Alnwick.
FTFC:Alex Cairns; Conor McLaughlin, Ashley Eastham, Cian Bolger, Ben Davies, Amari’i Bell (Cameron Brannagan, 71’); Kyle Dempsey, Victor Nirennold (George Glendon, 48’), Bobby Grant; David Ball, Devante Cole (Ashley Hunter, 43’).
SUBS:Chris Neal, Godswill Ekpolo, Markus Schwabl, Joe Maguire.
BWFC:Ben Alnwick; David Wheater, Dorian Derbite, Mark Beevers; Filipe Morias, Derik Osede, Josh Vela (Liam Trotter, 82‘), Darren Pratley (Jem Karacan, 80‘), Andrew Taylor; Adam Le Fondre, Gary Madine.
SUBS:Mark Howard, Dean Moxey, Viv Solomon Otabor, Max Clayton, James Henry.
REFEREE:Paul Tierney
ASS. OFFICIALS:).thMichael Mcdonough, Darren Cann, Graham Salisbury (4