It was another dream start for Bolton Wanderers as they welcomed Peterborough United to the Reebok Stadium. Bolton had not been able to string together a pair of consecutive league wins all season. A win (and other results going their way) would see Bolton Wanderers up to tenth place in the table.
It took just five minutes for Bolton Wanderers to take the lead against Peterborough. The Trotters were awarded a corner and Jay Spearing, who has become Bolton's de facto corner taker, stood over it. His delivery was into a good area and met Craig Dawson's head at the near post. The on-loan center half headed home for his third goal in two games. It looked as though Dawson gave his mark a slight push midair but the referee didn't see fit to blow his whistle.
15 minutes after the goal, Mark Davies (who had been troubling Peterborough's shaky defense) took an innocuous seeming challenge. The central midfielder, only just returning from a lengthy shoulder injury, looked to have caught his studs in the turf which led to him twisting his leg awkwardly. Whether it was his knee or a recurrence of the ankle injury that troubled him so much last season has not been released yet. Despite the stretcher coming onto the field, Mark Davies walked off on his own power. He would attempt to run the injury off but could not.
The blow to Bolton had a silver lining as it saw the introduction of Stu Holden. This was the American's first league match since March 2011 at Old Trafford. Holden would play the remaining 65 minutes of the match and, despite being a little rusty, looked mostly good. He was involved throughout proceedings and was in action on the edge of the attacking area often.
The second half would see Peterborough get back into the game and throw men forward. They would get into dangerous area with the likes of Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Tommy Rowe, Dwight Gayle, Lee Tomlin, Jow Newell, and Grant McCann all threatening. Fortunately for Bolton Wanderers, Peterborough really failed to do anything positive and Bolton Wanderers would hold on for the win.
It was three points and a (very nervy) clean sheet at the end of the day coupled with Burnley and Blackburn losses saw Bolton climb to 10th place and are just seven points from 6th place.