Bolton Wanderers 0-1 Port Vale - Full time match report

A downright dull game was dawdling towards a penalty shootout when the defender’s failure to make a clearance allowed George Hall to nip in and cross for Ben Waine – handing Vale only their second-ever win at this stadium.

Bolton might have limped to the lottery of penalties but did they truly deserve to go through on the night? It would be a brave man to claim so.

And if they continue in this vein, you would have to be bold to see them finishing anywhere but mid-table now that Wembley is no longer a consideration in the cups.

Wanderers made nine changes to the side that lost at Peterborough United, with Josh Sheehan and Thierry Gale – the unlucky two hooked before half time – the only names to survive on the starting team-sheet.

Among the returnees was Josh Dacres-Cogley, playing what is expected to be his last game before signing for Stockport County. He lined up on the right side of the defence, with three central midfielders – Aaron Morley, Josh Sheehan and Xavier Simons – playing in front of them.

Sam Dalby, who scored at London Road, was the centre point of a three-man attack, flanked by Gale and Forss, but the attacking output in the first half amounted to little more than a cool breeze.

Schumacher has challenged his starting line-up to give him some food for thought with a big game at Wigan to come on Saturday lunchtime but a passive 45 minutes proved inconclusive, and that’s putting it kindly.

Bolton’s one shot on target came from Morley, who in fairness did substantiate his starting spot by putting in some decent balls from the right. His stinging shot midway through the half woke Whites old boy Ben Amos from his slumber but there was little more to trouble him.

Gale had a frustrating time of it. Two reasonable efforts were curled wide of goal when he manufactured some space for himself but he was also to blame for over-playing at times when a simple ball could have cut Vale open.

The visitors were somewhat of an unknown quantity, given new manager Jon Brady had been in charge for just one FA Cup fixture. Their previous visit to the Toughsheet had effectively been lost by the interval but with Funso Ojo knitting things together well in midfield and Dajaune Brown also causing a nuisance to Taylor down their right flank, they were always in with a shout.

Jordan Lawrence-Gabriel went closest for the Valiants, forcing Sharman-Lowe to shuffle on his line and push a powerful effort over the bar after a half-cleared corner.

Dacres-Cogley could well be wearing Stockport blue by the weekend and a 10-minute spell at the start of the second half served as a microcosm of his two-and-a-half seasons with Bolton.

A clever one-two with Morley got him behind another ex-Bolton full-back, Liam Gordon, but a blocked cross never made its way to a waiting Sam Dalby in the centre of goal.

Moments later, Wanderers’ most incisive football of the night saw Cyrus Christie play a clever pass inside the centre-half, with Dacres-Cogley able to burst through at full pace and get a clear sight of goal. Amos rushed off his line and blocked what could have been the perfect farewell gift.

Wanderers made a triple substitution on 63 minutes, bringing on John McAtee, Mason Burstow and Kyle Dempsey in the hope of adding some spice to a bland midweek supper. But any real excitement had dropped out of the match by that stage, and it threatened to be a case of who could stay awake longest on a school-night.

Dacres-Cogley’s night – and it would seem his time with Wanderers – was brought to an end with 15 minutes left, Amario Cozier-Duberry coming on as another one of Schumacher’s stars who desperately searching for a way back on to the scoresheet.

Morley was dropped back to full-back and as the game began to wind down towards a shootout, he had perhaps the best chance of settling things in 90 minutes when Dempsey’s cross dropped to him at the far post.

Sub 2,000 attendances have been a rarity at this stadium and though it was not the lowest gate ever seen, that dubious honour going to a match against Everton’s kids in this competition in 2019, there were times when the rattling of trolleys at Tesco and Asda on Middlebrook could be heard above the football noise.

Home fans did spring into life briefly before Morley’s miss as Dempsey was wrestled to the ground by Mitchell Clark but referee Jamie O’Connor waved away the hopeful penalty appeal.

Spot kicks looked the logical conclusion to such a beige performance. And perhaps that was what was running through Richard Taylor’s head as he ambled back in the final couple of minutes to throw the game away.

Pickpocketed by George Hall, who then swung a cross into the box, fellow sub Ben Waine then struck from close range to leave the smattering of die-hards from the Potteries overjoyed with their good fortune.

Seven minutes of added time failed to muster anything like a Bolton response, the final moments being spent scrapping for the ball outside their own penalty box.

Bolton’s dramatic decline over the last six weeks threatens to wreck a once-promising campaign and were it to continue this weekend at Wigan, the boos that echoed around an empty ground at the final whistle will be amplified ten-fold.

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