Matt Mills celebrates equalising at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea - Ian Walton
Wanderers did themselves proud in a narrow 2-1 defeat in the Capital One Cup at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night, but how did the players fare against Chelsea?
Bolton's players came out of what was a daunting trip to Stamford Bridge with their heads held high as they suffered a narrow 2-1 defeat to Premier League leaders Chelsea.
Goalkeeper Andy Lonergan was exceptional tonight, but in reality Wanderers were lucky not to have been on the wrong end of a hiding as Chelsea rattled in an astounding 28 shots at goal - of which I'm sure Andre Schurrle must have had at least half.
Here's my ratings of Bolton's players this evening:
GK: Andy Lonergan 10: Easily the best performance we've seen from a Bolton goalkeeper since the days of Jussi. Lonergan made 4 or 5 quality saves tonight, including a wonder save from Schurrle's first half free-kick. But for him we could have conceded a hatful. Many fans have rightly questioned previous displays by Lonergan this season, but tonight he was absolutely faultless.
RB Chris Herd 7: Made his Wanderers debut up against a lively Schurrle, and generally performed well having not played first-team football since March. Could have got tighter to Schurrle at times, but was offered very little protection from his midfield.
CB Matt Mills 8: Once again Mills was solid as a rock at the back for Wanderers, as he and Dorian Dervite kept Loic Remy largely quiet. Mills also scored a brilliant header to equalise for the Whites.
CB Dorian Dervite 7: Posed little trouble by Remy, but could have times have shown a little more composure on the ball, rather than blindly booting it long to no-one.
LB Dean Moxey 2: Moxey is doing very little to endear himself to the Wanderers faithful, and Wednesday night was no different. Moxey didn't appear to want the ball, didn't appear comfortable in possession of it and was fully at fault for allowing Chelsea to break away for the winning goal with a woeful throw-in to Neil Danns, who was facing the other way. I sat with a non-Bolton fan watching this game, who turned around to me and said "How long has that left-back been at Championship level?" assuming he'd stepped up from the lower leagues, blissfully unaware he has somehow played in the Premier League. The sooner we can get another left-back fit the better.
RM Liam Feeney 6 Feeney is certainly one of the most dangerous players we have and showed glimpses of it against Chelsea. However, it wasn't frequent enough and I suspect he is among those suffering from a lack of confidence. There were several times tonight where he should have got his head down and had a run at left-back Luis Felipe, but didn't.
CM Medo Kamara 5 Did very little of note, but was partly to blame for Wanderers' general lack of urgency and failure to close players down outside the penalty area. In his more defensive role in the Bolton midfield, Medo needs to be looking to take the ball from defenders and help start passing moves but he simply doesn't do it.
CM Darren Pratley 6 Did pretty well this evening, and showed a few nice touches in the second half.
LM Neil Danns 6 Danns is yet to find the form he showed at the end of last season and Freedman seems to be struggling to know where he fits into the side. Shone when the more technical likes of Lee and Spearing joined him on the pitch, but Wanderers will be looking for him to have more of an influence over games.
CF Craig Davies 5 Had very, very little service in a thankless role up top. I struggle to remember him having a touch in the first half, and he was replaced by Lee around the hour mark.
CF Jermaine Beckford 5 Also had somehwat of a thankless task, but missed a very rare chance late on.
Substitutes
Chung-Yong Lee 7 Looked a class above the rest of the team when he came on, and looked lively on the left flank.
Jay Spearing 7 Came on with 20 minutes to go and Bolton actually started to pass the ball around and cause the Chelsea defence a concern or two. If only we could have done that minutes earlier on in the match, who knows what might have happened.
Joe Mason 6 Unlucky not to find Beckford with a cross after a good turn and run down the right flank late on, provided movement that gave Chelsea something else to think about. Easily the first name on the teamsheet when it comes to league matches.
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