DANNY WARD found the back of the net twice, while Ricardo Vaz Te opened his account for the season as Wanderers reserves beat their Wigan counterparts at Leyland.

Latics 'keeper Richard Kingson denied Mustapha Riga and Mark Davies as Bolton failed to make their early superiority pay before the break, while Ali Al Habsi had to be alert at the other end to save from Daniel Redmond as a youthful Wigan team looked dangerous on the break.

However, it took Bolton just 14 minutes of the second half to take the lead as Vaz Te continued his comeback from almost a year out with injury with his first goal of the campaign.

Riga robbed Latics defender Antonio Amaya as he slipped on half-way and after racing clear the Dutch winger crossed for Vaz Te to slide the ball home.

The same pair then combined from a corner to tee up a shooting chance for Nicky Hunt, which was blocked by team-mate Gretar Steinsson, before Vaz Te missed a golden opportunity when he volleyed wide from close-range following a knock-down from Ward.

Bolton might have been made to pay when Richid Bouaouzan broke clear for Wigan but Al Habsi again came to the rescue with a fine save.

And the home side finally made the points safe with two goals in the last six minutes.

Teenager Ward again impressed as a substitute and took his tally for the season to three, firstly firing a low left foot shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty area and then rounding off a superb move involving Hunt and Vaz Te with a side-foot finish at the near post.

Meanwhile, Swedish international Johan Elmander was withdrawn after 29 minutes with what appeared to be a hamstring injury.

Bolton: Al Habsi, Hunt, Robinson, Basham, Connolly, O'Brien, Steinsson, Davies, Elmander (Ward 29), Vaz Te, Riga. Substitutes: Lainton, Stokes, O'Halloran, McDonald.

Wigan: Kingson (Williams ht), Meace, Mustoe, Langley, Amaya, Routledge, Bouaouzan, Holt, Kupisz, McCarthy (Breeze ht), Redmond. Substitutes: Rugg, Crane, Lambert.