U23s: Bolton 2-1 Ipswich Town

David Lee's young Whites clinch late victory at Macron Stadium

Bolton Wanderers Under-23s secured a late victory over Ipswich Town at the Macron Stadium on Monday evening.

After some early exchanges of possession, the first chance of the game fell the way of the visitors, however, Monty Patterson’s curling right footed failed to trouble Wanderers’ keeper Will Jaaskelainen.

At the other end, Jack Earing produced the Whites' first opening after a well timed run from midfield , only to drag his right footed effort just wide of Michael Crow’s goal. 

Ipswich took the lead after 17 minutes when Shane McLoughlin found himself with space inside the Bolton box before tucking his shot under Jaaskelainen into the bottom corner.

It was almost an immediate reply from David Lee’s side after some eye-catching passing as Ryan White played a pinpoint through ball into the path of Kyle Willoughby, his effort however, hit the side netting.

Ipswich could have made it two midway through the half when Ben Morris raced through two-on-one against Jaaskelainen, squaring the ball to McLoughlin only for him to denied by a superb last ditch tackle from captain Sam Levelle.

The home side started to take control of the game and were inches away from equalising soon after as Levesque Boua and Cole Lonsdale combined well down the left only for the latter’s whipped cross to be collected bravely by Crowe at the feet of White.

However, five minutes before half-time Bolton had their chance to level the scoring as they were awarded a penalty after Willoughby was hauled down after running onto Boua's backheel.

Hyuga Tanner stepped up to take the spot-kick, emphatically burying his penalty into the bottom right corner beyond the Ipswich keeper.

It took until the 62nd minute for the first chance of the second half, Ipswich’s Patterson firing over from 20 yards before Jordan Spence later failed to connect with Kundai Benyu’s free kick.

Despite a lack of chances for both sides in the second half, Wanderers came alive in the last 15 minutes, Willoughby beat his defender out wide but couldn’t find a Wanderers shirt with his cross.

But the Whites managed to take the lead with just five minutes left of the game, Matthew Fearnley playing a perfectly weighted pass into the path of Jospeh N’Guessan before the substitute showed great composure to finish inside the box, curling his effort past the keeper to give the home side the win.

TEAMS

Bolton: Jaaskelainen, Spooner, Lonsdale, Honeyball, Lavelle, Marsh, Tanner, Boua, Willoughby, White, Earing.

Subs: Navarro, Turner, N’Guessan, Grivosti, Fearnley.


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