Bolton Wanderers suffered a 2-0 defeat in the Professional Development League on Monday evening against Birmingham City.
Goals from Jude Bellingham and Ryan Stirk saw the Blues take the three points at the County Ground, Leyland.
First Half
Early in the first half and shouts for a penalty went up for the visitors, as Yoan Zouma slid in on Hurst in the area but the referee waved away the protests.
Luca Navarro combined with Joe Muscatt shortly after, but the striker’s ball into the area was over-hit.
Midway through the half and Navarro fired towards the Blues goal from 20 yards but his effort was deflected for a corner.
The resulting set-piece found the head of Zouma, who nodded the ball down to Muscatt, who saw his effort from point blank range fly over the crossbar.
Second Half
After the restart and McFarlane broke through for the Blues and shot from an acute angle, only finding the side netting of Remi Matthews’ goal.
Wanderers responded with link-up play between Oztumer, Muscatt and Navarro, with the latter shooting from inside the area but Birmingham got back and blocked the effort.
Oztumer was at it again, with a pinpoint ball down the line for Duke-McKenna, who tried to square the ball for Navarro but again Birmingham blocked the effort.
Once again, another quick flowing passing move finds Joe Pritchard with acres of space in the box but his effort was deflected wide.
A mix up at the back by the Whites saw McFarlane in with a chance to put Birmingham in the lead, but his effort flies straight into Matthews’ gloves.
With three minutes to go and Birmingham took the lead, as substitute Jude Bellingham smashed his effort across the face of Matthews goal and into the back of the net.
Birmingham soon doubled their lead in stoppage time, as Stirk produced a curling effort from distance to claim all three points for Richard Beale’s men.
Full Time
Wanderers XI: Matthews, Little, Grounds, Zouma, Broughton, Earing, Pritchard, Muscatt, Duke-McKenna, Oztumer, Navarro.
Substitutes: Johnson, Aspinall, Argent-Barnes, Darcy, Brown.