Pre-season victory over Championship side Preston for Evatt’s Wanderers

Bolton Wanderers earned their third win of pre-season with a 1-0 triumph over Championship outfit Preston North End.

Gethin Jones’ second-half strike was enough to secure the victory on a red-hot evening at the neutral venue of the County Ground in Leyland, owned by the Lancashire FA.

In a meeting of the Whites and the Lilywhites, it was the latter who had the first opportunity of the game with Preston winning a free-kick close to the Bolton area, that after Scott Sinclair tumbled to the floor and had a weak penalty appeal waved away.

Unfortunately for North End however, the free-kick was fired straight into the wall and cleared away from danger comfortably. Soon after, Bolton had a set piece of their own and Hamburg loanee Xavier Amaechi brought a good save out of Preston goalkeeper Connor Ripley.

Fellow new signing Josh Sheehan also fired just wide of goal in the opening quarter after a nice move involving Amaechi and Amadou Bakayoko, the Wanderers putting a statement out that they wouldn’t be intimidated by opposition from a higher division.

Preston’s Brad Potts and Patrick Bauer saw efforts go wide of the mark without troubling Whites’ ‘keeper Joel Dixon, and while those won’t have concerned Bolton boss Ian Evatt, the sight of Amaechi limping off in the first half will have done.

An England international at youth level, Amaechi collided with an opponent in what had looked to be an innocuous challenge but stayed down following it and had to be assisted off the pitch by the team’s medical staff before re-appearing in a protective boot and on crunches come the start of the second half.

Before then however, Bolton were desperately unlucky not to find themselves in front as Ripley pulled off numerous saves to deny them. Sheehan troubled him three times, twice from free-kicks and the third a low shot which was followed up by captain Antoni Sarcevic, but the Preston ‘keeper reacted well and pulled off a stunning double save to keep the score goalless.

That was how it remained at the break, but perhaps uncustomary for a pre-season fixture, there was just one change during the interval as North End opted to change their ‘keeper, replacing Ripley with Matthew Hudson and it wouldn’t be long before the latter was beaten.

Full-back Jones drove forward into space having picked up the ball close to the halfway line and with the defenders retreating, unleashed a powerful drive into the bottom corner of the net leaving new man Hudson with no chance of stopping it.

Evatt’s men deservingly led and could have doubled their advantage through tricky winger Dapo Afolayan had Hudson not sprung into action to tip his effort over the crossbar and behind for a corner.

Then, tempers flared after a very late challenge on goalscorer Jones by North End’s Lewis Leigh. Jones had passed the ball to a teammate, but the Preston man went into the challenge two-footed and in the commonly known ‘scissor’ motion.

Had the game been a competitive one rather than a friendly, the Preston man would likely have seen red, but he received a caution and so did Jones for reacting to the challenge with a push before the Wanderers defender was substituted from the field with an ice-pack at the ready.

Afolayan was also booked by the referee in the aftermath for his protests, and Bolton also felt that they should have been awarded a penalty soon after as it appeared as though centre back Ricardo Santos was prevented from winning the ball in the air from a corner with a push in the back.

Nothing was given though, and following this both managers chose to make changes at different intervals in varying numbers at once. Notably, Preston opted to change their ten outfield players all at once in the 67^th minute. The only player remaining was Hudson in goal, himself a substitute at the start of the second half.

Inevitably, the game lost some of its’ rhythm in the final half-an-hour because of these changes, but North End did build some pressure without any real conviction.

Bolton’s defence stood firm to anything thrown at them though, and come the full-time whistle, had earned a victory over a side preparing to play in a division one higher than they are. A third victory in four pre-season fixtures for Evatt’s men so far, with his former club Barrow to come this Saturday.

Meanwhile, Frankie McAvoy’s Preston tasted defeat for the first time in their build-up to their Championship campaign, a polar opposite to defeating Scottish giants Celtic up in Scotland earlier this week. Next up for the Lilywhites is a trip to Accrington Stanley on Saturday.

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