The drama may be occurring off the pitch at Ewood Park. Precious little happened on it as a dreary stalemate means both Blackburn and Bolton end August winless but if the goalkeepers were largely untroubled, the Rovers manager should be worried. Blackburn denied last week that Gary Bowyer had been sacked and he remains in situ but, with the club compiling a shortlist of potential successors, he may not for much longer.
This was a night to render his position more precarious. These are two clubs who have competed in Europe in the past decade and contested 22 Premier League derbies since 2001, but those are distant days and they left the field to a chorus of boos. The Bolton fans’ ire was directed at the referee Paul Tierney, who dismissed defender Dorian Dervite in stoppage time.
The Rovers supporters’ disenchantment was with their own.
It is always an indictment of a game when bookings outnumber shots on target and, whereas Tierney brandished his yellow card nine times, twice to Dervite, the first save came in the 70th minute, when Blackburn’s left-back Tommy Spurr’s free kick was tipped over by Ben Amos. From Ben Marshall’s resulting corner, Spurr’s header was cleared off the line by Mark Davies.
In a contest of two equally poor teams, another kind of parity followed as Bolton, too, were denied by a goal-line clearance. “Emile Heskey should have scored,” said the Bolton manager, Neil Lennon. The veteran’s last two goals in English football have come against Blackburn, one back in 2011, but none in 2015. When David Raya spilled Zach Clough’s cross, Shane Duffy materialised behind his goalkeeper to hack Heskey’s shot away.
“The spirit, the effort and the character have never been in question,” said Bowyer. His problem was that the quality was lacking. Rovers ought to possess more potency. They remain under a transfer embargo by choice after spurning Middlesbrough’s £12 million offer for Jordan Rhodes. The need for a result meant the striker was parachuted back after a solitary day’s training. The ring-rusty Rhodes had a shot that was deflected into the path of substitute Fode Koita, who beat Amos but was rightly ruled offside. It was a rare decision to please Bolton.
“I thought the referee was appalling,” added Lennon. He blamed Dervite for his “stupid and rash” second caution but criticised Tierney for denying his side a penalty when they had twin appeals. First Clough was sent tumbling to the turf by Duffy, then Davies felt he was upended by Craig Conway. “Nine times out of 10 it is a penalty but we weren’t going to get anything out of him,” Lennon complained.
Instead, Bolton’s slow starts – this is a fifth in successive seasons – have become an annual occurrence – and a side with one goal in eight games has a chronic lack of firepower. “Everyone thinks we need another centre-forward but they cost a lot of money,” said Lennon. Bolton, who have not paid a transfer fee since 2013, have none. They owe owner Eddie Davies £160 million. It is soft debt but these are hard times.
