“We might have lost that last year,” David Wheater admitted. As the Bolton Wanderers players boarded their coach for the trip back north from The Valley, it was telling that the overall feeling was one of optimism rather than ruefulness despite surrendering the Football League’s final remaining 100% record to a last-minute equaliser from the teenager Ademola Lookman.
“There’s not many different lads here but the manager made some changes and we’ve all bought into it,” Wheater said. “The confidence was pretty low at the end of last season but we were going into games thinking we could win and it just wasn’t happening for us. When you go a goal down anywhere it can get you down but this year we have made a good start and hopefully we can keep it going.” Only five matches into their first season in the third tier since 1993, Bolton have already amassed more points than they managed in the first 20 league games of last season. Had they managed to hang on to the lead established by Gary Madine in the 53rd minute against Charlton Athletic, they would already be halfway to the total that saw them finish bottom of the Championship – 19 points adrift of safety.
Nearly a decade has passed since this was a Premier League fixture in January 2007, with both clubs having suffered steady declines ever since. Charlton went down at the end of that season and are now embarking on their fourth campaign in League One since then due to another relegation in May, whereas Bolton eventually finished seventh that year after Sam Allardyce’s surprise departure when they were fifth with only two games left.
The Lancashire club have never really recovered from losing the future England manager, despite maintaining their top-flight status until 2012. But after a recent past that has been marred by huge debts and a steady decline, there are signs that Bolton may have turned the corner.
The appointment of Phil Parkinson – who had spent nearly five years with Bradford – in June has imbued a new sense of confidence among players and supporters after the club’s best start to a season for 82 years. Having waited 495 days for an away win until a fortnight ago at AFC Wimbledon and then following that up with another four days later, 900 fans made the trip to south-east London in the hope of seeing a third victory in succession.
Parkinson, who spent almost four years at The Valley as assistant to Alan Pardew and then manager, knows all about Charlton. Despite the discontent among the home fans concerning the club’s unpopular Belgian owner Roland Duchâtelet – an unofficial programme featuring a picture of the chief executive, Katrien Meire, and a North Korean flag was handed out before kick-off – the new manager, Russell Slade, has settled in quickly and they began this game in fifth place.
Only a good save from Mark Howard in the seventh minute and some wasteful finishing from Nicky Ajose prevented Bolton from falling behind in the first half, although Madine served warning of what was to come when his header from a corner was cleared off the line. Minutes after the interval, Mark Davies needed lengthy treatment after suffering a serious knee injury but Bolton were ahead within 90 seconds of the restart, when Madine slotted home from Liam Trotter’s pass.
Charlton attempted to respond, with the substitute Lookman showing why he has been watched by several Premier League clubs including Arsenal and Liverpool, but they found Bolton’s defence led by Wheater and Mark Beevers a tough nut to crack. It took a brilliant piece of individual skill from the 18-year-old to finally make the breakthrough, with Slade admitting afterwards that they may struggle to hold on to a player who only joined the club in 2014 after achieving three A*s and five As in his GCSEs at St Thomas the Apostle College in Camberwell.
For Parkinson, a point gained from visiting a side he believes could be one of Bolton’s main rivals for promotion was confirmation his team are making progress. “It’s gradually building,” he said. “The first away win at Wimbledon was huge because we hadn’t won away for so long, so the confidence has grown since then. We had to start again in terms of trying to learn the mentality of how to win football matches. We’ve got off to a great start and we’re looking to build on that now. But I want to make sure the squad is strong enough to make sure we can do that.”
Already operating under a transfer embargo, Parkinson had to stomach the injury to Davies and now has genuine concerns about being able to add to his squad before the transfer deadline on Wednesday. “It makes things tough but it is a punishment for clubs,” he said. “You’re restricted in terms of numbers and in this first season of no emergency loans it makes it very difficult because if you pick up some injuries like we have then the squad can look threadbare.”
There may be a long struggle ahead, but Bolton must just be grateful memories of their last campaign can now be consigned to the record books.
Talking points
• While David Wagner’s Huddersfield have attracted all the attention after going top of the Championship following their 1-0 win over Wolves, another Yorkshire club is also sitting pretty in the table. The 4-0 thrashing of Rotherham on Saturday made it three wins from five for Barnsley, who are also the division’s top scorers with 12 goals following their promotion via the play-offs last season. Despite the loss of defender Alfie Mawson - set to join Swansea for an undisclosed fee of around £5m – the Barnsley manager, Paul Heckingbottom, has assembled a promising young side with players almost exclusively under the age of 25. Could a first season in the top flight since their only previous campaign in 1997-98 be on the cards? It would be one of the stories of the season if they can pull it off.
• Chelsea’s loan policy has often been criticised but fans of Bristol City will not be complaining. While the Ivorian striker Jonathan Kodjia sat out the win against Aston Villa on Saturday before a proposed £14m move to Hull City or Derby County, the 18-year-old Tammy Abraham proved an able deputy as he scored his third goal in four starts since moving to the west country for the season. Another player born and raised in Camberwell, Abraham has been tipped for big things by the Stamford Bridge hierarchy having made his Premier League debut last season and accompanied Antonio Conte’s side on their pre-season tour to the United States. City’s victory took Lee Johnson’s side into the top six of the nascent Championship table, although they are one of five sides on nine points.
• At the other end of the table, things are looking bleak in Lancashire. Blackburn’s poor start continued as Tom Cairney’s injury-time goal gave Fulham a dramatic victory at Ewood Park, while Preston also went down to a solitary goal at Ipswich to leave them second from bottom. Simon Grayson let rip at his players afterwards for “letting their standards slip” and he will be hoping that Jermaine Beckford can recover quickly from the hamstring injury he sustained against Fulham if they are to avoid being dragged into another relegation battle.
• The departure of Parkinson to Bolton does not seem to have affected his former side too much. Bradford maintained their early season momentum in second place in League One after coming from behind to earn a point at Valley Parade against Oldham. Stuart McCall returned in the summer for his second spell at the club having spent more than three years there and the former Scotland midfielder will be desperate to end the Bantams’ exile from the top two divisions – a run that now stretches back more than a decade to the 2003-04 season.
• After flirting with promotion in their first three seasons in the Football League, Morecambe came dangerously close to returning from whence they came last season when they finished 89th out of the 92 clubs. Four wins from their first five matches this term has seen Jim Bentley’s side set the early pace this season but they had to do it the hard way on Saturday. Trailing 2-0 to 10-man Accrington Stanley after two goals from Billy Kee, they produced a thrilling comeback to win 3-2, with Cole Stockton also scoring twice.
