Phil Brown enjoyed his return to his old club – apart from being sent to the stands in the second half – though this was not quite the result high-flying Bolton were expecting as they looked to extend their lead at the top of League One.
Phil Parkinson’s side have won four of their first five games and drew the other when Charlton managed a late equaliser last Saturday, but despite their lowly league position Southend took the lead with virtually their first attack and spent the rest of the game happy to sit on it.
“I was sent off because the fourth official said he heard something,” the Southend manager and former Bolton player said. “It’s one rule for one and another for someone else. Phil Parkinson absolutely abused the referee at half-time. If that had been me I don’t think I’d have been allowed out for the second half.”
Bolton managed an equaliser, but not a great deal more. They were unable to secure all three points despite dominating the second half, which one trusts is not an omen for Sam Allardyce’s tenure as England manager.
It is a while since Big Sam was at large in these parts, just as it is a while since Bolton were in the third division, though the manager is still a hero in the town. As attempts to bask in reflected glory go, the 16-page supplement in the Bolton Evening News marking Allardyce’s first game as England manager deserved some sort of award for ingenuity.
So much rain fell in Lancashire the pitch was in danger of being waterlogged, even early in the first half players had trouble measuring passes with the ball beginning to stick. The afternoon was so dank it was impossible to even see Winter Hill rising behind the Nat Lofthouse Stand and when you cannot see Winter Hill from Horwich it is normally, well, winter.
Nonetheless, Southend got off to the brightest of starts with a goal inside three minutes, Harry Kyprianou marking his league debut with a crisp sidefoot volley from the six-yard line after his opposite wing-back, John White, had found space on the right to send over the most inviting of crosses.
Anton Ferdinand was also making his first league start for the Shrimpers, sadly he lasted only the opening 20 minutes before going down injured and staying down. After their flying start to the season Bolton seemed nonplussed, unsure of how to respond to a setback. Their attempts to get back on terms in the next half-hour could best be described as ineffective, though gradually, as half-time approached, some of the home side’s new signings came to the fore.
A shot from the lively Keshi Anderson took a deflection and fell into Gary Madine’s path, only for the striker to be shoved over in the act of shooting, with the referee unmoved by his penalty appeal. Debutant James Henry put an attempt narrowly wide moments later, but Bolton’s best chance of getting back level in the first half came right on the stroke of the interval.
Ted Smith did well to keep out Liam Trotter’s header from a Josh Vela cross and with the ball bobbling loose none of the trio of Bolton players in the six-yard box could react quickly enough to stab it over the line.
Whatever Parkinson said to his players during the half-time interval must have worked, because Bolton emulated Southend in coming out and scoring quickly, and again it was a debutant on the scoresheet.
Anderson should have done better with a one-on-one chance to beat Smith two minutes after the restart, but managed to miss the target. He was on hand from much closer range to head over the line in Bolton’s next attack, not that he knew that much about it. Smith in the Southend goal was badly at fault and should never have allowed him the chance.
That rather fortuitous equaliser ruined Southend’s plan of hanging on to their lead all afternoon and gave Bolton more confidence, with the former Liverpool midfielder Jay Spearing finally managing to exert some authority in midfield and the home side beginning to exert real pressure.
Mark Beevers was furious with his team-mates midway through the second half after getting his head to a long throw and finding no one alert enough to follow up, though the defender was soon needed at the other end to clear up a rare Southend opportunity when a careless David Wheater back pass almost let in David Mooney.
Sammy Ameobi came on for the last 10 minutes and showed enough composure on the ball to delight the home crowd, helping win a free-kick from which Spearing brought a fingertip save from Smith.
Bolton had chances right up to the end, but when Andrew Taylor missed the target with one of the best with a couple of minutes to go Parkinson and his players were forced to settle for another draw.
“We came back well after a sloppy start,” he said. “We had 23 attempts on goal. I don’t think we could have done a great deal more and Madine alone could have had two penalties. I’m starting to get a little worried about all the decisions we are not being given.”
