Bolton Wanderers v Reading
Sky Bet League One
Toughsheet Community Stadium
Monday 1st April 2024
3pm
Journey Time to the ground: 3 hours 20 minutes. We are staying in Knighton, Wales at the moment so left just before 10:20am and made the journey cross-country up to Bolton. We parked up at Bolton Arena literally across the road from the ground just before 1:40pm, paying £5 for the privilege of being so close. After picking our tickets up from the club shop, we looked around the nearby Middlebrook retail park to kill some time before kick-off.
Ticket Price: £10
Programme Price: £3.50
Attendance: 25,266 with 1,299 Reading fans.
This was my first visit to Bolton for a game that I decided I needed to see when the very reasonable ticket prices were released. It was Bolton's community day so a large crowd was expected. We had tickets in the Franking Sense South Stand Upper Tier which is the away end. This end was shared with home supporters who were situated in the lower tier. The Franking Sense South Stand is a two-tiered all-seater stand. The view from our seats and legroom was good, however the seats themselves were actually quite narrow.
To the left of the Franking Sense South Stand is the Kia West Stand. This is a two-tiered all-seater stand that is the main stand at the Toughsheet Community Stadium housing the team dug-outs at its front. Opposite the Franking Sense South Stand is the Carrs Pasties North Stand which is another two-tiered all-seater stand. To the right of the Franking Sense South Stand in the Nat Lofthouse East Stand with Eventura. This is another two-tiered all-seater stand with Bolton’s most vociferous fans seeming to congregate in the lower tier of this stand in the South East corner closest to the away fans.
Reading came into this game in decent form but still with lingering relegation concerns after what has been the hardest season I've ever known as a fan. Bolton on the other hand were well in contention for an automatic promotion spot and it was the hosts that took the lead with the first meaningful shot of the game, Aaron Collins scoring after 11 minutes with a 25-yard effort I could see curling into the top-corner as soon as it left his boot. Bolton were much the better side in the first-half, however Reading managed to level against the run of play, Lewis Wing with an equally stunning effort from the edge of the box five minutes before half-time. However The Royals were unable to go into the break level as Amadou Mbengue brought Collins down in the box and he duly dispatched the spot-kick past Joel Pereira in the Reading goal.
Reading started the second-half with purpose but fell further behind five minutes in when former Royal Jon Dadi Bodvarsson poked in to capitilise on Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan's wayward pass in the middle of the pitch. To their credit, Reading continued to press and with Bolton always dangerous on the break, this lead to a hugely enjoyable game to watch. Jayden Wareham thought he had pulled a goal back on the hour-mark but it was disallowed as Sam Smith was adjudged to have been offside in the build-up. Collins completed his hat-trick in the 77th minute with a close-range finish after pinball in the box. Reading grabbed a second consolation goal in the second-minute of stoppage time but amazingly this wasn't the end of the scoring as Bodvarsson scored his second, and Bolton's fifth, three minutes later. It was a deserved victory for Bolton, however I couldn't help thinking that if Reading hadn't conceded two either side of half-time it could have been a different result.
Atmosphere: The atmosphere was a little subdued for the size of the crowd and the end result. The Bolton fans didn’t seem to be too loud and the Reading fans were also quite quiet as the team was under pressure for most of the game.
Journey Time home: 2 hours 55 minutes. We got back to the car just before 5:20pm and arrived back at our hotel just before 9:30pm with an hour and 15 minute stop at Chester services where we got some McDonalds for dinner.
Overall I really enjoyed my trip to Bolton despite the result as it had been a highly entertaining game. The stadium is quite impressive from the outside however I felt that it seemed smaller than I expected once inside the ground, however this could be because we were in the upper tier. The semi-circular design of the upper tiers also made it look like there was quite a bit of empty space which probably also made the ground feel smaller than an almost 30,000-seater stadium.
