Wanderers<\/a> battled for a superb away win at Home Park.\n<\/p>\n\n John McAtee\u2019s red card in a goalless first half seemed to have put Bolton under serious pressure as they went into the second half against one of League One\u2019s in-form sides.\n<\/p>\n
\n Even after Johnny Kenny put them ahead with an early penalty, Ronan Curtis\u2019s equaliser seemed to be paving the way for a home win.\n<\/p>\n
\n But when Mason Burstow and Sam Dalby combined to force Malachi Boateng into an own goal with 20 minutes left there was an incredible effort to hold on and protect a huge win in the play-off chase.\n<\/p>\n
\n Wanderers made five changes to the side that had lost before the international break at Port Vale, bringing in Max Conway, Ruben Rodrigues, Thierry Gale, John McAtee and Josh Sheehan for Xavier Simons, Rob Apter, Chris Forino and Ethan Erhahon. Kyle Dempsey also missed out for family reasons.\n<\/p>\n
\n The first half ended goalless, but McAtee\u2019s soft red card had placed them at a serious disadvantage.\n<\/p>\n
\n Early on, Schumacher seemed to have narrowed his side, perhaps to try and compensate for the lack of Erhahon, Dempsey or Simons. They stayed on level terms only because of two solid saves from Jack Bonham and some decent penalty box defending under some considerable Pilgrims pressure.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Whites could have had more luck in the first few minutes when Gale\u2019s low cross bounced off Mathias Ross and somehow stayed out of the net. But Wanderers struggled to sustain an attack for the next 25 minutes, and most of the football was played in their half.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bonham made a good save from Ronan Curtis, who had been found by a lovely ball over the top from Herbie Kane. And the keeper came to his side\u2019s rescue again when Conway\u2019s clearance was charged down, dropping nicely for Pepple.\n<\/p>\n
\n Plymouth had a big penalty shout turned down as Pepple went down under pressure from Toal \u2013 once again from a blocked clearance, this time from Jordi Osei-Tutu.\n<\/p>\n
\n A change in shape back to a more familiar 4-2-3-1 brought Gale back into the game and he might have done better with a low header from Johnny Kenny\u2019s cross on 36 minutes, shortly before McAtee\u2019s controversial moment.\n<\/p>\n
\n The sight of the striker jumping with back arched for a header has become a familiar one for Bolton fans but on this occasion, he got his timing wrong, and whatever contact was made sent Alex Mitchell to the floor, claiming an elbow had been used.\n<\/p>\n
\n It was untidy, at best, and gave referee Breakspear a decision to make with the howls of a partisan home crowd ringing in his ears.\n<\/p>\n
\n The odds at that point did not look good for Bolton. And yet they could have snatched a lead even before the break after Gale seized on loose ball on the edge of the box but failed to get a good shot away.\n<\/p>\n
\n Schumacher brought off Gale and added Chris Forino at the break, moving to a back five. And within a couple of minutes he had been given a dream start to the second half.\n<\/p>\n
\n Kenny chased down a bouncing ball on the right side of the box and tried to flick it inside the covering defender Jack McKenzie. The handball wasn\u2019t spotted by the referee but the linesman flagged furiously, giving Kenny the chance to tuck the penalty away in front of a delighted away end.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bolton briefly threatened to grab another \u2013 Forino and Osei-Tutu wafting at a ball that would not settle after Conway\u2019s corner.\n<\/p>\n
\n But when Curtis brought Plymouth level just before the hour mark, you sensed it could yet be a long afternoon.\n<\/p>\n
\n Found by Kane\u2019s smart pass from the edge of the box, Curtis got too much space to turn and bury his shot into the bottom corner.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bonham made sure he wasted as much time as humanly possible, something which has angered Bolton as a team on the other side of that equation this season. And as the home side once again tightened their grip on the game it became easier to see them landing a killer blow.\n<\/p>\n
\n And then, out of nowhere, another welcome surprise. Mason Burstow, on as a sub, raced to win a ball on the right to put a fine cross towards Dalby at the far post \u2013 his presence alone was enough to force Boateng to trickle the ball into his own net.\n<\/p>\n
\n For a moment everyone in Home Park seemed to look at each other in shock, wondering if there had been a mistake. Yet Bolton were back ahead \u2013 and this time they were determined not to let the advantage slip.\n<\/p>\n
\n Conway and Cyrus Christie were moved into midfield as Schumacher put all his defensive options into the mix. And a special mention must go to Burstow and Dalby, whose work-rate in those final stages was quite incredible.\n<\/p>\n
\n Seven minutes of added time went up on the fourth official\u2019s board, and for once they were not welcomed.\n<\/p>\n
\n The away fans tried to make up the numbers, providing a non-stop chorus from the Barn Park end.\n<\/p>\n
\n Caleb Watts stabbed one shot wide as Plymouth briefly managed to compose their thoughts enough to create a chance.\n<\/p>\n
\n The noise continued well after the final whistle as nearly 1,400 showed their appreciation for a gargantuan effort in the second half.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Marc Iles \u00a0 STEVEN Schumacher kept up his 100 per cent record against Plymouth Argyle since leaving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-511226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}