{"id":585014,"date":"2026-05-15T06:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T06:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/585014\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T06:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T06:41:10","slug":"xavier-simons-dangerous-bolton-wanderers-can-win-league-one-play-off-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/585014\/","title":{"rendered":"Xavier Simons: ‘Dangerous’ Bolton Wanderers can win League One play-off final"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2019 Bolton were not just relegated out of the Championship, but their very existence looked in doubt.<\/p>\n

A takeover went through later that summer but the damage of an interrupted season had already taken hold and a second successive relegation in a Covid-interrupted campaign followed.<\/p>\n

And then came the rebuild.<\/p>\n

Ian Evatt led them back to the third tier and a pathway to the second could have followed in 2024, having narrowly missed out on automatic promotion to the Championship.<\/p>\n

The League One play-off final beckoned and, off the back of an impressive campaign, perhaps they were destined to return to the second tier just five years after it had all gone wrong.<\/p>\n

Bolton were, after all, a prolific play-off side, having twice won promotion to the Premier League via the nail biting end-of-season competition.<\/p>\n

That day at Wembley two years ago felt like a step too far, however with a jaded Bolton looking off the pace. Opponents Oxford might not have been fancied before kick-off, but they controlled the game, scored twice<\/a>, and earned their place in the Championship.<\/p>\n

Fast forward two years and Oxford are down and face a return to League One, but could Bolton pull off a reverse in fortunes and take their place? Simons’ finish at Valley Parade means that dream moves a step closer.<\/p>\n

“I couldn’t think of anyone better to score the goal to take us to Wembley. It’s been tough in the second half of the season for Xav,” Schumacher added.<\/p>\n

“He’s found himself sometimes out of starting XIs or matchday squads but he’s a model pro, he’s done absolutely everything properly all the time, every single day.<\/p>\n

“For him to come on and score the goal and take us to Wembley, I’m delighted for him.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2019 Bolton were not just relegated out of the Championship, but their very existence looked in doubt.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-585014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585014","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=585014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}