MATCH REPORT: Aaron Collins seals memorable win at the death for Wanderers

WANDERERS produced a morale-boosting second-half comeback to beat Blackpool at the death thanks to Aaron Collins’ late strike.

Trailing after a poor first 45 minutes, the pressure on Ian Evatt and his side to produce their much-vaunted response to the hiding at Stockport was unbearable.

But the difference between the two halves of football was quite something, and having got themselves level through George Thomason’s thunderbolt, Colins provided a moment to savour in stoppage time to secure a priceless win.

Wanderers made three changes to the side that was humiliated at Stockport last time out, with Gethin Jones making his first start outside the Vertu Trophy, Thomason returning after several weeks out injured and Aaron Collins replacing Victor Adeboyejo up front.

There had been plenty of apologies made post Edgeley Park, talk of lines drawn in the sand, but the first 45 minutes served up by the Whites was as tepid and uninspiring as anything they had served up at the Toughsheet this season.

Steve Bruce’s side warranted a slender lead at half time given to them by Kyle Jospeh’s header but they could hardly have asked for a more hospitable team to face, with Wanderers creating virtually nothing in an attacking sense.

Josh Sheehan dipped one free kick over the bar, hitting the wall with another from a promising position, and Dion Charles also got his angles all wrong with a header from Aaron Collins’ cross.

Otherwise, it was scrappy and directionless stuff. Blackpool edged ahead when James Husband outmuscled Dion Charles on halfway and Elliott Embleton swung in a cross for Joseph to beat Nathan Baxter’s despairing punch and send the ball bouncing into an empty net.

It might have been worse had Jordan Gabriel found the net with a close range effort blocked by Baxter moments later and though the home fans also reserved some of their displeasure for official, Edward Duckworth, they also made their feelings known to the players jogging off in white.

One of Evatt’s most important half-time team-talks followed. And this time the manager did get a response.

Bolton flew out of the blocks in the second half and were level within eight minutes. Thomason, who had scored a winner almost exactly a year earlier, provided a near carbon copy of that spectacular strike to finally inject a bit of hope around the stadium.

Quite how Collins did not manage to put Bolton in front a few minutes later is anyone’s guess. After connecting well with Thomason’s left wing cross his close-range header somehow bounced off the bar to safety with a queue of players waiting for a tap in.

Collins curled another effort wide before Evatt shook up his attack, bringing Adeboyejo on for John McAtee. Jay Matete also replaced the tiring Thomason, who had also been booked earlier in the game.

Wanderers thought they had forged ahead when Charles’s lashing shot hit the back of the net with seven minutes to go, celebrations around the stadium continuing for some time before the flag was realised.

They also had another golden opportunity when Blackpool keeper Richard O’Donnell got caught out by Dion Charles’s pace and both Szabi Schon and Collins got in each other’s way as they tried to get a shot back in on the empty goal.

As the fourth official showed six minutes of stoppage time there was another breath of energy added by the crowd.

Blackpool pushed bodies forward and put some pressure on the Bolton box but they mounted a counter attack through Matete and Schon, the latter squaring a ball for Collins to slide a shot through a forest of legs and into the bottom corner.