The relegation situation changed in a space of minutes on Sunday, leading to Bolton needing a win at Stoke City combined with QPR losing at Man City, otherwise it's Championship football next season.
Bolton had at one point been leading 2-0, but in all honesty it wasn't deserved. West Brom were the better team in the first half and Bolton were lucky to not concede several goals - instead a Martin Petrov penalty made it a very fortunate 1-0 at half time. It continued this way in the second half, as West Brom continued to look like scoring, and then a comedy moment from them, as one defender skewed a clearance straight into another defender's face, and this sent the ball into the net for a super fortunate 2-0.
So it was no surprise when West Brom got a goal back minutes later, 2-1. And from this point on the West Brom dominance went up several notches - it became all one way pressure.
As the match approached the last few minutes, the person sat next to me, who'd been half listening to his radio for most of the second half, announced that QPR had taken a late lead at home to Stoke. I think my response was "oh S**T". I don't see Bolton getting anything at Stoke, so felt that Bolton needed to better QPR's result on the day - this QPR goal made Bolton's win suddenly seem a little irrelevant.
And then the pressure told, and West Brom got their equaliser. It had felt quite inevitable from the 80th minute onwards, Bolton had been doing nothing other than unorganised and frequently chaotic defending, with everyone going back to defend so no-one to keep the ball when it was desperately smashed clear.
So in the space of a couple of minutes it went from Bolton going 2 points above QPR, to QPR going 2 points clear of Bolton. Thankfully West Brom were happy to stick with a 2-2 draw, as if they'd continued their full on attacking for the 5 minutes of added time there was chance they would have scored again. Bolton attempted to push forward but failed to create anything of note.
So at least Bolton go into the final game of the season with something to play for - but a win at Stoke seems so unlikely after recent performances. Bolton fans of course know all too well about Stoke causing them misery after Stoke beat them 5-0 in the FA Cup semi final last year... however Bolton did get revenge by beating Stoke 5-0 earlier this season. The problem is Stoke are such a better team at home.
I'll be at the Britannia with the Bolton fans on Sunday, and in truth at the moment I'm mainly feeling dread about this one - I just can't see anything other than Bolton going down and the day ending in misery (and the vociferous Stoke fans will be more than happy to rub in that misery from what I've been told about them!). But I'm sure my hopes will build a little by the time the match begins, and after Blackburn were relegated tonight, I guess in a way it's a relief that Bolton have any hope left at all for the last game of the season.
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