Bolton 3 Doncaster 0: Tired legs contribute to thrashing, says Dickov

First-half goals from Joe Mason and Andre Moritz put Wanderers in complete control before a late strike from Neil Danns added the icing to the cake.

The result sees the Trotters leapfrog above Rovers in the table and Dickov accepts they were second-best, despite a great chance to take the lead before the hosts took complete control.

Dickov felt the game might have been very different had Bongani Khumalo’s header opened the scoring instead of hitting the post.

Dickov said: “It’s a defining moment in the game and if that had gone in then it could have been different.

“But I certainly don’t feel that we should have won the game. Even at that point when we hit the post, Bolton were by far the better of the two teams.

“I felt that we just looked a little leggy today having played a lot of games in quick succession.

“It looked at times after half-time that we were only playing in one half of the pitch because we couldn’t get out of our own area. Five games in 14 days I feel just caught up with us there at the end.

“We did come here with a lot of confidence because we have done well in recent weeks. Maybe it is a case of having such a small group of players.

“It looked as though if it did make a massive difference today because they’ve made five changes to their team today and we were just a little bit off it.”

Bolton manager Dougie Freedman was understandably delighted with the victory after a tough run of recent results.

Freedman said: “I’m excited at how we bounced back. You need that in this division because there are a lot of games that come thick and fast and there are a lot of good teams. We worked as a whole team and we saw a Bolton team at their best today.”

Bolton: Lonergan, McNaughton, Mills, Ream, Baptiste, Lee, Spearing, Moritz (Hall 86), Pratley (Medo 84), Eagles (Danns 70), Mason. Unused substitutes: Ngog, Beckford, Knight, Lee-Barrett.

Doncaster: Turnbull, Quinn, Khumalo, McCullough, Stevens, Duffy (Brown 46), Wellens, Furman, Cotterill (Coppinger 60), Robinson, Macheda (Paynter 71). Unused substitutes: Maxted, Wakefield, Woods, De Val Fernandez.

Referee: Richard Clark (Northumberland).

Man of the match: J Mason.