Bolton Wanderers in the League Cup - A First Round Retrospective

Let's take a look at five recent wins from Wanderers in the 1st round of the League Cup

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Bolton Wanderers start their League Cup campaign tonight against Ian Evatt's former side AFC Barrow.

Ahead of tonight's game, let's take a look at five recent wins from Wanderers in first round League Cup games:

2013/14 - Shrewsbury Town 1-3 Bolton Wanderers

In a game mostly remembered for a Sanmi Odelusi screamer, Dougie Freedman's side ran out comfortable 3-1 winners at Shrewsbury. Rob Hall opened the scoring in the 26th minute before Aaron Wildig grabbed an equaliser for the Shrews a couple minutes later. Odelusi restored Wanderers lead just before half time with a finish from close distance, before sealing the win with ten minutes to go with a fantastic striker from just outside the box.

2014/15 - Bolton Wanderers 3-2 Bury (AET)

The next season, Wanderers needed added time to scrape past local rivals Bury.

Ryan Lowe opened the scoring after being set up by future Wanderer Andrew Tutte in the 20th minute. Despite leading for the majority of the game, a last gasp Craig Davies penalty in the 97th minute forced extra time.

Inside the first few minutes of extra time, Wanderers took a 3-1 lead before Jim McNulty pulled one back for Bury.

2017/18 - Crewe Alexandra 1-2 Bolton Wanderers

Much like the Bury game, Wanderers had to come from behind to leave Gresty Road with a win. Chris Porter gave Crewe the lead before half time before first Wanderers goals for Adam Armstrong and Derik Osede in the second half saw Bolton advance into the second round.

2021/22 - Bolton Wanderers 0-0 (5-4) Barnsley

Arguably Joel Dixon's finest moment in a Wanderers shirt came on his debut in the League Cup against then Championship Barnsley. With no team decisive enough to grab the victory in normal time, it took penalties to decide who was going to go through to the next round.

After scoring their first four penalties, Devante Cole saw his spot kick saved by Dixon before Josh Sheehan sealed the win for Wanderers.

2022/23 - Bolton Wanderers 5-1 Salford City

Last season's first round game was Wanderers' most convincing in recent memory. The away side took the lead in the 23rd minute through Brandon Thomas-Asante.

After that, Wanderers went on a rampage. By half time, goals from Kachunga and JDB had turned the game in Wanderers favour.

Bolton added a further three goals in the second half - with Conor Bradley's long range strike the pick of the bunch.