Bolton boss Steven Schumacher hailed an “excellent” first-half performance as Aaron Morley and Josh Sheehan were on target in each half to secure a 2-1 League One win that put them into the top six.
Morley’s strike was clinical as he finished well after good work from George Thomason on the left before a stunning 25-yard effort from Sheehan after a sloppy start to the second half allowed Burton to equalise through skipper Ryan Sweeney.
“I thought we deserved to go ahead in the game,” the Trotters boss said. “Our first-half performance today was excellent.
“We passed the ball really well and got into areas where we felt we could hurt Burton.
“We scored a great goal and my only disappointment at half-time was that we weren’t two or three ahead because we weren’t clinical enough.
“Second half we put ourselves under pressure conceding the equaliser and then we had to come back and really show character.”
Schumacher praised how his side recovered with Sheehan’s strike worthy of winning any match, a thunderbolt that flew in after Morley’s free-kick had hit the Burton defensive wall.
“Today is a better win that Tuesday’s against Birmingham,” he added. “It is easy to get up for those games.
“It is not so easy to come here, play in that way, compete and stand up to everything that Burton throw at you.
“Today was a gutsy performance. A quality performance in the first half and another brilliant game where we have found a way to win.”
Burton are now six points from safety and boss Gary Bowyer reflected on back-to-back defeats against promotion challengers in the space of five days.
“It took us 45 minutes again to get going but, wow, the second half, from our point of view we have had a go,” Bowyer said.
“We get back into the game and on the whole, we have lost to a slip by one of our defenders and then a wonder strike.
“But that is against a team that – with their budget and squad – have to get promoted this season.
“We are a young squad and there are a lot of lessons for our lads over these last two games where they have to step up.”
Bowyer felt that his side were unfortunate on the day but need to improve going into the last 10 games of the season with survival still at stake.
He added: “We get level through Sweens and then Ru Burrell has two very good chances and we had other chances that didn’t quite drop for us so for us it is another one that we have to take the positives from and regroup again for next week.”
