With the game goalless at 29 minutes in Bolton’s match against Cheltenham two Saturdays ago, referee Sunny Singh Gill was alerted to a supporter in distress in the Toughsheet Community Stadium stands, and the decision was made to abandon the game half an hour later.
Despite the best efforts of paramedics on the scene and hospital staff, the supporter, 71-year-old Bolton fan Iain Purslow, died of a cardiac arrest, prompting tributes from both clubs involved in the match and a remembrance during Bolton’s subsequent FA Cup replay defeat to Luton Town.
Ian Evatt’s side returned to League One duty for the first time since their postponed Cheltenham fixture on Saturday with a trip to Leyton Orient, where a solitary strike from Dan Agyei condemned the Trotters to back-to-back defeats for only the second time this season, ending the Championship chasers’ four-game winning streak.
The loss to Orient hurt Bolton’s drive for automatic promotion back to the second division, although Evatt’s fourth-placed side has two games in hand on Derby County and Peterborough United, while leaders Portsmouth lead by five points after playing three more games.
As a result, the Trotters still hold the League One crown, and they have won five of their last six League One home games at the Toughsheet Community Stadium, where they are on a 10-game third-tier scoring streak after being shut out by Wigan Athletic in August.
While Bolton has already played twice since their last meeting with Cheltenham, their opponents are short in competitive practice, having had their planned match against Carlisle United postponed due to a frozen surface at the weekend.
Darrell Clarke’s side were supposed to face Burton Albion on Tuesday evening – a tie from November that had to be rescheduled – but instead, the Robins face another difficult task in Bolton, where they want to build on their good winter performance.
Cheltenham’s most recent completed fixture ended with Clarke’s squad shocking first-placed Portsmouth 2-1 in front of the home fans, due to a Liam Sercombe brace following Tom Bradbury’s own goal, marking the Robins’ third win in five games and also leaving them
