CITY 2 BOLTON 2

IT HAS been half a year since City first took up residence in a play-off place.

The mid-August win at MK Dons, just three games in, elevated Stuart McCall’s men to fifth spot in the early League One table.

They have not dropped below that since.

It is an impressive record of consistency through nearly three-quarters of the season.

That would make dropping out of the top six any time soon, really, really tough to stomach.

In the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s bonkers encounter with Bolton and a certain former manager, it was natural to fear the worst.

Kenny Black had talked before the game that City were ten points behind where they should be. Make that a round dozen now.

All the teams ganging up behind them have games in hand.

But in the cold light of day, recall a performance that – for 90 per cent at least – was as good as any witnessed at Valley Parade in a long time.

Yes, the final result hurt hugely. Yes, there are concerns about this growing tendency to switch off at the back. And yes, we’re all fed up to the back teeth with draws, draws and more draws.

But think about how well City played. Does that suggest to you a team on the slide as the season approaches its nitty-gritty?

This was a clash between pretty and effective. One team very good at how they play; the other very good at what they get.

And ultimately Phil Parkinson’s broad smile afterwards indicated a job well done from the visitors.

He would have taken a point on his comeback before kick-off. He would have bitten your hand off for one at half-time.

Bolton’s visit to Valley Parade was the first of three successive away games against sides around them; a proper test of their promotion mettle.

Parkinson must have feared the worst in an opening 25 minutes when his team looked like rabbits in the headlights.

The intensity of City, both on and off the pitch, threatened to blow them away.

He had warmly recalled some of those famous cup occasions in the build-up; now he knew what it was like to be on the receiving end in that cauldron of noise.

Standing in front of the away dug-out battling an irresistible claret and amber tide, Parkinson could have been Arsene Wenger, Gus Poyet or Paul Lambert – a helpless spectator to the one-sided onslaught in front of him.

McCall, heralded with a mighty volume of noise from the opening whistle, saw his plan working to perfection.

Going three on three up front, Mark Marshall, Charlie Wyke and Billy Clarke ripped apart the division’s tightest defence.

The pitch, as Parkinson knows only too well, was poor but City made light of that as they went for the jugular.

The fast start brought a goal after just ten minutes.

Marshall tore through the middle before off-loading to Wyke on his left. The angled shot was hit well enough but Ben Alnwick should have smothered.

Instead, the keeper began a day he will swiftly want to forget by allowing the ball through his attempted block and into the net.

Worse was soon to follow for Alnwick when he had a rush of blood to chase Tony McMahon’s long ball to the corner of the box.

Nicky Law hoisted it over him and Wyke followed it to turn home right under the noses of a disbelieving Kop – 16 minutes in and two goals up.

“Parky, Parky, what’s the score?” they taunted. Few thought it would be coming back as an ironic response from the other end as the game wore on.

Bolton’s front two carried a threat but City dealt with the long throws, long balls, long passes. Rory McArdle seemed to be involved in his own private game of throws and headers as Dean Moxey launched a succession of them into the penalty area.

The visitors limped to half-time without further punishment. For Parkinson, that must have represented a moral victory given the earlier pummelling.

McCall still looked well on course to become the first City boss to beat Bolton since Frank Stapleton 24 years ago. But he, too, sensed that a two-goal lead was slender pickings considering how dominant the hosts had been.

Bolton could not play as badly again and they didn’t.

Parkinson made a double switch on the hour and the subs energised their performance.

But the lifeline two minutes later came from poor defending rather than anything different on Bolton’s part.

Mark Beevers, for once, got on the end of a free-kick and Romain Vincelot scuffed his clearance straight to David Wheater.

Gary Madine steadied the loose ball for the Bolton skipper to fire home, admittedly with a shanked shot off a post.

McCall threw on Timothee Dieng to add extra inches in the aerial battle as Clarke’s impressive stint was done.

But again it was slackness at the back that proved City’s undoing with the equaliser.

This time Nathaniel Knight-Percival was culpable, losing his man Madine who had a free header at the far post to convert James Henry’s cross.

The game had been turned on its head and the win was up for grabs.

City could not maintain the momentum of the first half but still churned out some decent chances.

James Meredith headed over, Marshall got his feet in a tangle trying to break on goal, Wyke shot over on the turn and Dieng dinged a post.

Madine missed a header at the other end that would have been the ultimate sickener.

It was mad, breathless stuff which made a nonsense of the tight chess match that had been played out at the Macron five months before.

When it was over, City were staring at a sixth draw in the last seven at Valley Parade even if the unbeaten record remains intact.

And from being a team that didn’t concede but couldn’t score enough, McCall now faces the fresh dilemma of a side with a Wyke-inspired cutting edge but an increasingly soft centre at the back.

That needs to be fixed pronto because surely this team have shown they are worthy of remaining among the division’s elite. The table hasn’t lied for these past six months.