Bolton Wanderers have one foot at Wembley after comfortable play-off semi-final success at Barnsley

It finished 3-1 to ‘The Trotters’ who were well worth their win despite a late fightback from ‘The Tykes’ at Oakwell. The second leg takes place at the Toughsheet Stadium on Tuesday (May 7, 8pm).

A fine passing move was finished off from close range by top scorer Dion Charles to give Bolton the lead midway through the first-half. It was the first piece of quality in a first half which featured many long balls into channels.

Bolton took advantage of some horrible defending in the early stages of the second half when Josh Sheehan pounced on a poor headed backpass by Barnsley skipper Jordan Williams and was upended by goalkeeper Liam Roberts for the most obvious of penalties. Charles converted to make it 2-0 and Bolton went on to dominate the next 15 minutes or so.

But some sloppy defending saw ex-Posh centre-back Ricardo Santos go walkabout leaving substitute Sam Cosgrove plenty of time and space to pull a goal back with 15 minutes to go.

Adam Phillips then forced a fine save from Bolton ‘keeper Nathan Baxter with a header from a corner, but it was Bolton who had the last word when an in-swinging corner from Randell flew into the net five minutes into added time.

Peterborough United travel to Oxford United for the first leg of their semi-final on Saturday (7.45pm kick off).