Derby fight back to beat Bolton and ease strain on Eustace

Derby County eased the mounting pressure on manager John Eustace by coming from behind to beat Bolton Wanderers 2-1 in the Championship, according to Sky Sports Football.

The victory at Pride Park halted a run that had left Derby in serious trouble before kick-off. Yahoo Sports reported that the second-bottom Rams had taken just three points from their previous ten league games heading into the fixture.

That slump had included a 4-0 home defeat to Norwich only three days earlier, a result which had intensified scrutiny on Eustace going into the Friday night fixture, per Yahoo Sports.

Derby had also been beaten 4-1 at Millwall in the game before that, with Yahoo Sports noting the club had not conceded four or more goals in three consecutive league matches since November 1946 prior to this run of results.

Bolton arrived at Pride Park in considerably better health, sitting 17th in the table and seven points clear of the relegation zone after a 1-0 win at Charlton in midweek, according to Yahoo Sports' pre-match analysis.

The Trotters had built that position largely on the road, picking up ten points from their previous four away league games, having managed just a single point from their opening three away fixtures of the season.

History, however, favoured the hosts. Yahoo Sports noted that Derby had gone unbeaten in their last 16 home league meetings with Bolton, winning the previous six in succession, and that Bolton had won only once in their last 11 Championship encounters with the Rams.

This was the sides' first meeting in the Championship since a 4-0 defeat for Bolton in April 2019, a gap that underlined how rarely the two clubs had shared a division in recent seasons.

Bolton forward Sam Dalby had arrived in form, having scored six goals from just ten shots on target in the Championship this season, four of them away from home, Yahoo Sports reported.

Despite that threat and Bolton's superior recent form, it was Derby who found a way through, recovering from behind to secure the win that Sky Sports Football described as taking the heat off Eustace.

The result offers Derby a measure of breathing space after a run that had seen them without a win in ten Championship outings, while Bolton's run of away form takes a rare dent on a night they had looked capable of extending it.

Attention at Pride Park now turns to whether Derby can build on the win to pull away from the bottom of the table, while Bolton will look to return to the form that had carried them to the fringes of mid-table safety.