Had Owen Coyle wanted to match Blackburn Rovers’ muscle, their physicality, he would no doubt have started the match with Fabrice Muamba in the middle of the park.

But a firm believer in his own team’s footballing abilities, Coyle sent out Wanderers to play their own game, rather than neutralise the Blackburn threat.

Playing both Mark Davies and Stuart Holden in central midfield, together with Martin Petrov and Chung-Yong Lee on either wing, was arguably the manager’s most attacking selection to date this season.

Sadly, however, any ambitions of creativity Whites harboured were surely stifled by Big Sam’s well-organised Rovers in the first half.

It was a dull opening 45 minutes – I don’t think I’ve seen a worse half all season – but that’s what Blackburn do.

The Holden/Davies partnership did not produce the goods, and any hopes Mark Davies had of proving he and the American could work well together in the second half were short-lived following a harsh second booking and a red card.

Ironically, Muamba’s arrival proved the turning point.

Apart from a short period of Rovers pressure just after the sending off, we never looked like we were a man down.

In fact, we were galvanised by the perceived injustice. We were forced to become a little bit more direct, a little bit more like the Big Sam’s Bolton of old.

Muamba’s excellent strike came from a simple set piece, while Holden’s stupendous volley was classic route-one stuff.

It was heartbreaking when Blackburn equalised – their sole goal was the most free-flowing move of the match, showing there is more to Rovers than long ball – but it took Wanderers just 10 seconds from the restart to retake the lead.

Sunday's game showed Wanderers can not only win pretty, but they can win ugly too.

We’re now sitting pretty in sixth and dreaming of Europe.

Despite this, after the match, an ambitious Coyle said his team were still nowhere near where he would like them to be – these are exciting times.