DEAN Holden admits he was happy to see Sammy Ameobi’s name absent on Wanderers team-sheet on Saturday afternoon.

The Bristol City assistant boss, who started out in professional football at Bolton, said the Robins had made provisions in case Ameobi made a quick recovery from a hip injury.

The winger had scored a stunning winner against Bristol City in February but was unable to play a part in the 2-2 draw.

“Bolton are a good side going forward and even though Craig Noone is a very good player, we were happy not to see Sammy Ameobi in the line-up,” Holden told The Bolton News. “We were wondering if Ameobi would have escaped the injury and got back into the team, so we’d had to think about things.”

Holden was pleased enough with a point in the end, having gone 2-0 down to goals from Will Buckley and Josh Magennis.

“There was a five-minute spell with the two goals. We thought there might have been a foul in the build-up to one of them as well,” he said.

“We’re disappointed to have conceded on a set piece because we knew how strong Bolton are on that type of thing.

“We’d had possession without creating a lot. It was far too slow.

“Second half we moved it a bit quicker, down the side of the Bolton defenders, got them backing into their own box. We had chances to win it but when you’ve been 2-0 down in a game away from home not many teams will come back from it.”

Holden made his professional debut at Wanderers in a 1-1 draw at Fulham in 1999 and looked set to take on the right-back role from Neil Cox until a badly broken leg against Sheffield United derailed his career.

He made 21 appearances in all for Bolton, scoring once, and went on to make more than 400 career appearances with the likes of Oldham, Chesterfield, Peterborough United and Walsall.

After moving into coaching with Oldham, gaining his badges and having a brief spell in charge of the Latics, he linked up with Lee Johnson at Bristol City.

But even though he was wearing opposition colours, Holden appreciated coming back to where it all started.

“It’s such a great stadium,” he said. “I love coming back here – it’s one of my favourites.

“I got a good reception, which I thank everyone for. It took me 15 minutes to get through reception earlier with all the old faces from back in the day.

“It’s nice that there are people around from the Burnden Park days when I was a YTS. You don’t get that at too many clubs. There’s a good heart here.

“I’ve always been made to feel welcome coming back.”