WANDERERS have waited a long, long time for a win... but they have waited a lot longer for someone to score a hat-trick!

The last time a Bolton player took home the matchball was April 6, 2002, when a certain Fredi Bobic put Ipswich Town to the sword in a 4-1 win that helped save the club from relegation from the Premier League. Who knows how important this one will be?

How Wanderers needed someone to step up and do something magical in a season that has been anything but.

Enter Joe Mason – the young, unheralded striker on loan from Cardiff City to etch his name in Bolton Wanderers club’s folklore when they really needed it most.

Dougie Freedman definitely owes him a pint, let alone a match-ball.

The Wanderers boss had been treated to the sight of a “Freedman Out” banner in the East Stand Upper before it was removed just prior to kick-off. Realistically, this result will only give him brief respite from the doubters.

Freedman made three changes, employing a narrow 4-4-2 and bringing Craig Davies, Neil Danns and Darren Pratley back into the side that had drawn so frustratingly with Sheffield Wednesday at the weekend.

Chung-Yong Lee, Owen Garvan and Liam Feeney were the casualties, although a thought should probably also be spared for Tim Ream, who continued his purgatory at right-back in the continued absence of Kevin McNaughton.

Judging by the formbook, the game was going to be won and lost early on.

Rotherham had not scored nor conceded any goals inside the first 30 minutes this season, while Wanderers were the only club in the Football League to have failed to score outside the first half hour. Both those statistics were to be completely null and void by the end of the night.

Of the two teams, the Whites made the marginally more impressive start.

Joe Mason went closest, striking an early effort into the side-netting via a deflection off Joe Skarz.

Mark Davies – playing his 150th game for the club - and Neil Danns also had sighters but in what has become a regular occurrence for Freedman’s side this season, nothing was going on target.

Rotherham inched their way ominously into the game, making full use of set pieces in and around the Wanderers box.

Dean Moxey got an important toe on one free-kick that skipped across the penalty box, with Matt Derbyshire ready to pounce at the far post.

Pretty it wasn’t, but spurred on by Steve Evans and Paul Raynor, spitting and barking on the touchline, the Millers steadily started to believe they could get ahead.

They got a big helping hand from referee Neil Swarbrick in doing so, as the Preston-based official put Matt Mills in a fury by ruling that he had fouled Becchio on the edge of the area.

The defender’s rage won’t have eased any as Wordsworth stepped up to curl the free kick around the wall and past the sprawling Andy Lonergan, sending 1,200 Rotherham fans into delirium.

The goal did not bring about the mass negative reaction you might have expected from the home fans, in fact they seemed as shell-shocked as the players on the pitch.

There was only one chance to get back on level terms before the break, as Neil Danns raced through the heart of midfield to drive a low shot just wide.

By that point the regulars had digested what they had seen over the first 45 minutes and it was to a familiar sound of discontent that the players trudged off for half time.

Wanderers desperately needed to up the tempo and for a brief moment the message seemed to have sunk in.

Adam Collin blocked a bouncing effort from Joe Mason with his knees and then was grateful to see a low effort from Ream, who had cut in from the right, driven straight into his hands.

But the mini-revival was halted briefly when Paul Taylor lashed a shot against the post, prompting Freedman into action from the bench.

Liam Feeney and Chung-Yong Lee were brought on to add a semblance of width to a desperately narrow midfield and almost instantly the Whites brought themselves level.

With the Whites’ very first shot on target of the night, Mason arrowed a superb strike into the bottom corner to score what was Bolton’s first goal in nearly four hours of football.

Suddenly there was a little bit of hope around the Macron Stadium, which has been a rare old commodity this season.

The players responded in kind. Davies, who had been instrumental in Mason’s equaliser suddenly started to get on the ball more, while Chung-Yong showed more invention on the left in his first 10 minutes on the pitch than the team had in the previous hour.

It was the Korean who very nearly forced Frazer Richardson to put through his own net with 14 minutes left on the clock – the former Leeds defender forcing keeper Collin into a fine save.

Even though Rotherham had thrown three strikers on to the pitch to try and force a second goal, only one side looked likely to get it.

With 10 minutes to go, Craig Davies hassled a corner out of Skarz and Jay Spearing’s set piece was headed home with aplomb by Mason.

That should have been game, set and match. But Wanderers chose that moment for their back four to collectively go to sleep as the ball was whipped in from the left and sub Alex Revell stabbed it home from close range.

But this breathless second half hadn’t stopped giving just yet.

Wanderers ploughed a free kick deep into the Rotherham box, Mills got up above the defence and his header landed perfectly for Mason to stroke home.

He could have joined Tony Caldwell in the five club before the end – missing two good chances in stoppage time.

Rotherham thought they had grabbed yet another equaliser, only for Revell’s tap-in to be ruled out for offside.