Birmingham City vs Bolton Wanderers match report: Lively Neil Lennon picks up debut win and a red card

Birmingham 0 Bolton Wanderers 1: Former Celtic manager picks up his first win in the Championship

Pitch invader: Neil Lennon turned Bolton around but was sent to the stand (Getty Images)

Fasten your seatbelts. Neil Lennon is back in football. The new Bolton manager marked his return by being sent to the stands by referee Mark Haywood during a win which took his team off the bottom of the Championship table.

Not content with steering the Wanderers to a victory which ended a run of six straight defeats, the former Celtic boss stirred up the kind of controversy which became a feature of his successful spell in charge of the Scottish club.

This time there were no touchline assaults, religious threats or parcel bombs of the type which came his way in Glasgow. This time he was dispatched for simply going walkabout from his technical area. That earned the wrath of fourth official Amy Fearn.

Lennon revealed: “I got sent off for leaving my technical area, walking on pitch a few yards to give instructions. The lady fourth official warned me but they have to understand it was my first game. It was overexuberance on my part. It was harsh and pedantic. I wasn’t remonstrating with anyone.

“This is a new environment, new culture I have to get used to. I haven’t been sent off for two years. My disciplinary record was not great when I started because I was a young manager. Then I became pretty mellow and I was mellow out there. I will appeal against it.”

Lennon watched the last five minutes from the stands having been dispatched soon after Bolton were awarded a penalty for a foul by Darren Randolph on substitute striker Craig Davies, which earned the Blues keeper a red card. Midfielder Lee Novak had to take over between the posts because the home team had used their three subs but Davies ballooned the spot-kick over the bar.

Bolton had taken the lead in the 21st minute with a headed goal from defender Matt Mills who, ironically was one of the players Lennon had ordered to remove a woolly hat in his first training session.

Lennon celebrated with the same enthusiasm that he did when leading Celtic to their famous Champions League win against Barcelona two years ago. He ran from his technical area under the watchful eye of Ms Fearn, who, by this time, was adding up his misdemeanours.

Birmingham hit the bar twice through David Cotterill and Demari Gray and manager Lee Clark felt they did enough to earn something but this was Lennon’s day and he saw the win as a big uplift and a start towards the long haul to survival.

Line-ups:

Birmingham City (4-2-3-1): Randolph; Caddis, Grounds, Edgar, Robinson; Davis (Reilly, 28), Gleeson (Thomas, 66); Arthur, Gray, Cotterill (Novak, 58); Donaldson.

Bolton Wanderers (4-5-1): Lonergan; McNaughton, Mills, Dervite, Moxey (Ream, 78); Spearing, Feeney, Danns, Pratley (C. Davies, 78), Chung-Yong; Beckford.

Referee: Mark Haywood (West Yorkshire).

Man of the match: Gray (Birmingham City)

Match rating: 6/10