Bolton Wanderers 2 - 1 Blackburn Rovers: Crucial and emotional victory in first game since Muamba collapse

OWEN Coyle, the Bolton Wanderers manager, has revealed that Fabrice Muamba, pictured right, sent a good luck message to his team-mates on the eve of their win over Blackburn Rovers.

Muamba remains in intensive care at the London Chest Hospital after he suffered a cardiac arrest at Tottenham eight days ago that stopped his heart beating for 78 minutes. The 23-year-old has started to recover and was well enough to add his hopes for a positive outcome to an emotionally charged day. And Coyle expects the message will be returned, through Muamba’s father Marcel and fiancee Shauna, that Bolton are out of the relegation zone.

“Fabrice managed to send us a message yesterday through one of the consultants to say he wished the lads well,” said Coyle. “It was great when we heard that. Our chairman has been in touch with Marcel this week and I am pretty sure the information about today’s game has been passed on to Fabrice.”

Rather than limit themselves to a minute’s applause, as had been stated in the schedule to the pre-match planning, Bolton’s supporters responded to the start of a montage being shown on a big screen before the players emerged from the tunnel.

The noise increased as fans in the main stand combined to hold up a massive “Muamba 6” card and the 23-year-old’s name was sung immediately before kick-off, and then at the end as Bolton celebrated victory with a mass huddle.

“It is a private thing,” said Coyle, when asked what had been said. “I wanted to thank everybody for their efforts. It has been an emotional week and the players were out on their feet at the end, both physically and mentally. But that is a small thing compared to the fight Fabrice has got.”

Both Bolton’s goals were disappointing from Blackburn’s perspective. The first, from a Martin Petrov corner, was steered home by David Wheater after Steven Nzonzi had flicked the ball on. The second came from another corner, taken by Ryo Miyaichi, from the other side, with Wheater again the scorer.

It was the first double of his career and his first Premier League goal since August 2008.

More importantly, it lifted Bolton out of the relegation zone, above Queens Park Rangers, who lost at Sunderland.

“The team talk wasn’t long today,” said Coyle. “Nothing is more important to us than Fabrice. If he is able to recover and have a great life with Shauna and his son Josh, that will be fantastic. But, God willing, he is able to play football again at this level, and if he is, our aim is for him to do that as a Premier League player.”