Wanderers couldn’t quite find the goal to end their Burton hoodoo but showed the fight they will need to get their play-off charge over the line.

Other than their wayward finishing in the key moments of the second half, there is not much you can criticise from a performance of real bottle at the Pirelli Stadium.

Former Brewer Victor Adeboyejo gave the Whites a perfect start but the lead always looked a precarious one, and when Josh Walker levelled the scores you feared the worst.

Wanderers roared forward to find a winner from that point, however, and managed to do everything but put the ball in the back of the net.

Derby’s win at Exeter City and Peterborough’s win at Accrington shaves away at Bolton’s advantage – but they still have a game in hand, destiny in their own hands, which with three consecutive home games to come is not a bad position to be in at all.

Wanderers made three changes to the side that beat Oxford at the weekend, bringing in Adeboyejo, Randell Williams and George Thomason for Dan Nlundulu, Declan John and Josh Sheehan.

Faced with a dry, bobbly surface and a swirling pitch-side breeze, there may have been a sense among the packed stand of travelling fans that they had seen this movie before. So often the Pirelli Stadium has been a graveyard for Bolton teams, and Burton’s up-and-at-em approach one they have found difficult to handle, especially away from home.

This time, though, they got off to the perfect start. Sure, Zac Ashworth poked a shot wide with the first attack of the game but Bolton did not allow themselves to be penned in.

Conor Bradley led a fifth-minute break down the right, backheeling the ball to Aaron Morley who – willed to shoot by the away fans – obliged, his effort effectively bouncing off the boots of Burton old boy Adeboyejo and past Craig MacGillivray in the Brewers goal.

If Wanderers had looked jaded in the second half at Oxford, they had certainly found a good night’s rest on the team bus home. Thomason and Adeboyejo’s relentless pressing on their return to the team was perhaps understandable, the effort of Bradley, Charles and Kyle Dempsey quite exceptional.

Burton’s defenders were hassled into mistakes, the press working to a tee.

Bradley had one shot pushed wide after some great work from the front two, and MacGillivray was forced into action again by Charles after another ferocious break triggered by Dempsey.

The home side still had an ever-present threat from set pieces and have in Charlie Kirk and Joe Powell two players who were very pleasing on the eye. James Trafford was only seriously worked on one occasion in the first half, however, and that is when a shanked clearance from George Johnston bounced off Deji Oshijala.

Referee Andrew Kitchen made a series of decisions which left Ian Evatt with his head in his hands just before the break – MacGillivray rushing off his line to clear in front of Adeboyejo and appearing to use his hand, then collecting a backpass from his own player moments later.

In first half stoppage time Wanderers got a reminder that as well as they had played, the game could switch in an instant. Charles’s loose pass on halfway allowed Jonny Smith to chip a deep ball into the box headed wastefully wide by Kirk.

The same player was gifted another chance moments after the restart. This time Morley played a poor ball that caught his own defence on their heels, but Trafford was out to make a fine block.

Sadly, Wanderers’ good fortune failed to hold out a third time. Trafford made a fine save from Mark Helm but sub Walker – on the pitch for less than a minute – managed to bundle home the rebound at the second attempt.

The response was positive. Morley and Demspey fizzed shots just over the crossbar, Thomason pulled one wide after some fine work from Bradley on the right.

MacGillivray denied Charles at his near post and then Thomason failed to get a telling touch on George Johnston’s goalbound header a few moments later which had incoming subs Cameron Jerome and Dan Nlundulu holding their head in disbelief.

Another scramble then ensued as Jerome and Bradley were denied from close range – the ball ending up in the side-netting.

Burton looked to have run out of steam and, willed on loudly by the fans behind Trafford’s goal, Wanderers kept on pushing for a winner.

Dempsey had another goal-bound effort blocked and lofted a chipped shot inches wide of the post.

Five minutes of added time had Evatt roaring for his team to push forward from the technical box. Burton clung on stubbornly to see out a point that should see them safe from the drop, and deservedly so, having beaten Sheffield Wednesday and Barnsley in recent weeks.