Coyle praise for departing Cahill

Bolton boss Owen Coyle praised Gary Cahill after what could be his final game for the club in a 1-1 draw with Wolves on Saturday.

Cahill is set to sign with Chelsea in the coming days after the two clubs agreed a fee of seven million pounds, with only a difference in personal terms standing in the way.

But Coyle had no hesitation in throwing the defender into his side as Bolton continue their fight for survival in the English Premier League.

“I’ve always spoke to Gary sensibly and everyone knows his footballing abilities,” Coyle said.

“I know him as a man and his character as a man and I thought his performance was terrific today.”

“I knew mentally he would be fine with the game because what you have to remember as well is that Gary Cahill is a Bolton Wanderers player and he will be until anything changes on that.”

Bolton took a 22nd-minute lead through defender Sam Ricketts, who made his first appearance since February after a long injury lay-off.

In-form Wolves striker Steven Fletcher equalised four minutes into the second half, as Bolton missed a golden chance to notch just their second home win of the season and slipped to the bottom of the league table as a result.

“I think it was a terrific performance from him (Ricketts) when you consider he has been out for 10 months,” Coyle said.

“He scored a wonderful goal. I’m delighted for Sam to be back and he showed great quality and great pace.”

Wolves manager Mick McCarthy was pleased with his side’s response in the second half but only because his side’s start was so awful.

“At half-time I wondered whether we turned up,” McCarthy said.

“That was the proverbial game of two halves if ever there was one because we were hopeless, we didn’t turn up.”

“We played much better second half, a much better performance but we needed to because we were bang awful before then.”

McCarthy also confirmed Arsenal midfielder Emmanuel Frimpong would be coming on loan at Molineux.”Yes, Frimpong is coming in,” he said.

“It is already done. I hope for him to be available for the game against Chelsea on Monday because I need fresh players – you have seen the shifts the players have been putting in, so this should help.”

The 19-year-old midfielder’s short-term move will go through as soon as the transfer window opens at midnight in the UK on Sunday.