Jay Spearing scored his first goal of pre-season to put Wanderers ahead, but Eliot Richards equalised for the home side. Wanderers penultimate game of pre-season came away to Port Vale, where they got off to a good start, with Matt Mills heading home his first goal of pre-season. Jermaine Beckford doubled Bolton's tally from over 30 yards. Tom Pope pulled a goal back for the home side late on, but Bolton held on for the win. On 26 July, the club confirmed that Jay Spearing would be the club captain for the forthcoming season, following the departure of Zat Knight. Matt Mills, meanwhile, was appointed as the club's vice-captain. In their final game of pre-season, the home friendly against Vitesse Arnhem, Bolton fell behind to a Marko Vejinović free-kick and could not muster a response, losing the first fixture at their renamed stadium. Bolton XI On 20 May, Bolton announced their annual pre-season fixture against Chorley in the Harold Taylor Memorial Trophy would take place on 26 July. This announcement was followed by a Bolton XI's finalised pre-season schedule with games against Bamber Bridge, Hyde, Melbourne Heart, AFC Fylde and Wrexham also taking place. After the announcement of the fixtures, Melbourne Heart were purchased by Manchester City and were rebranded as Melbourne City, while also signing Damien Duff and David Villa. Conor Wilkinson opened the scoring in the Bolton XI's first game against Bamber Bridge, with Stuart Vasey equalising for the hosts. The following game against Hyde F.C. was postponed due to bad weather. They then hosted Melbourne City, where, despite scoring an early goal through Conor Wilkinson, they lost 5–1, with Kisnorbo, Williams, Brown, Dugandzic and Aaron Mooy, formerly of Wanderers, all scoring for the visitors. They then went to Chorley where Wilkinson again scored the opening goal, but Chorley won the game with goals from Harry Winter and Tom Smyth. Danny Lloyd scored the only goal of Bolton XI's penultimate game of pre-season, as Bolton lost 1–0 to AFC Fylde, but in their final pre-season game, Bolton XI got their first win of pre-season as they beat Wrexham 1–0 courtesy of Chris Lester's first half goal. During pre-season ex-Bristol City defender Liam Fontaine was on trial for the club, playing in matches against AFC Fylde and Wrexham. On 6 August it was revealed that Fontaine had discontinued training with the club at the start of that week, after