An injury time counter-attack, a dramatic winning goal, ecstasy for the scorer, play-off heartbreak for the losers – and Anthony Knockaert in the thick of it.

You know the script from 2013, don’t you? The Frenchman as the fall guy and Watford going to Wembley at Leicester’s expense. Well not quite, not this time. This one was a fortnight earlier with Knockaert the goalscoring hero.

It was a moment which, viewed now, bears lots of similarities with Leo Ulloa’s last-gasp goal in the same net and in the same circumstances almost exactly one year later.

And it was a strike some Bolton fans heading to the Amex more in hope than expectation tomorrow still believe was the start of their current problems.

Many pinpoint it as the turning point which sent their club towards what could possibly be administration and relegation in the coming months.

Knockaert is still asked about the play-off semi-final against Watford, when he had a late penalty saved by Manuel Almunia and the hosts then charged to the other end, where Troy Deeney’s goal sent them to Wembley.

But it is easy to forget – unless you follow Bolton – that he was the hero in a similar scenario on an astonishing final day of that Championship season.

Albion were safely in the play-offs by then but above and below them the battles for automatic promotion and a top-six finish were raging.

Bolton had been relegated from the Premier League the previous season and had invested heavily in getting straight back up.

The Argus:

Knockaert goes topless in front of the away end as he celebrates his injury-time play-off clincher at Forest - and Leo Ulloa does similar a year later 

The Argus:

A play-off place would have given them a crack at achieving that and they went into the final day in sixth place – only to go 2-0 down to Blackpool.

Still, a fightback to draw 2-2 meant they would still scrape through if rivals Nottingham Forest and Leicester were to draw their six-pointer at the City Ground.

Simon Cox scored first for Forest but Matty James and Andy King put Leicester ahead, the second of them a header from Knockaert’s pinpoint cross. When Elliott Ward headed Forest level in the 50th minute, the game was heading for the result Bolton needed.

It stayed that way for a tantalising 41 minutes. Then, in scenes which would be repeated by Albion under Oscar Garcia, Leicester broke up a Forest attack just outside the penalty area at the Trent End, sprang forward and Knockaert played a one-two with Chris Wood before drilling home the goal which sent Leicester into the play-offs – and ripped up the Bolton masterplan.

Wanderers ended up stranded in seventh place. In the two subsequent seasons they came 14th, then 18th. Now they are in the bottom three.

It is not all down to Knockaert, of course. They had chances to win on that final day of 2012-13, when their fate was in their own hands.

In the previous 12 games, Leicester had only won once – a 3-2 success at home to Bolton. Still, they were the form side in the latter months of the year. But they had to be given how they had banked on promotion.

After relegation in 2012, they invested in signings like Matt Mills, Andy Lonergan, Keith Andrews, Benik Afobe, Jay Spearing and Stephen Warnock in an effort to bounce straight back.

Manager Owen Coyle departed on October 9 with the Whites in 18th place and replacement Dougie Freedman set about his own recruitment drive, adding Jacob Butterfield, Craig Davies, Craig Dawson, Jan Gregus, Steven De Ridder, Medo Kamara and Cian Bolger to the wage bill.

It was after Knockaert broke their hearts with his goal at the City Ground that the true cost of their promotion bid started to hit home.

Record-breaking losses of £50.7million were announced on December 21, 2013, by which time staff costs were at £37.4 million. Those figures were down from £55.3million the previous year but still vastly inflated for a Championship side.

The Argus:

Bolton were targeting the Premier League when they drew 1-1 at the Amex in 2012-13.

Cost-cutting continued but, when current boss Neil Lennon arrived at the club in October 2014, he too could see the financial set-up was not going to be sustainable.

He admitted: “When I came down here I thought the wage bill was infinitely excessive and that hasn’t changed. It’s one of the reasons we’re in the position we find ourselves. We have to look at it and make sure we do things more prudently.”

Bolton are under transfer embargo and are due in court later this month over an outstanding tax bill. Their league position has been helped by a burst of seven points out of nine but they did not exactly sparkle in home wins over Rotherham, whose manager Neil Redfearn was subsequently sacked, or MK Dons.

The other point in that time came with an unlikely comeback from 2-0 down at Wolves as Stephen Dobbie’s late goal forced a 2-2 draw.

It was heartbreak for Knockaert too back in 2013 as Watford sent his Leicester side out of the play-offs. There is a theory in the East Midlands that the disappointment that day galvanised the Foxes to the Championship title, Premier League survival and now high-flying feats under Claudio Ranieri.

There have been no silver linings for Wanderers, though. Bolton have good reason to remember Knockaert.