Anelka sent a looping header over the Rabotnicki goalkeeper Tome Pacovski on 68 minutes after fellow sub Stelios Giannakopoulos had delivered a delightful curling cross from the left hand flank.

Bolton deserved their win and but for a desperate late onslaught by the Macedonians they dominated the match from start to finish despite Wanderers manager Sammy Lee ringing the changes from the side which drew at Derby County last weekend.

In came Christian Wilhelmsson, Daniel Braaten, Danny Guthrie for rare starts and there was also places for Gerald Cid, Gavin McCann, Mikel Alonso and Lubomir Michalik.

Defenders Abdoulaye Meite and Ricardo Gardner joined star strike duo Anelka and El-Hadji Diouf on the substitutes bench with Sunday's important home game against Chelsea in mind.

The Wanderers started patiently and moved the ball around well in midfield to begin with, but they often found the final ball or effort wasn't enough to sufficiently hurt their opponents from Eastern Europe.

Captain for the night Davies was leading by example from the front and his link up play with Braaten and Wilhelmsson in particular could have been the outlet which Bolton needed to open Rabotnicki up.

On the quarter hour mark the lively midfielder Guthrie had the first telling effort of the game but the on loan Liverpool man saw his effort saved by Pacovski in the visitors goal.

Three minutes later Bolton had shouts for a penalty turned away by Norwegian referee Tommy Skjerven after Miroslav Vajas appeared to hack down Wilhelmsson in full flight in the area.

Skjerven ajudged that the foul had taken place outside the area and awarded the Wanderers a free kick but many of the Reebok Stadium faithful had been unhappy with the decision given.

The hosts came ever closer to breaking the deadlock on 32 minutes when Davies saw his powerful header from a right wing Guthrie corner scrambled off the line by Nikola Gligorov.

Wilhelmsson fired aimlessly over for Bolton as the half came to a close and the same could be said for Gligorov and Nderim Nedzipi who both saw their efforts closed down by the home defence.

Of note, Frenchman Gerald Cid looked much more assured in his second appearance in the left back role having endured a tough start to his Bolton career when playing in central defence at the start of the campaign.

Bolton where forced into an early change at the start of the second half when Mikel Alonso was brought off to be replaced by Stelios Giannakopoulos for his first Reebok appearance of the season.

Spanish midfielder Alonso had gone down heavy under a Rabotnicki challenge late in the first half and was deemed unfit to continue by Wanderers manager Lee.

Ten minutes after the re-start Bolton had a glorious chance to break the deadlock, a flick on by Davies had caused confusion in the Rabotnicki penalty box and Giannakopoulos had rounded Pacovski only to see Zjelko Kovacevic hack his tame shot to safety.

Striker Braaten's pace was causing problems for the visiting side and the Norwegian was often felled when just about to start off on a trademark run prompting the officials to issue a number of cards.

Ertan Demiri was one such culprit for Rabotnicki who ended up with five of their players being cautioned throughout the evening for often unnecessary fouls which stopped the game.

In a bid to make their possession and chances count, Bolton brought on top scorer Anelka and within a minute of the record signing coming on the Wanderers had put themselves in front and seemingly into the next phase of the UEFA Cup.

Anelka rose well at the far post to convert Stelios Giannakopoulos delightful ball for his sixth goal of the season so far and second goal in a matter of days.

On 73 minutes Rabotnicki saw their left sided player Adekunle Lukmon stretchered off with what appeared to be a thigh problem and in his place came Vasko Bozinovski.

Wanderers defended well in the final ten minutes to cancel out some rare attacking moments from Rabotnicki and midfielder Nderim Nedzipi went close but not close enough with an effort over the top

Substitute Krste Velkovski thought he had rescued the away side right at the death but the midfielder could not get on the end of the ball into the box despite stretching to full capacity.

Bolton put in a good, controlled performance which should stand them in good stead for Sunday's home game against Chelsea followed by an important trip to Arsenal two weeks later.

The draw for the Group stages of the UEFA Cup will take place next Tuesday and will be on a 2 home, 2 away basis as was the case when the Trotters played in this competition two years ago.

BOLTON WANDERERS: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Joey O'Brien, Andy O'Brien, Lubomir Michalik, Gerald Cid, Danny Guthrie, Gavin McCann, Mikel Alonso (Stelios Giannakopoulos), Christian Wilhelmsson, Kevin Davies (Nicolas Anelka), Daniel Braaten (El-Hadji Diouf)

SUBS NOT USED: Abdoulaye Meite, Ricardo Gardner, Andranik Teimourian, Ali Al-Habsi (GK)

FK RABOTNICKI: Tome Pacovski, Zjelko Kovacevic, Lazar Stanisic, Miroslav Vajas, Adekunle Lukmon (Vasko Bozinovski), Ertan Demiri, Minas Osmani (Krste Velkovski), Nderim Nedzipi, Nemanja Milisavljevic, Nikola Gligorov, Ivan Trickovski (Ivan Pejcic)

SUBS NOT USED: Bojan Mihajlovic, Dimitrija Lazarevski, Idrizi Mensur, Filip Madzovski (GK)

ATTENDANCE:

18,932

REFEREE:

Tommy Skjerven (Norway)

BOOKED:

Vajas (Rabotnicki)

Stanisic (Rabotnicki)

Gligorov (Rabotnicki)

Kovacevic (Rabotnicki)

Bozinovski (Rabotnicki)

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