The game looked to be heading for a scrappy goalless draw until Nicolas Anelka scored two and made one of the three goals to give Gary Megson his third straight home win.

Bolton where boosted by the return of Andy O'Brien at the heart of their defence whilst Birmingham gave a chance to ex-Wanderer Radhi Jaidi in the absence of skipper Liam Ridgewell.

Jaidi was given a good reception by the home supporters prior to kick off in light of his two seasons with the club and this respect was recipricated by the Tunisian international.

Within the opening two minutes the Wanderers had put pressure on the Birmingham goal with Ivan Campo's free kick sending veteran keeper Maik Taylor scurrying across his goal to tip the ball to safety.

Four minutes later Northern Ireland custodian Taylor was the visitors hero once again, this time blocking Bolton top scorer Nicolas Anelka after he had combined with the lively Diouf.

On-loan Danny Guthrie tried an ambitious volley for Bolton which went just over into the South Stand and it was fair to say the Trotters where clearly on top in the opening quarter of the game.

Birmingham could not muster a clear cut shot on goal and their possession was sloppy much to the annoyance of the recently installed City manager Alex McLeish and his assistant Roy Aitken.

When they did get an attempt on the Bolton goal on 30 minutes Cameron Jerome's shot trickled well wide of Jussi Jaaskelainen's goal and a few minutes later a good break and cross from Sebastian Larsson down the left just evaded Jerome at the far post at the final moment.

Campo summed up the mood of the first half when he fired the equivalent of a rugby union penalty over the crossbar but the second half was to fortunately get better.

At the re-start the away side brought on Olivier Kapo for Matt Sadler and changed their system somewhat and it nearly paid off when a free kick from Larsson was headed on target by Campo, but fortunately for the Spaniard he had Bolton team mate Jaaskelainen to thank for reacting at the last minute.

Larsson fired a free kick off target for City in the 52nd minute but it was considered to be justice by the home side who felt referee Chris Foy should not have given the decision in the first place.

Both sides made changes with Bolton bringing on former Aston Villa battler Gavin McCann in place of the tiring Campo whilst Brum introduced Scotland international Garry O'Connor in place of the pint sized Gary McSheffrey.

Bolton got their act together in the final twenty minutes of the game and at times played some good football and a case in point was the run into the box made by Anelka for the opener.

Anelka weaved his way into the area past two defenders to cut the ball back across goal and City's full back Stephen Kelly miscued the ball allowing Diouf time to control the ball and calmly shoot past goalkeeper Taylor.

Diouf celebrated his recent upturn in front of goal by sprinting to the home dugout to celebrate with Wanderers veteran coach Archie Knox.

With just under ten minutes left the Wanderers made it two when a Birmingham throw in back to Taylor wasn't confidently dealt with by the ex-Southampton and Fulham man leaving Anelka time to size up the shot and roll the ball into the back of the net at the near post.

On 82 minutes Birmingham could have grabbed themselves a lifeline when substitute Kapo rounded Jaaskelainen but the striker, who scored against Bolton at St Andrews earlier in the season, saw his shot cleared first by O'Brien and then acrobatically by Nicky Hunt.

Anelka wrapped the game up at the death for his eleventh of the season. Kevin Nolan threaded a pinpoint ball through to the Frenchman and he unleashed a shot across the body of Taylor that whistled into the far bottom corner.

It was a good finish from the Wanderers and this result will give them confidence going into the Christmas games which are both away against Everton and Sunderland.

BOLTON WANDERERS: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Nicky Hunt, Andy O'Brien, Abdoulaye Meite, Ricardo Gardner, Kevin Nolan, Ivan Campo (Gavin McCann), Danny Guthrie, Kevin Davies (Jlloyd Samuel), Nicolas Anelka, El-Hadji Diouf

SUBS NOT USED: Gary Speed, Stelios Giannakopoulos, Ali Al-Habsi (GK)

BIRMINGHAM CITY: Maik Taylor, Stephen Kelly, Radhi Jaidi, Rafael Schmitz, Matt Sadler (Olivier Kapo), Sebastien Larsson, Damien Johnson, Johan Djourou, Fabrice Muamba, Gary McSheffrey (Garry O'Connor), Cameron Jerome

SUBS NOT USED: Mikael Forssell, Medhi Nafti, Colin Doyle (GK)

REFEREE:

Chris Foy 

ATTENDANCE:

19,111

BOOKED:

Hunt (Bolton)

Gardner (Bolton)

Jaidi (Birmingham)

Diouf (Bolton)

Johnson (Birmingham)

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