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Bolton Wanderers 1. Blackburn Rovers 2.

Stelios Returns To Side
By Mark Heys
January 13 2008
Bolton Wanderers recent upturn in home form was ended earlier on this afternoon when a last minute goal from substitute Jason Roberts gave Blackburn Rovers all three points at the Reebok Stadium,

Roberts came back to haunt his former West Bromwich Albion boss Gary Megson after only a few minutes on the field to steal a win for Rovers and extend their winning league run.

Megson had to pick his Bolton side without African Nations Cup bound Abdoulaye Meite and El-Hadji Diouf, whilst also finding a player to fill the void left by Nicolas Anelka who departed for Chelsea on Friday.

Bolton had a lot of possession in the opening period but it was Rovers who forced the first chance of the game when right winger David Bentley went infield and hit a 30-yard shot straight into the arms of Wanderers keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen.

On ten minutes Benni McCarthy put through his strike partner Roque Santa Cruz but the South American was unable to get to the ball before the advancing Jaaskelainen.

Two minutes later a free kick from Bolton's Ivan Campo looked to be curling out of play only for former Blackburn forward Kevin Davies to ghost in at the far post and force Rovers keeper Brad Freidal into a save.

Bentley curled a free kick over the Wanderers bar and half chances and ambitious efforts dominated the proceedings from there on in with both teams playing it cagey possession wise.

On 42 minutes it was an ambitious effort which put Bolton into the lead. A Danny Guthrie free kick was punched clear by Freidal allowing full back Joey O'Brien to hoist the ball in from the right and there was Kevin Nolan at the far post to send a volley into the far corner.

Quite an easy goal to describe it wasn't, as the Bolton midfielder had his back to goal before showing some good technique to loop the ball over the Blackburn defence and into the opposite corner.

Cynics may call it a slight fluke, whilst others would admire a top class strike. There is no doubting though that Nolan meant the effort for what was his fourth of the season.

Bolton looked good value for their lead going into the break but Rovers came out in the second period all guns blazing and Santa Cruz forced Jaaskelainen into a good save despite initially appearing to handle the ball when shaping up to shoot.

On 53 minutes the game was level, a left wing corner from David Bentley skimmed off the head of Rovers giant defender Christopher Samba and into the net to tie the score at one each.

Rovers had at times put Bolton under some considerable pressure throughout the closing half but the game was once again played in a cagey manner with both sides looking to keep hold of possession.

Six minutes after their leveller Blackburn could have so easily gone in front when Benni McCarthy squared the ball to Morten Gamst Pedersen but Bolton had Andy O'Brien to thank for throwing himself in the way of the shot from the Norwegian international.

Pedersen went close again with twenty minutes of the game to play with a shot which he could have scored from whilst goalscorer Nolan did likewise at the other end after Christian Wilhelmsson's good run and centre.

Blackburn manager Mark Hughes introduced Jason Roberts with the clock ticking down and the former Wigan Athletic and Bristol Rovers striker made an immediate impact.

Firstly the Grenadan's pace was causing Bolton problems down the right and then he linked up well with Santa Cruz right at the death to give Blackburn their second successive win at the Reebok after earlier seeing a previous chance go over the bar after good defending from Andy O'Brien.

Bolton now travel to managerless Newcastle United next Saturday hoping to pick up only their second league victory at St James Park in over half a century.

BOLTON WANDERERS: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Joey O'Brien, Andy O'Brien, Lubomir Michalik, Ricardo Gardner, Kevin Nolan, Ivan Campo (Gavin McCann), Tamir Cohen (Christian Wilhelmsson), Danny Guthrie, Kevin Davies, Stelios Giannakopoulos

SUBS NOT USED: Nicky Hunt, Jaroslaw Fojut, Ali Al-Habsi (GK)

BLACKBURN ROVERS: Brad Freidal, Andre Ooijer (Zurab Khizanishvili), Christopher Samba, Ryan Nelsen, Stephen Warnock, David Bentley, David Dunn, Stephen Reid, Morten Gamst Pedersen, Benni McCarthy (Jason Roberts), Roque Santa Cruz (Matt Derbyshire)

SUBS NOT USED: Bruno Berner, Jason Brown (GK)

ATTENDANCE:

18,315

REFEREE:

Mike Dean

BOOKED:

Campo (Bolton)

Cohen (Bolton)

Samba (Blackburn)

 

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