Sunday, December 12, 2010

Bolton 2-1 Blackburn

Stuart Holden fired home a dramatic late winner for 10-man Bolton at the Reebok Stadium just seconds after Mame Biram Diouf appeared to have snatched Blackburn a point.

The American drilled home a stunning 88th-minute finish while the visitors were still celebrating their equaliser by substitute Diouf at the other end moments earlier.

Owen Coyle's men had played with 10 men since Mark Davies' 56th-minute dismissal for an apparent elbow, but they still grabbed a 65th-minute lead through Fabrice Muamba.

And just when Rovers appeared to have made their desperate pressure tell, American Holden raced on to a neat header down from Kevin Davies to smash his rising shot past Paul Robinson.

It was a dramatic way for Coyle's men to bounce back after last week's disappointing loss at Manchester City, with Holden the only change in favour of Muamba, who started on the bench.

Rovers, on a high after their win over Wolves, fashioned the first chance in the opening minute with Jason Roberts flicking a cross by El-Hadji Diouf just wide.

But Coyle's men soon grew into the occasion and began to look the better side, with Mark Davies drilling a low shot at Robinson and Morten Gamst Pedersen's cross almost finding Martin Petrov.

Petrov turned provider to fire in a superb low cross in the 10th minute, with the stretching Kevin Davies almost connecting on the edge of the six-yard box.

A mazy run from the impressive Petrov ended in a low shot the wrong side of Robinson's right-hand post in the 21st minute as Bolton continued to press.

An incisive through-ball by Bolton defender Paul Robinson sent Johan Elmander tearing clear down the right flank only for him to be tripped by Phil Jones, who was booked by referee Mark Clattenburg.

But Blackburn improved as the half went on. Roberts almost raced clear on to a Jones through-ball after 34 minutes but was pulled down by Zat Knight, who was fortunate to escape with a booking.

Then Pedersen's dangerous free-kick looped over the Bolton wall and was parried by Jussi Jaaskelainen into the path of Gael Givet, who headed horribly wide from the corner of the six-yard box.

Tempers began to fray in a ragged start to the second half after Gary Cahill had seen a shot blocked at point-blank range and former England goalkeeper Robinson parried well from Holden.

Davies was issued a second yellow card by Clattenburg for his apparent elbow on Jones, then Martin Olsson and Johan Elmander were booked in quick succession.

Rovers sought to exploit their extra man advantage with Christopher Samba's header booted off the line by Kevin Davies, and Givet firing the rebound high and wide.

Bolton grabbed the lead out of nowhere when substitute Muamba - with virtually his first touch of the match - finished superbly when afforded too much space on the right.

Rovers' push for an equaliser left space at the back and Kevin Davies almost capitalised when he directed a Petrov cross just wide in the 75th minute.

Rovers did grab their equaliser three minutes from time when a superb back-header by Roberts played in Mame Biram Diouf to squirt a left-footed effort past Jaaskelainen.

But the home side grabbed the points straight after the restart when striker Davies headed a long ball into the path of Holden, who controlled superbly before lashing his winner past Robinson.

After the match Bolton manager Owen Coyle said he was delighted by his side's character as they secured victory despite Stuart Holden's sending off.

"What I loved was that having lost an equaliser so late in the game and being down to 10 men it would be easy to feel sorry for yourself," Coyle said. "But with this group their first instinct was to go forward and to try to win it, even with 10 men.

"What it showed me was that we have a tremendous spirit and desire to go and work for each other and to stand up and be counted. I think that was so evident for everyone to see."

Coyle reserved particular praise for Fabrice Muamba, who responded to being dropped for the first time in the league this season by netting the opener just five minutes after coming on as substitute.

"Fabrice scored a great goal," said Coyle. "It was a big decision to leave him out because Fabrice has started every game me.

"It shows I'm not afraid to make the big decisions. It would have been easy for Fabrice to sulk but he didn't. He came on and scored a wonderful goal."

And Coyle admitted he had few complaints about the 56th-minute sending-off of Mark Davies for two bookable offences, the second of which was an apparent elbow on Phil Jones.

Coyle added: "Mark hasn't got a bad bone in his body but maybe being great in the air is not his best attribute. There was no intent there but I understand what that was perceived as."

Disappointed Rovers boss Sam Allardyce blasted his side for defending "like a bunch of old women" and added: "We have thrown away the chance of more points."

But Allardyce pinpointed a particular moment in the match when he claimed Zat Knight was guilty of handball in the box moments before Bolton broke down the other end and opened the scoring.

Allardyce said: "The real turning point was a blatant handball by Zat Knight. They got a free-kick off the goal-kick and put the ball in the box and Muamba scored.

"So in the space of one minute and 30 seconds the game has turned on its head from us gaining an advantage and maybe going 1-0 up, to us defending like a bunch of old women."

But Allardyce admitted his disappointment over some of the decisions made by referee Mark Clattenburg could not hide the fact that his team had thrown away a point.

"Mame got us back in the game and we didn't learn our lesson from Bolton putting balls down the middle, and immediately the ball goes down the middle from the re-start," added Allardyce.

"We all know what Kevin Davies is good at and lo and behold none of our defenders pick up the loose ball. It's a very good finish from Holden but it's diabolical defending.

"I thought we were better when we had 11 versus 11 because they were doing nothing to threaten us. The disappointing thing is throwing the points away. At the very least we should have had a draw."

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