A 12th minute own goal from Jussi Jaaskelainen turned around a game which Bolton initially looked very bright in. Second half strikes from Ryan Babel and Fabio Aurelio sealed the win despite Tamir Cohen netting his first goal for Bolton late on.
Wanderers could have taken the lead in the fourth minute, when Diouf struck a free kick against the bar with the ball just needing a touch to go in. And Diouf had another chance minutes later but could not get a touch to the ball from just a couple of yards out. And Bolton paid the price for those misses when Jaaskelainen scored an uncharacteristic own goal after Steven Gerrard’s shot, which was heading wide, hit him and spun into the net.
Bolton weren’t as dominant after the goal, but still managed to make some chances in the first half. Kevin Davies forced an excellent save from Reina but really should have put his header away. And Gary Cahill mistimed a header at the near post and sent it out for a goal kick.
Wanderers then suffered from injuries, with Steinsson coming off just before half time and Nolan also taken off at the break. And in the second half there was no doubt to who was going to get the three points. Babel finally doubled the Reds’ lead after Dirk Kuyt’s shot hit the post and Bolton failed to clear.
The third goal wasn’t much to do with poor defending, at least after Aurelio got the ball, as the Brazilian brought it down and fired a lovely strike past Jaaskelainen to seal the victory. Tamir Cohen did get his first goal in Bolton colours as he headed in Taylor’s corner, but his goal was hardly celebrated. And Bolton were lucky to only concede three after a five-against-two break in injury time resulted in Babel completely missing the ball with only Jussi to beat.
We did well initially. The goal took the wind out of our sails a little bit.
We had to change and got caught trying to go forward.
If we feel sorry for ourselves then we will sink but if we roll our sleeves up we will get out of this trouble.
- Gary Megson
