Bolton Wanderers (1) 1 Zenit St Petersburg (0) 0
Bolton moved within sight of a place in the last 32 of the Uefa Cup after a surviving a serious test of their character and stamina last night. Zenit St Petersburg can consider themselves unfortunate losers of a Group H tie which was concluded in almost waterlogged conditions.
An opportunist strike by Kevin Nolan midway through the first half of a tense encounter raised Bolton`s haul to four points from two matches and they will be confident of extending their first European adventure into the New Year.
Nolan is proving to be a talismanic captain for Bolton. He went into this tie with a 100 per cent record of three wins out of three when wearing the armband so, even though Gary Speed was alongside him in midfield, Nolane was given the honour of leading the team yet again.
His response was to snatch his sixth goal of the season to give Wanderers an interval lead over useful Russian opponents, who had won their previous match in this group and frequently looked dangerous on the break.
Nolan was in the right place to capitalise on a close-range opportunity stemming from a free kick floated in by Bruno N`Gotty. The Zenit defence mystifyingly allowed it to land at the feet of Stelios on the six-yard line and the Greek midfielder would have scored but for an excellent reaction save by Kamil Contofalsky. However, the visiting goalkeeper was powerless to prevent Nolan from driving home the rebound.
That strike would have put Bolton out of sight if Kevin Davies had taken two outstanding opportunities that came his way beforehand. Davies, preferred as his team`s lone striker ahead of Jared Borgetti, who scored on the last European outing in Istanbul, looked as though he lacked confidence.
His first chance was created by Nolan`s cross on the run from the left but a header from 10 yards out was badly off target with only the goalkeeper in the way. Then, after Speed had pushed the ball down Bolton`s right, Davies found himself again with only Contofalsky to beat but was unable to shoot accurately from the edge of the penalty area.
Those misses could have been costly if Alexander Kerzhakov had punished a poor clearance from Ricardo Gardner or had substitute Alexander Gorshkov not hurried a shot from outside the penalty area.
An even better situation arose for Zenit early in the second half when Igor Denisov found space to cross invitingly to the far post for the in-rushing Alexander Kerzhakov. Fortunately for Bolton, the striker`s shot from an awkward angle skidded just outside Jussi Jaaskelainen`s right-hand post.
It would have been against the run of play if Davies had managed to score with a looping header stemming from a blocked shot from Jay-Jay Okocha, a replacement for the ineffective Hidetoshi Nakata.
Jaaskelainen had not at that stage made a save and there were only 12 minutes remaining when he was required to earn his corn, the Finnish international getting down well to push away an awkward low shot by Denisov.
Team details
Bolton Wanderers (4-5-1): Jaaskelainen, O`Brien, Ben Haim, N`Gotty, Gardner; Stelios, Faye, Nakata (Okocha 67), Speed, Nolan (Diouf 85); Davies (Borgetti 75).
Subs: Walker (g), Jaidi, Diouf, Vaz Te, Fojut.
Zenit St Petersburg (4-4-2): Contofalsky; Flachbart, Hagen, Vjestica, Skrtel (Gorshkov 23); Aniukov, Sumulikoski, Denisov, Vlasov; Arshavin, A Kerzhakov.
Subs: Malafeev (g), Cadikovski, Poskus, Korzhanov, Kozlov, Stroev.
Booked: Hagen, Flachbart.
Referee: M Trefoloni (Italy).
Telegraph
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