Bolton's late promotion surge continued at the Reebok Stadium with a
comfortable victory win over fellow play-off hopefuls Sheffield United.
First-half goals from Allan Johnston and John O'Kane gave Sam Allardyce's side
three points as his team looked to book a last-minute place in the Division One
play-off zone.
And as a top six finish begins to look increasingly possible, Allardyce's side
can take heart from the fact that for the first half at least this display was
undoubtedly of Premiership quality.
Wanderers' only dodgy spell came in the opening minutes of the game, Marcus
Bent's acrobatic effort producing a fine save from Jussi Jaaskelainen on seven
minutes.
But by the time Eidur Gudjohnsen hit the post four minutes later Bolton were
well and truly in their stride, the Icelandic striker's sidefooted volley
bouncing wide for a goal-kick after Simon Tracey had blocked his original
effort.
But Bolton did take the lead on the half-hour mark, on-loan winger Johnston
picking the ball up on the left before cutting inside the full-back and bending
a right-foot shot past Tracey to make it 1-0.
It could have been two a little later on had Bo Hansen taken a shot after
beating the keeper, but instead he left the honours to Gudjohnsen who hit the
frame of the goal for the second time in the game, crashing the ball against the
bar with two very relieved defenders watching on the goal-line.
Bolton did manage to double their advantage on the stroke of half-time,
Johnston finding O'Kane who arrived late at the far post to swat home his first
goal in Bolton colours.
The second half saw Wanderers continue to control the play, but for all their
attractive football the game descended into a scrappy affair thanks to the
frustrated United players.
Things got ugly in the final 15 minutes after Hansen was taken to hospital
thanks to an over-zealous tackle from Blades captain Lee Sandford.
Tempers flared again two minutes later as Paul Devlin and Michael Johansen
tangled on the touchline. Players from both sides intervened and after fists
were raised both Devlin and Johansen were lucky to escape with only yellow
cards.
Teams:
Bolton: Jaaskelainen, O'Kane, Fish, Ritchie, Elliott, Johansen,
Jensen, Warhurst (Passi 27), Johnston (Holden 70), Gudjohnsen,
Hansen, Holden (Holdsworth 76).
Subs Not Used: Banks, Taylor.
Booked: Johansen, Holdsworth.
Goals: Johnston 32, O'Kane 45.
Sheff Utd: Tracey, Kozluk (Ribeiro 72), Murphy, Sandford,
Quinn, Devlin (Hamilton 90), Brown, Woodhouse, Ford, Bent,D'Jaffo (Notman 72).
Subs Not Used: Gysbrechts, Duke.
Booked: Brown, Devlin.
Att: 11,891
Ref: W Jordan (Tring, Herts).
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