Davo missed with his
attempt to chest down the ball 25 yards out from his own
goal, an error which let in Kieron Dyer, who outpaced Tal
Ben Haim and kept his composure to steer a low shot under
Jussi. The home crowd fell silent - the Geordies added to
their decibels by throwing coins at the home fans.
It was, I'm sad to say,
a deserved goal following their bright start which caught us
cold and forced us into a series of errors which should have
seen the visitors extend their lead by the break.
James Milner, who caused Bolton a succession of problems on the left of the Newcastle midfield, twice went close to scoring in the space of a minute, his first shot blocked by Jaaskelainen and the second flying just wide. Newcastle were dominant and Bolton had not offered any kind of goal threat until they equalised in controversial circumstances in the 32nd minute through a Peter Ramage own goal. A typically airborne, route one move by Bolton ended with Davo sending a looping header into the Geordie's area and Ramage - who appeared to be shoved in the back by Kevin Nolan - haplessly heading the ball over his own line. Ramage's cause was not helped by a lack of communication with his goalkeeper Pavel Srnicek, who was making his first start for Newcastle for nine years.
Srnicek was slow to come
off his line and, to compound that error, referee Howard
Webb failed to see Nolan's push.
If the first-half belonged to
Newcastle, the second period was Bolton's. Playing
with flair and a sense of conviction that was absent in the
first 45 minutes, they assumed control and were never to
relinquish it. They took the lead in the 56th minute from,
typically, a set-piece. Ivan Campo's long throw was headed
on by Davies and Diouf failed to steer in the ball. It
mattered not, for Anelka pounced at the far post for what
turned out to be the winning goal. I never thought I'd say
this but he has really started to adapt well and is now our
highest scorer in the premiership!! Keep it up lad! We'll
make a Wanderer of you yet.
Speedo admitted Bolton Wanderers had been given a run for their
money by his old club Newcastle United. It took an own goal from
Peter Ramage to finally get Bolton going, Newcastle having been full
value for their early lead, with Kieron Dyer scoring after just nine
minutes. Nic scored the winner after the break, but Speedo
acknowledged that Ramage's unfortunate goal should never have stood,
with the defender having been pushed in the back by Kevin Nolan.
He said after the game: "I've just seen the television replays and
it looks like a foul.
"This is a difficult place to come to and Newcastle will be
disappointed that after taking such an early lead they got nothing
from the game.
"That's why it was such a good result for us. We've not been playing
that well, but we've winning and that's good. We went through a
spell when we were playing better and losing, so we'd rather have it
this way.
"We know how to get results and this was clearly shown against
Newcastle. We beat good teams here and I thought the Newcastle
players at the back did great coping with what we have got up front.
"I didn't know the right back (David Edgar) or the left back (Paul
Huntington), and at 37 I'm twice as old as some of them, and I felt
it today."
Speed – who spent more than six years at St James's Park – had his
name chanted by the 3,000 travelling fans, and he joked: "The
Newcastle fans kept chanting my name because I kept giving the ball
to a United player."
Meanwhile, Speed's manager Sam Allardyce claimed after the game that
United had tried to "physically abuse" striker El Hadji Diouf.
He said: "Diouf terrorised the opposition and got some very, very
heavy challenges indeed (and he was) not protected, as far as I'm
concerned, enough for such a quality player.
"We got the free-kicks, but there were far too many given against
him. They tried to physically abuse him and they did not get away
with it.
"He did not react and he helped us win a very important game."
Both Allardyce's side's goals, however, had come as the result of
fouls, with Kevin Nolan fouling Ramage for the first and Kevin
Davies climbing all over David Egdar when he flicked the ball on for
the second.
Big Sam says.......
"Twenty games in and in the position we are in, we give ourselves a chance, an outside chance," said Big Sam. "We have completed this phase with 16 points in 10 games - that is a Uefa Cup points total over the years on average. Before that, we were in Champions League form because we got 20 points in 10. We are a little down on that, but we have kept ourselves right up there now by turning around what looked like a disappointing phase into a very, very good one now. Big Sam believes we have added versatility. "Changing the style and the way we play, we are very adaptable and I think that is why we have continued to get the sort of victories that we are at the moment" he concluded.
Bring on Pompey!!