Nolan drives Bolton over Spurs into third place
Dominic Fifield at Reebok Stadium
Tottenham Hotspur surrendered the last unbeaten away record in the Premiership last night, their desperate attempts to retrieve parity denied twice by the woodwork, once by an assistant referee's flag and, on numerous occasions, by a typically rugged home rearguard. The visitors departed luckless and aggrieved; the Wanderers awake giddy in third.
The game had meandered beyond the half-hour, more intriguing than entertaining, with the visitors attempting to impose their patient passing style when an Englishman in the home ranks ignited the occasion. El Hadji Diouf and Kevin Davies combined with the striker's lay-off pounced on by Kevin Nolan. The midfielder was 25 yards from goal with a cluster of Tottenham defenders ahead of him but battered a wondrous shot high beyond the despairing Paul Robinson and into the top corner.
Ledley King, could now face possible scrutiny from the Football Association's video disciplinary panel after clashing with Stelios Giannakopoulos just before the hour and planting his foot - possibly inadvertently - in the prone Greek midfielder's face. That would add further insult to injury for the visitors, who must cope already with a sixth successive defeat by Wanderers, though their frustration will be aimed principally at the linesman.
Bolton had basked in their lead for barely 60 seconds when the excellent Teemu Tainio - playing at the top of a narrow midfield diamond - slipped Jermain Defoe between Radhi Jaidi and Tal Ben Haim. The striker's finish was emphatic but the assistant referee jerked his flag up for offside, television replays suggesting the hosts had escaped and Allardyce later admitting Defoe had been "definitely onside". Martin Jol made a bee-line for the official at the interval to remonstrate.
They should still have salvaged a point. Lee Young-Pyo, liberated from the muddle by another clever slide-rule pass from Tainio, scuffed a shot from eight yards wide with Jussi Jaaskelainen helpless. As the seconds ticked away near the end Gary Speed blocked Jermaine Jenas's scissor kick on the line with Mido nudging his follow-up on to the post. Just to add to the visitors' sense of injustice, Paul Stalteri sliced a cross on to the bar in the dying moments before Bolton's relief erupted on the final whistle.
DAILY TELEGRAPH
Nolan nails Spurs with bolt from the blue
By Tim Rich
This was a performance typical of Bolton under Sam Allardyce. The goal was carved from a long ball, they defended passionately and had the sprinkling of skill when it mattered. They also carried some luck - first when Jermain Defoe's goal was ruled offside and then six minutes from time when Gary Speed blocked Jermaine Jenas' overhead kick on the line and saw Mido scoop the rebound on to the post. Paul Stalteri also saw a shot-cum-cross strike the crossbar in the throes of injury time.
Although Bolton are something of a bogey side - Spurs had managed one League victory in the town in a quarter of a century - this was a grand scalp. The only previous side to have beaten Martin Jol's collection of young talent in the Premiership this season has been Chelsea.
It says something that Jol would have regarded last night's encounter every bit as warily as he had his last trip to what is now referred to as Greater Manchester. And on the journey back to London he would have reflected that his team had performed better at Old Trafford.
Since Eriksson was in the stands - principally, you imagine, to monitor Tottenham's fine crop of young players - he would now be very aware of who wears Bolton's No 4 shirt. The sight of Ledley King driving his studs into Stelios Giannakopoulos' face as he lay on the ground by the advertising hoardings - out of view of the referee - would have impressed Eriksson rather less.
Nolan's goal was his seventh of the season and flew past Paul Robinson from nowhere. Then A right-footed shot cannoned back off the foot of Robinson's post and, had Diouf been a few feet to his right, Bolton might have made an awkward fixture safe before half-time.
However, it was arguable whether Tottenham deserved to be behind at all. Until Nolan's breakthrough in the 32nd minute it had been a game played almost exclusively in midfield and Spurs had enjoyed the better of a tedious contest.
Nolan's goal was replayed constantly on the giant screen operated by Wanderers TV but for obvious reasons they did not linger on the moment, barely a minute later, when Defoe put the ball into Jussi Jaaskelainen's net. It was the second time the England striker had been crucially called offside and both were wrong. The first cost Defoe a clear run on goal, the price of the second, as Teemu Tainio judged his pass expertly, was an equaliser.
To his credit there were no long bouts of anguished protest, although when Young-Pyo Lee found himself clear on goal and scuffed his shot so much that it dribbled out of play, the Korean let out a cry of pain.
THE TIMES
By Peter Lansley
SVEN-GÖRAN ERIKSSON, the England head coach, came to the Reebok Stadium to assess the international prospects of Tottenham Hotspur’s silky midfield players and instead went away pondering the merits of a rather more earthy talent. England may be flush for goalscoring central midfield players but Kevin Nolan, at 23, continues to provide the heartbeat of the rise and rise of Bolton Wanderers.
Michael Carrick, Jermaine Jenas and Ledley King, in the holding role, will hope to impress Eriksson in preparing for Saturday’s friendly with Argentina but, should any of Eriksson’s top-line midfield players go missing after the winter break, Nolan has given himself every chance of a call-up.
This was Tottenham’s first away defeat in the Premiership this season and they were counting their moments of misfortune. Jermain Defoe was incorrectly adjudged offside as he found the net a minute after Nolan’s goal and twice in the closing stages they struck the woodwork as Bolton’s defensive impenetrability held good.
It was tempting to bill this fixture in terms of its contrasts: Jol’s array of young England players against Allardyce’s foreign legion and Tottenham’s passing game against Bolton’s alleged long-ball approach. But in the first period it was the narrowness of their midfields that united the teams.
The lack of width did not negate the quality of play but, while Carrick and Jenas looked classy, it was the home team’s England candidate who scored the only goal in spectacular fashion.
Nolan's seventh of the season, and his fourth in the five recent games in which he has donned the armband, was a wonderful strike, the midfield player collecting Kevin Davies’s layoff 25 yards from goal and unleashing a shot of such velocity that Paul Robinson could not even get a touch.
After Defoe was given offside when he found the net from Teemu Tainio’s through-pass, Nolan could have doubled his team’s lead when he then latched on to El-Hadji Diouf’s deft touch four minutes from half-time and, without breaking stride, shot against a post.
It was not the best of nights for Tottenham’s England men. King, holding off Stelios Giannakopoulos in a bid to see the ball out, appeared to leave a foot in the face of the Greece winger as the player fell to the ground. Then Michael Dawson, the England Under-21 defender, left nothing to the imagination, kicking Diouf up the backside to earn his caution.
A draw would have lifted Spurs into third place and Robbie Keane came on as a third forward as Bolton, replacing Giannakopoulos with Hidetoshi Nakata, bolstered their defensive numbers. It was Keane who crossed for Jenas to volley goalwards before Mido struck the rebound against the post, but Bolton hung on for a sixth successive victory against Spurs even as Paul Stalteri hit the crossbar in stoppage time.
THE INDEPENDENT
By Andy Hunter
The cynical would contest that Bolton's unjust reputation as the latter-day Wimbledon and not Tottenham's quintet of England prospects was the biggest attraction for Sven Goran Eriksson at the Reebok Stadium. True to the contrary nature of Sam Allardyce's side, however, the greatest impression made on the Swede last night came from an uncapped English midfielder with a glorious strike from open play that left another club from the capital burying a proud record in the north-west.
Martin Jol's unbeaten run away from White Hart Lane ended amid controversy and misfortune, with Jermain Defoe having a legitimate goal disallowed for offside and both Jermaine Jenas and Mido hitting the frame of Jussi Jaaskelainen's goal as Bolton survived a torrid finale to finish the night leaping over Manchester United into third place in the table.
Nolan's latest matchwinning strike was worthy of the description, sailing beyond Eriksson's first-choice goalkeeper Paul Robinson from 25 yards in the 32nd minute after a creative combination between Kevin Davies and El-Hadji Diouf.
Tottenham needed Nolan's moment of excellence to awake from their initial slumber and display the composure and penetration that had served them so well on their travels. They should have been level 60 seconds later when Defoe converted Teemu Tainio's threaded pass only for the assistant referee to wrongly flag for offside.
Ledley King escaped with what appeared to be a stamp on Stelios Giannakopolis but Bolton's good fortune, save for the elevation of their players into the England ranks, extended no further.