Nolan goal keeps Bolton well on track

Bolton Wanderers 1 Zenit St Petersburg 0

Sam Allardyce’s side moved a step closer to a place in the last 32 of the UEFA Cup after this victory at the Reebok Stadium.

With two games remaining in group H Bolton have a healthy four points.

They are on the rise and so is Nolan, who scored the winner with his sixth goal of the season. He showed against the neat Russian side why he is being touted as a future England star.

Bolton came alive in the 16th minute when Nolan picked out Kevin Davies but he headed wide from close range.

Nolan made the breakthrough in the 24th minute when he scored after a shot from Giannakopoulos had been parried by the Zenit keeper. His goal took some of the zip out of the Russian side, and they had to rely on counter-attacks.

The Russians were beginning to threaten and Allardyce knew his team could do with another goal to take the pressure off.

Zenit came close to grabbing the equaliser in the 51st minute, Kerzhakov beating the Bolton goaleeper only to see his effort go the wrong side of the post.

The Bolton supporters urged the team to get that second goal but Zenit were proving difficult to break down and continued to search for the equaliser.

Davies then got clear in the 67th minute but sent a header wide of the target following a long ball from Joey O’Brien on the right.

Zenit goalkeeper Contofalsky reacted smartly to collect a shot from Okocha before Jaaskelainen did well to get in the way of Arshavin’s stoppage-time effort to preserve Bolton’s victory.

BOLTON: Jaaskelainen, O’Brien, N’Gotty, Ben Haim, Gardner, Faye, Giannakopoulos, Nakata (Okocha 66), Speed, Nolan (Diouf 85), Davies (Borgetti 74).

ZENIT: Contofalsky, Aniukov, Hagen, Skrtel (Gorshkov 25), Flachbart, Vjestica, Sumulikoski, Vlasov (Kozlov 90), Denisov, Alexander Kerzhakov, Arshavin.

Referee: M Trefoloni (Italy).