Davies strike secures all threes points for Bolton

Bolton 2 Newcastle 1

He saw his team cement fourth place in the table following announcements that two of his players had pledged their long-term futures to the club.

Midfielder Kevin Nolan has signed a new contract which will take him up to June 2009. In addition, top scorer Henrik Pedersen has agreed a deal in principle for the next three years.

It is little wonder either as Bolton are not only ambitious but playing with quite a bit of style as well.

They sealed victory yesterday thanks to a goal from Kevin Davies in the 70th minute, which brought a first taste of defeat for Newcastle manager Graeme Souness after 10 games in charge.

The home side took the lead in the 53rd minute with Diouf’s first goal for the club after arriving on loan from Liverpool. He headed the ball home after flick-ons from first Davies and then Jaidi as Newcastle failed to deal with the threat.

Jaidi was hurt in the build-up and while he was receiving treatment Newcastle took advantage of the 10 men to equalise two minutes later. Ambrose, only in the side because of Jermaine Jenas’s absence, showed great skill to break forward before hammering an unstoppable shot from 25 yards beyond Jaaskelainen.

Bolton boss Sam Allardyce was delighted with the victory, and the strength of his players. He said: “I’m absolutely delighted with the victory, it was well-earned in the end. We weren’t the prettiest today but we were certainly effective. The aim was to snuff out Newcastle with the attack they’ve got.

“Our players did that absolutely magnificently and limited them to very few chances. One of our set plays paid off again (for Bolton’s second goal) and Kevin slid to score. It was a very well-worked goal and a well- worked victory. Set plays are a major part of our game in scoring terms.

“Everybody these days knows what decides a game, it boils down to set pieces and it doesn’t matter if it’s Arsenal at the top or Blackburn at the bottom.”

Allardyce also said he had been considering substituting Diouf before he scored the vital opening goal. “We were thinking about taking him off because he had done 90 minutes plus extra time on Wednesday (against Tottenham in the Carling Cup), so from a physical point of view, then he popped up with the goal.

“It’s a fantastic victory for us.”

And Allardyce is not promising an assault on Europe, instead vowing his side will strive to continue to compete at the top level.

BOLTON: Jaaskelainen, Hunt, N’Gotty, Jaidi (Hierro 55), Gardner, Speed, Nolan, Okocha, Giannakopoulos (Pedersen 62), Davies, Diouf (Barness 84).

NEWCASTLE: Given, Carr (Bernard 77), Elliott, O’Brien, Hughes, Ambrose (Ameobi 72), Bowyer, Butt, Bellamy, Kluivert (Robert 66), Shearer.

Referee: G Poll (Hertfordshire).