Bolton give Brummies the blues

Bolton showed today there is life after Michael Ricketts.

Sam Allardyce’s side delivered a 4-2 victory against Birmingham at the Reebok stadium to ease their relegation worries.

The goal-rush came just hours after striker Ricketts joined Middlesbrough for £3.5million.

With new forwards Salva Ballesta and Pierre-Yves Andre looking on Bolton wrapped up the points with six minutes remaining.

Youri Djorkaeff regained the lead for the home side and substitute Delroy Facey got his first league goal for the club.

It was only Bolton’s third league win on home soil this season and takes them to within two points of Birmingham.

The victory completed a busy but successful spell for Bolton boss Allardyce who said: “I am going to have a nice cold beer to celebrate.

“We started with a 4-4-2 system for the first time this season and it gave the lads a bit more freedom to express themselves.

“It was a magnificent victory and it gives me a lot of pleasure especially after the way we have been beaten by Everton in midweek.

“We found some quality finishing, which has been lacking since Boxing Day when we also got four goals against Newcastle.”

Bolton had to dig deep after going ahead thanks to an own goal from Kenny Cunningham.

Robbie Savage pulled Birmingham level only for Henrik Pedersen to claim the second for the home side although Birmingham manager Steve Bruce thought his midfielder Stephen Clemence had got the final touch.

Clinton Morrison got Birmingham back in the game, only for Bolton to surge ahead with the clock ticking down.

Allardyce said: “There was distance between ourselves and Birmingham before the start of the game but now we have exerted pressure on them.

“Hopefully we can drag them into the bottom four but we have got to keep our feet on the ground and continue to work hard.”

Birmingham boss Bruce slated his side after this defeat.

He said: “It was self-inflicted. You can’t legislate for some of the things that happened today. We made elementary mistakes in what was a big game for both sides.

“You can’t give away goals like that and we shot ourselves in the foot. We went into half-time the better side and I honestly thought we would go on and win it.”