English Premier League – Match Review: Bolton Wanderers versus Newcastle United
Bolton Wanderers line up: Jaaskelainen, Ricketts, Cahill, Knight, Robinson, Lee, Muamba, Holden, Taylor, Elmander and Kevin Davies. Subs: Bogdan, Steinsson, Petrov, Mark Davies, Klasnic, Moreno and Blake
Newcastle United line up: Krul, Simpson, Williamson, Coloccini, Jose Enrique, Guthrie, Nolan, Smith, Gutierrez, Carroll and Ameobi. Subs: Soderberg, Campbell, Routledge, Lovenkrands, Perch, Steven Taylor and Ranger.
The first happening of note in the first half of the match came at the 15th minute mark. It was Bolton Wanderers who surged forward in attack after they regained control of the ball from Newcastle inside their own
half of the ground. Owen Coyle’s men broke in attack through Lee, who went past two players on the right hand side of midfield.
After getting close to the by-line, Lee cut across a brilliant ball into the Newcastle penalty area unfortunately, Fabrice Muamba was the only on-rushing player who was trying to connect with the ball inside the Newcastle danger area.
However, the midfielder was quite far away from the ball which had Newcastle sweating blood for a moment or two in the first half of the tasty encounter at the Reebok stadium.
In the 17th minute of the match, Newcastle United shot themselves in the foot through their woeful defending. It was Kevin Nolan, Newcastle’s captain who was at fault for the Magpies. The Englishman handled the
ball inside his team’s penalty area after he had tried to control it in face of pressure by the on-rushing Lee. It was an idiotic mistake by the man who was Newcastle’s hero in their 5-1 derby win over Sunderland just a couple of weeks ago.
Kevin Davies stepped up to take the spot kick and the Englishman made no mistake in slotting the ball away for Bolton’s first goal of the match after he had sent the goalkeeper the wrong way. It was a finely taken penalty which guaranteed
Bolton the lead. In the 32nd minute of the match, Gary Cahill almost gained heroic status for Bolton Wanderers.
A great curved ball was played towards the centre back from a set piece by Petrov; the English defender headed the ball down using fantastic technique but failed to aim his header in the right direction as the ball eventually went out
of play for Coyle’s team. It was a glorious chance to take the lead for Bolton whose defender was not clinical enough with his header. In the 39thminute of the match, Mathew Taylor stepped up to take a free kick for Bolton and the former Portsmouth
man almost hit the back of the net with his drive which thudded off the post and went out of play for a Newcastle United goal kick in the end.
Bolton got their second goal of the match at the 39th minute mark as Lee finished off a fine free kick as he slotted the ball into the top corner of the Newcastle net to make it 2-0 for Bolton Wanderers. The first
half ended with the score line at 2-0, in favour of the home side. The second half kicked off with Bolton in the ascendency as Elmander added another goal to their lead. The big Swedish striker was played in by Kevin Davies; Elmander skilfully got past the
goalkeeper and finished the move off clinically.
In the 52nd minute of the match, Newcastle gained a way back into the match as a long throw in saw chaos inside the Bolton penalty area. The loose ball eventually fell to Carroll who finished it off as the score
line was brought to 3-1. In the 72nd minute, Bolton cemented their lead again by getting yet another goal as Elmander scored again after he scored an easy tap in after wrestling Coloccini off the ball. In the 75th minute,
Newcastle suffered a huge blow as Coloccini was sent off by the referee as he elbowed Elmander in the face. It was a shocking gesture by the Argentinean defender who covered himself in shame as the referee showed him a straight red card.
Bolton added insult to injury in the dying moments of the match as Davies scored off another penalty that was awarded to his team in the 91st minute. Bolton’s fifth goal of the night brought the score line to 5-1,
in what was a goal filled exciting encounter at the Reebok Stadium. The match eventually ended in a four goal win for Owen Coyle’s team.
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