BWFC 24

Bolton Wanderers 0 — 4 Chelsea

A Much Improved Bolton Suffer Heavy Defeat

• Tuesday, Ocotber 31, 2009
• Venue: The Reebok Stadium
• Attendance: 22,680
• Referee: Peter Walton

• Jlloyd Samuel [45+1]
• Frank Lampard [45+2]
• Paul Robinson [57]
• Deco [61]
• Paulo Ferreira [80]
• Zat Knight (og) [82]
• Didier Drogba [90+1]

It was going so well until the stroke of half–time, a clipped heel took Drogba down, Chelsea ahead and The Wanderers down to 10 men.

Jussi Jaaskelainen returned between the sticks having been rested during the midweek clash with Chelsea in the League Cup. Kevin Davies made his 500th appearance of his career while Chris Basham made his first start of the season.

Bolton made a lively start and Johan Elmander almost took The Wanderers ahead by heading Chung–Yong Lee’s corner goalward for Petr Cech to save comfortably. After this early chance Chelsea started to bombard The Wanderers’ net. Jussi Jaaskelainen was alert to the threat and made a series of great saves. Former Wanderer, Nicolas Anelka combined well with Didier Drogba to create a number of opportunities and generally pester Bolton’s back four.
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Manchester United 2 — 1 Bolton

Zat Knight Not a Beach Ball

• Saturday, October 17, 2009
• Venue: Old Trafford
• Attendance: 75,103
• Referee: Mark Clattenburg

• Zat Knight (og) [5]
• Antonio Valencia [33]
• Kevin Davies [48]
• Matthew Taylor [75]

An unfortunate start for Bolton’s trip to Old Trafford saw The Wanderers chasing for the rest of the afternoon.

Zat Knight deflected a rare Michael Owen header past Jussi Jaaskelainen to take United ahead after just five minutes. Zat Knight cannot be blamed really. If Owen’s header was on target then maybe Jussi would have had it covered, but it wasn’t and somehow Knight unknowingly put the ball in his own net. Nonetheless Bolton were loosing and seemed powerless to cope with frequent runs made by the likes of Patrice Evra and Ryan Giggs.

Kevin Davies had a two clear chances to bring the scores level before United got their second. The most notable was a clear header created by rising above Rio Ferdinand to receive Sam Ricketts’ long pass. With only Van der Sar to beat Kevin Davies’ attempt failed to cause concern for the Dutch goalkeeper as it sailed wide. It should be noted that it was better than Owen’s headed effort but sadly there wasn’t a defender to fluke an equaliser.
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Midweek International Roundup

A roundup of news about Bolton Wanderers players who have been on international duty this week.

South Korea 2 – 0 Senegal

Bolton’s Lee Chong–yong assisted Ki Sung-yong in getting on the score sheet in the friendly against Senegal in Seoul. Celtic’s Sung–yong took South Korea ahead with a shot from 20 metres a few minutes before half–time. Oh Beom-seok scored the second goal in the 80th minute.

South Korea have already qualified for the 2010 World Cup and this friendly extends their unbeaten record to 26 games.

Australia 1 – 0 Oman

Oman failed to continue with their unbeaten qualification campaign for the 2011 Asian Cup. The Socceroos went ahead in the 75th courtesy of Everton’s Tim Cahill to give Australia their first win in the qualifying rounds of the Asian Cup.

Apart from the single goal Bolton’s Ali Al–Habsi and his defence fought well to put a stop to the Soccoroos’ advances and Oman ruled the first half which led to Oman’s coach, Claude Le Roy, to comment:

“I’m very disappointed, but this team of Oman, we know we aren’t the best team in the world, but this team has a fantastic spirit, with very loyal people.”

Oman and Australia meet again next month at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex on Muscat, Oman. It may be a crucial game as both teams are on 4 points in Group B of the Asian Cup qualification the finals of which are to be held in Qatar in 2011.
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International Wanderers Weekend Roundup

A brief summary of each Bolton Wanderers player who has been on international duty this weekend.

England U21 6 – 3 Macedonia U21

Fabrice Muamba came on for Peterborough United’s Danny Rose with 20 minutes to go. Unfortunately Muamba’s most notable contribution seems to be that he may have injured Micah Richards when he collided with the Manchester City defender.

Finalnd 2 – 1 Wales

Jussi Jaaskelainen failed to keep a clean sheet against Wales. Although Finland took an early lead Man City’s Craig Bellamy equalised in the 17th minute. Bellamy had two more good chances to test Jussi in the first half but both attempts sailed harmlessly over the crossbar. Finland retook the lead with quarter of an hour to go and Jaaskelainen had to produce a good save to prevent an 90th minute equaliser.

Finland’s win would be in vain as they cannot qualify for The 2010 World Cup. Finland face Germany next, who qualified for the World Cup in South Africa following their win against Russia. Finland are destined to come third in the group but perhaps a win at Hamburg will earn them some pride.

Welsh international Sam Ricketts missed this fixture as he has a ankle injury it is unlikely that he will play for Wales in their last qualifier match against Liechtenstein. Like Finland, Wales have failed to qualify for next year’s World Cup in South Africa.
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