Bolton Wanderers - 2 (Gudjohnsen 64. Jensen 82.)
Crystal Palace - 0

With the transfer embargo finally lifted it can only be hoped that Steve Coppell manages to sign a few players very quickly. The website has collected quite a number of players who are willing to come and play for the Club, and these messages have been passed on to the management. Hopefully something will happen quite soon, as we are obviously in dire need of some new faces at the Club.

Palace actually started the better of the two sides. Just two minutes had elapsed when Hayden Mullins sent in a great cross which caused real consternation in the area until Gudni Bergsson managed to clear the ball from the danger zone. The early substitution of Dean Holdsworth (injured thigh) for Bo Hansen seemed to spark new life into the home team, and it was Hansen who went close twice in the next few minutes. Further chances to Eidur Gudjohnsen and Hansen again started to look ominous for Palace, but to show that we were still in the match James Hibburt sent in an excellent cross which Andrew Martin put just over the bar.

A final chance in the first half fell to Ricardo Gardner, but the sides went in level at the break, with everything still to play for.

Steve Coppell would have been pleased with the sides showing, despite the fact that the advantage appeared to be on Bolton's side; and he would have been looking for more of the same in the second period.

As usual there was the match incident which the team were not happy with, this time involving a kick in the back by Mark Fish which the referee ruled as unintentional, but otherwise the match progressed in fairly good order.

The value of our defence was shown by the fact that it took nearly 20 minutes of the second half before the first goal arrived. It was Gudjohnsen who made the goal, running down the left side of the field before turning in and placing the ball around Fraser Digby. Still Palace managed to stay in the match, but the chances to get on the board were becoming slimmer and slimmer. With only eight minutes left on the clock it was again Gudjohnsen who set up the goal, this time placing the ball right at the feet of Claus Jensen who made no mistake shooting the ball home.

That goal signalled the end of the fight as far as the visiting Palace side were concerned, and with very little action remaining the final whistle fell on another lonely trip down the motorways back to London for the visitors.

Hopefully Steve will find us a new striker in the not too distant future!

Colin Pryce

Bolton Wanderers: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Jimmy Phillips, Gudni Bergsson, Mark Fish, Mike Whitlow, Michael Johansen (Hasney Aljofree 85), Claus Jensen, Paul Warhurst (Andy Todd 62), Ricardo Gardner, Dean Holdsworth (Bo Hansen 12), Eidur Gudjohnsen.

Substitutes not used: Matthew Glennon, Lee Potter.

Crystal Palace: Fraser Digby, Dean Austin, Andy Linighan, David Woozley, Terry Phelan, James Hibburt (Brian Launders 81), Hayden Mullins, Simon Rodger, Jamie Fullarton, Andrew Martin, Matthias Svensson.

Substitutes not used: Andrew Frampton, Matthew Gregg, Sean Hankin, David Lee.

Attendance: 12,744

Referee: Mr M Pike (Barrow-in-Furness).