Report v Bolton Wanderers 04/11/00

WATFORD and Fulham must have chuckled their socks off on Saturday night.

While they had both stacked up another three points, the internecine squabbling between their pursuers served only to widen the gap between the top two and the rest.

None of the five clubs nearest to them - and only two of the nearest nine - won at the weekend.

And, by drawing at St Andrew's, Birmingham and Bolton, two clubs with a notional chance of reeling in the tearaway top two, gave each other extra work to do to achieve that objective.

Blues manager Trevor Francis was "very satisfied" with his team's performance.

Bolton boss Sam Allardyce felt his side looked the likelier to have won it.

Positives were accentuated, but does either club have that extra dimension to lift them above a third successive crack at the play-offs?

Predictably, for Blues it was all very different to the euphoria of White Hart Lane.

Back in the First Division strait-jacket they fought out an unerringly-tight contest which, the longer it went, appeared to require a flash of attacking brilliance or an attack of defensive chaos to lift it from a condition of stalemate. Blues produced both.

Stan Lazaridis provided the offensive magic.

His twist into the Bolton box was ended by Robbie Elliott's trip (Allardyce disagreed, insisting the Australian had dived) and Martin Grainger converted the penalty.

An eighth successive home victory beckoned for Blues.

Then goalkeeper Ian Bennett, hitherto a paragon of excellence this season, charged underneath the bounce of an aimless hoof out of Bolton's defence.

Former Walsall striker and lifelong Blues fan Michael Ricketts loped into possession and stroked the ball into an empty net. Ouch.

"It was an unbelievably bad error," said Francis candidly.

"We had got ourselves in front and were getting on top, so that a second goal was the most likely outcome.

"In boxing terms, Bolton were on the ropes.

"They could hardly believe their luck.

"I was very satisfied with the performance all round, though.

"We did not have the best of starts, but improved after half-time when we went from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3.

"We gave Stan Lazaridis a free role and he caused them a lot of problems.

"When a team plays to that standard, most times they will win; we did not win, because of one error from our goalkeeper."

Francis predictably chose to keep the team that started the Worthington Cup tie at Tottenham.

That meant David Holdsworth was left on the bench, but he was soon involved after Martin O'Connor was stretchered off concussed following an accidental collision with Per Frandsen's elbow.

Blues had marginally more possession during a flat first half but the best chance fell to Ricketts who headed wide from ten yards.

Dele Adebola and Mark Burchill both discomforted Wanderers' defence but only once pierced it and even then, an offside flag was busy rising as Burchill's header hit the bar.

Lazaridis relished his half-time orders to get roaming.

Five minutes after the interval he popped up on the right, spun out of an apparent cul-de-sac and was promptly felled by Elliott.

Grainger, unfazed by his failure from the penalty spot at Portsmouth last week, did not fail this time.

With Lazaridis rampant, the match tilted Blues' way but, just as the visitors appeared to be wilting, they were gifted that equaliser.

Gudni Bergsson lifted the ball forward simply to remove it from his own half and there seemed no danger as Ricketts dutifully charged upfield with two defenders for company.

But, as Bennett came out, the defenders eased back and were left helpless as the Blues keeper charged beneath the ball's steepling bounce.

Three minutes later, Lazaridis should have restored Blues' lead but stroked the ball inches wide.

Darren Purse then twice rescued his side with excellent tackles as Ricketts was about to pull the trigger.

Honours, then, ended justly even, which leaves Blues requiring five points from away games at Norwich and Grimsby to get back on course for Francis's oft-stated two-points-per-game target.