Almost there!

By Matt Lawton
April 21 2002

A second half goal from super sub Dean Holdsworth virtually ensures Premiership football at the Reebok next season. Seems a shame he will almost certainly be linking up with former manager Joe Kinnear at Luton Town in the summer after such an expertly taken goal.

BOLTON WANDERERS 1 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1
Date: Saturday 20th April
Competition: FA Barclaycard Premiership
Venue: Reebok Stadium, Bolton, Lancashire
Attendance: 25,817

A spirited second half performance from Bolton Wanderers gave them a 1-1 draw against European-hopefuls Tottenham Hotspur to virtually confirm that there will again be Premiership football at the Reebok next season. A seemingly offside Steffen Iversen ran clear of the Bolton defence early in the game and then rounded on-rushing goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen to leave himself with a simple finish to silence the majority of the vociferous 25,817 crowd to give Spurs a deserved 1-0 lead at half time. Bolton came out much more determined for the second half and after putting pressure on the Spurs defence for all of the second half, substitute Dean Holdsworth dinked the ball over Spurs' American goalkeeper Kasey Keller to finally get Bolton the equaliser they richly deserved to send the Reebok wild with relief and delight. Bolton could have, and maybe should have, won the game in the closing stages with the largely ineffective Youri Djorkaeff smashing a free kick against the crossbar before an excellent Djorkaeff run took him past several defenders before he set up substitute Michael Ricketts who superbly volleyed into the far corner but unfortunately the England man's strike was dubiously cancelled out by the linesman's flag. Bolton now only need 1 more win from their three remaining games to mathmatically confirm that for the first time Bolton will be playing Premiership football two years in a row.

GK - Jussi Jaaskelainen 7
DEF - Simon Charlton 7
DEF - Bruno N'Gotty 8
DEF - Mike Whitlow 7
DEF - Gudni Bergsson 7
MID - Per Frandsen 7
MID - Kevin Nolan 7
MID - Nicky Southall 7
MID - Youri Djorkaeff 7
ATT - Rod Wallace 6
ATT - Fredi Bobic 6

Subs:
Dean Holdsworth (for Bobic) 8
Michael Ricketts (for Wallace) 7