Bolton v West Ham Highlights Video

Bolton 2 - 1 West Ham

With Bolton still uncomfortably close to the relegation dogfight, Gary Megson watched his side take on 8th placed West Ham Utd at the Reebok.

Matt Taylor settled his managers nerves as early as the tenth minute when his free-kick flew over a leaky-looking wall and past keeper Robert Green in the Hammers goal. It took only two more minutes to double that lead when Kevin Davies met a Johan Elmander cross to fire home.

Gianfranco Zola’s side fought hard to get back into the match, creating some good chances. Mark Noble should have done better when he elected to pass rather than shoot and David di Michele ran half the length of the pitch before troubling the corner flag more than the net. Carlton Cole at least found the target but his goal-bound effort was cleared by Taylor.

West Ham finally got their reward after an hour when Scott Parker halved the deficit, latching on to a Spector low cross. They continued to press and only a brilliant Gary Cahill prevented Di Michele finishing off his own work. Carlton Cole was again denied, this time by Jussi Jaaskelainen in the Bolton goal. Bolton did occasionally threaten and Davies even has claims for a penalty late on but the home side held on for a priceless three points.

To literally add injury to insult, West Ham lost defender James Collins to a pulled hamstring. The full game was available live on our partner network Live Sport. They have over 42,000 members making them the largest network of its kind on the web.