Nakata flourishes as Wanderers return in good shape

Bolton Wanderers 2 West Bromwich

Two goals in the final nine minutes saw them home against a stubborn West Bromwich Albion yesterday, and ensured there were no domestic slips following the draw in Istanbul on Thursday.

Hidetoshi Nakata, the Japanese midfielder signed on a season's loan from Fiorentina, underlined a performance of high quality, breaking through with an exquisite curling 20-yard free-kick to score his first goal in England, before a sweet strike by the captain, Kevin Nolan, from similar range.

It was not so much a home-from-Europe malaise bothering the manager, Sam Allardyce, as two successive Premiership defeats. He feared the dip would continue as Kevin Davies, Stelios Giannakopoulos and Nolan squandered clear chances.

"It didn't seem we were capable of putting the ball in the net, but we scored from two of the harder chances," said Allardyce, adding: "Nakata has done a massive job in Italy for six or seven years, and we hope he can do the same here."

Albion would have led had Diomansy Kamara not scooped a 20th-minute penalty, awarded for a trip on him by his Senegal team-mate El Hadji Diouf, yards over. His original kick had gone in, only for a retake to be ordered because of Geoff Horsfield's encroachment.

But the West Bromwich manager Bryan Robson's anger at the referee, Mike Dean,centred on the decision to penalise Martin Albrechtsen with the free-kick that opened the scoring. "The referee has lost us the game," he said. "The decision was an absolute joke. It's annoying because the players have shown a lot of discipline in the second half."

Goals: 1-0 Nakata (81); 2-0 Nolan (89).

Bolton Wanderers (4-3-3): Jaaskelainen; O'Brien, N'Gotty, Ben Haim, Pedersen; Faye, Nolan, Nakata; Giannakopoulos, Davies, Diouf (Fadiga, 83). Substitutes not used: Walker (gk), Jaidi, Borgetti, Fernandes.

West Bromwich Albion (3-5-2): Kirkland; Davies, Moore, Clement (Earnshaw, 83); Albrechtsen, Watson, Greening, Carter, Robinson; Horsfield (Kanu, 64), Kamara. Substitutes not used: Kuszczak (gk), Scimeca, Chaplow.

Referee: M Dean (Wirral).

Booked: Bolton Nolan; West Bromwich: Albrechtsen, Carter.

Man of the match: Nakata.

Attendance: 24,151.