Jay-Jay saves the day after bother from the spot

Bolton Wanderers 2 Manchester City

Footballers can derive their inspiration from some strange sources, but few will have had their performances lifted by a missed penalty the way Jay- Jay Okocha's was yesterday.

The Nigerian was not having the best of games for the Trotters, and when he failed from the spot midway through the first half he might have been expected to fade further from view. The opposite was the case as he made up for his miss with a master class of midfield trickery that steered Bolton to three vital points towards their target of Premiership survival.

"It was a massive win for us. That's three on the trot and three clean sheets to boot," enthused their manager, Sam Allardyce. "Jay-Jay was an outstanding feature in today's game, with the extra responsibility he took on from missing the penalty. He felt he had to do more because he wanted to make up for that, and it showed great character as well as great ability."

City looked ominous only for the first 10 minutes, during which Nicholas Anelka had two chances he might have been expected to put away. The first, from Shaun Wright-Phillips's low cross, was stabbed over the top; the second, when the Bolton defence looked for an offside flag, was saved by Jussi Jaaskelainen.

From a promising start, City faded into complete anonym-ity. They should have fallen behind after 21 minutes, when Youri Djorkaeff went down in Peter Schmeichel's diving challenge for what was admittedly a debatable penalty.

Okocha scored the injury- time penalty against Spurs which gave Bolton's fight against relegation new impetus. He might, as a current top- selling T-shirt suggests, be so good they named him twice, but he could not repeat the feat yesterday.

He stuttered in his run-up and fired well wide of Schmeichel's right-hand post. Far from letting his head go down, however, he then attacked City like a man possessed. After Henrik Pedersen had shot wide when put through by Florent Laville, Okocha produced a wonderful turn and shot that went just wide, followed by a visionary pass to Bernard Mendy that led to a shot skimming the bar. Ten minutes after his penalty miss, Okocha exchanged passes with Per Frandsen in a crowded penalty area and sent across the sort of ball that begged to be dispatched into the net. Pedersen was on the far post and did the necessary, his seventh goal of the season.

Another marvellous piece of footwork from Okocha saw him narrowly off-target again, and Bolton should have been two up soon after the break when Ivan Campo almost got to Djorkaeff's free-kick. It was the 52nd minute when the second goal they deserved finally arrived. Mendy's pace forced a corner, Djorkaeff took it and Campo had his second goal for the club.

Before long, Kevin Keegan made a belated triple substitution, including the withdrawal of Robbie Fowler, whose listless performance had typified City.

But too late the changes. "I'd like to see a more professional and better effort at getting back into games when we go down," said Keegan, but such sentiments seem lost on a team playing as though their season had ended already.

Bolton Wanderers 2 Manchester City 0
Pedersen 32, Campo 52

Half-time: 1-0 Attendance: 26,949