Lee snatches it for Trotters

Substitute's cool finish seals win at St. Andrews

By Elliot Ball   Last updated: 26th September 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Lee snatches it for Trotters

Lee: Celebrating winning goal

Man of the match: Gary Cahill. The Bolton defender was unlucky to see his side concede after a magnificent defensive display under the eyes of England boss Fabio Capello. Chung-Yong Lee a close second for the award.

Goal of the match: Kevin Phillips' equaliser. Not long after his introduction onto the pitch, the veteran striker played a superb one-two before hammering an unstoppable low shot into the bottom corner of the net.

Save of the match: Jussi Jaaskelainen gets the gong for his first-half save. After Barry Ferguson's deflected shot was heading goalwards, the Bolton stalwart produced a trademark one-handed stop, diverting the ball behind when Birmingham were rampant.

Talking point: Does Alex McLeish need to play two men up front when at home, the St. Andrews fans certainly think so, but it remains to be seen whether the Blues boss will change his tactics as the season unfolds.

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Chung-Yong Lee fired Bolton Wanderers to their second successive away win as they beat Birmingham City 2-1 on Saturday.

Substitute Lee gifted possession in the 84th minute to allow veteran striker Kevin Phillips to cancel out Tamir Cohen's first-half header.

But the winger made amends two minutes later after Matt Taylor's free-kick hit the post and the South Korean international reacted first to coolly slot home the winner.

David Sullivan's final home game as Birmingham co-owner ended in disappointment as his promoted side were leap-frogged by the Trotters, who now move into 13th position.

There was nothing pretty about their performance but they were content to sit back and defend in depth and were also effective at times on the counter-attack.

Birmingham had plenty of possession but lacked a cutting edge and three goals in seven games is a worrying statistic for manager Alex McLeish.

England head coach Fabio Capello made a rare visit to St Andrews to watch the game and it looked like nerves got the better of South Africa hopeful Joe Hart when the goalkeeper came out of his box to try and head clear.

The on-loan Manchester City shot-stopper failed to put the ball out for a throw-in and was relieved when an ambitious effort from the touch-line by Ivan Klasnic was only just too high.

Stunned

Then after 10 minutes Bolton stunned the home fans by taking the lead through Cohen.

A throw from Sam Ricketts was flicked on at the near post by Kevin Davies and Cohen beat Hart with a header which looped into the corner of the net for his third goal of the season.

Blues retaliated and after 30 minutes Teemu Tainio came close to equalising for the home side.

Lee Bowyer found the overlapping Gregory Vignal in space on the left flank and his first time cross picked out the run of Tainio into the box and his volley contained plenty of power but flashed a yard wide with Jussi Jaaskelainen well beaten.

Another probing cross from Vignal was turned goal-bound by Barry Ferguson and took a deflection off Gary Cahill before forcing a fine save out of Jaaskelainen.

Blues appealed for handball against Cahill, who came close to joining them from Aston Villa last season, but their protests were waved aside by referee Steve Bennett.

City were now enjoying most of the possession and Keith Fahey thundered a fierce 20 yarder against the Bolton crossbar.

Ferguson was also just off target with a volley after Bolton were guilty of some slack defensive play. Lee Bowyer also claimed a penalty after a challenge by Jlloyd Samuel but it would have been harsh had Bennett pointed to the spot.

Second-half

Birmingham began the second half on the offensive but 20-yard drives from Christian Benitez and Sebastian Larsson caused no problems for Jaaskelainen.

Bolton boss Megson made a substitution after 54 minutes with Klasnic replaced by Lee with Kevin Davies reverting into the central striker role.

Birmingham fans began chanting '4-4-2' in response to McLeish continuing with Benitez on his own upfront.

Lee could have doubled Bolton's lead when he seized onto a pass from Davies and went around Hart but the angle became narrow and he dragged his shot across the face of goal.

McLeish switched to 4-4-2 after 62 minutes with Tainio replaced by Garry O'Connor before Johnson became the first player to be yellow carded two minutes later for dissent.

Megson brought on Gavin McCann in place of Ricardo Gardner with 20 minutes remaining and he came close to scoring only to be denied by Hart who came quickly off his line to block his shot.

Phillips replaced Vignal and levelled for Birmingham with five minutes remaining after collecting a pass from Benitez.

But Lee grabbed the winner a minute later after Taylor's free-kick had hit a post.

Birmingham CityTeam StatisticsBolton Wanderers
1Goals2
01st Half Goals1
4Shots on Target4
7Shots off Target6
4Blocked Shots2
8Corners4
10Fouls16
4Offsides3
2Yellow Cards1
0Red Cards0
79.6Passing Success68
13Tackles17
84.6Tackles Success82.4
61.9Possession38.1
56.7Territorial Advantage43.3
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Comments (3)

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To.lee Chung yong! (Bolton Wanderers fan) says...

i'm proud of you it is wonderful goal

Posted 10:29 27th September 2009

Darren Austin (Birmingham City fan) says...

How long does it take to realise we play our best football, whilst playing 4-4-2! Even the fans were offering Alex McLeish advice! Bring back Steve Bruce

Posted 08:44 27th September 2009

Sean H (Birmingham City fan) says...

Havent seen the game yet but our fans were spot on. We need to play 4-4-2 because its not just a good backline that keeps you up, its goals too. How only one striker was bought in the summer I'll never know. We trust McLeish but he needs to address the 3 goals in 7 games stat before its too late.

Posted 21:24 26th September 2009
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