Bolton Wanderers 2 (N’Gog 73, 80) Charlton 0.
Kevin Nolan reports from the Reebok Stadium.
With a little less than a half hour left in this uninspiring game, Charlton seemed capable of taking away at least a useful scoreless draw from chilly Lancashire. They had coped comfortably with Bolton’s puny attacking threat, spearheaded as it was by annoying old sweat Kevin Davies, with loanee Jacob Butterfield innocuous alongside him. In his career dotage, Davies’ main contribution to games is a steady diet of borderline fouls designed to upset the opposition while, at the same time, treading a precarious path along the perimeters of the law; without a goal this season, Butterfield had posed few problems.
Calm and untroubled, the Addicks were even casting covetous eyes on three valuable points. The best second half chances had fallen their way and there were grounds for supposing that a fifth away win of the season was within reach. But they reckoned without the impact that 63rd minute Bolton substitute David N’Gog was about to make.
Having tried the patience of successive management teams at Liverpool, N’Gog’s once promising career has dwindled into inactivity, punctuated by periodic loan spells. Only two goals in twelve starts (plus three sub appearances) at the Reebok this season had hardly set local pulses racing. Unfortunately for the Addicks, the erratic Frenchman was in the mood to double his tally at their expense.
A lack of ability has been the least of N’Gog’s problems. Liverpool had nurtured his talent until, they hoped, it would blossom to mutual benefit. Their long wait went largely unrewarded and their patience eventually ran out. But there will always be those days when the gifted striker puts it all together and vents his frustration on unwary opposition. Charlton were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
N’Gog’s first goal was pure poetry in motion. Shielding Jay Spearing’s pass into his feet from Dorian Dervite, his clever shuffle disposed of his fellow Frenchman’s close marking and made room for the ice-cool shot he rolled beyond Ben Hamer into the bottom left corner. Amid the dross surrounding it, his skill was a pearl cast before swine. No offence should be taken by the swine.
Shortly afterwards, N’gog added a second goal of similar quality. Spinning instinctively into space to accept Martin Petrov’s sharp pass, he found the same corner of the net with a firmly struck drive. His finishing in both cases was coldly clinical.
Charlton will have found defeat a bitter pill to swallow. They had squandered chances of their own, most notably the first half header sent wide by Danny Haynes, after Yann Kermorgant’s incisive pass and Lawrie Wilson’s carefully aimed cross had opened up the struggling Trotters. Kermorgant himself blew a golden opportunity early in the second period by misdirecting his header from Chris Solly’s centre wide of the post. Though charitably deemed offside, Wilson later completed a hat-trick of headed misses with similarly cock-eyed finishing.
Sparked by creative wide man Chris Eagles, the Trotters were themselves occasionally threatening. In the opening minutes, Eagles cushioned Chung-Yong Lee’s diagonal pass near the left byline before setting up the South Korean with an astute cutback. The less said about Lee’s disastrously screwed effort the better; ditto the weak shot Davies directed straight at Hamer after beating off Michael Morrison’s challenge. Eagles stung Hamer’s hands with a ferocious volley on the turn but there was little to concern the visitors
Midway through the second half, Bolton manager Dougie Freedman played his trump, or rather trumps. N’Gog replaced Butterfield and Martin Petrov, to surprising disapproval, took over from the hardworking Lee. Genuine, if somewhat shopworn, Premier League pedigree had been brought to bear and how handsomely it paid off for another of the Championship’s up-and-coming young managers. N’Gog’s dimly remembered quality destroyed the shellshocked Addicks. And the irony is that once he goes back almost inevitably into his protective shell, N’Gog probably won’t score again this season. Except, of course, when Bolton visit The Valley on March 30th next year.
Kevin Nolan’s Match Report is brought to you in association with, 294 Burnt Ash Hill, London, SE12 0QD.
Bolton: Bogdan, Mears, Ricketts, Knight, Warnock, Lee (Petrov 63), Andrews, Spearing, Eagles, Butterfield (N’Gog 63), Davies. Not used: Lonergan, Alonso, Ream, Afobe, Pratley. Booked: Warnock.
Charlton: Hamer, Solly, Morrison, Dervite, Seaborne, Wilson, Stephens, Frimpong, Jackson, Haynes (Wright-Phillips 83), Kermorgant. Not used: Button, Kerkar, Pritchard, Cook, Cort, Hulse. Booked: Stephens, Wilson.
Referee: Kevin Wright. Att: 15,991.