Newcastle United 1 Wanderers 0: IF football did not bother with goals Wanderers would be one of the best teams in the league writes Neil Bonnar

As it is they are in dire trouble of playing quality football all the way into the First Division.

Wanderers were every inch as good as a red hot Newcastle last night but came away with nothing because they cannot buy a goal at the moment.

One in the last five Premiership games and a string of similar enlightening statistics gleaned from scanning this season's 'goals for' column show why Wanderers are slugging it out with the rest of the relegation pack.

The one man who could score regularly last season has lost his touch and his desire to do it at Bolton and there is nobody looking capable of taking up his mantle.

Either Sam Allardyce needs to find another cheap gem for the last 14 games or Wanderers had better start praying because neither Henrik Pedersen nor Delroy Facey are convincing successors to Michael Ricketts' crown.

Both may chip in, Youri Djorkaeff can score goals of quality but possibly not in sufficient quantity and Jay Jay Okocha is threatening to score the goal of the season before the campaign is out.

But where is the man who will get six or eight in the last 14 games that Wanderers need? No, I don't know either.

Ricketts is still the best hope but when he can point to just four from open play all season and is greeted by a hail of boos from his own travelling fans when he enters the fray from the bench it does not augur well.

It is a pity the goals are proving so elusive because the rest of the team is firing on all cylinders.

Newcastle away is the toughest test the Premiership has to offer at the present time. With ten straight home league wins, a recent formbook reading three wins and a draw and a formidable defensive record at home, it does not come any tougher than this.

But Bolton rose to the task superbly, dominated and threatened for long periods to such an extent that the 52,005 St James' crowd was on its feet in bad tempered frustration at their own team on a regular basis.

Wanderers even had the inconvenience of losing one of their season's two most consistent players in Per Frandsen with a suspected hamstring injury after just ten minutes.

Enter Ivan Campo, who has been called everything from a clown to an overweight pub player this season with the biggest barrage of abuse hurled at him from television pundits during his previous week's performance in the North East at Sunderland.

Critics whistle circus tunes when he comes on but last night he dumped the clown act and became the ringmaster.

Sir Bobby Robson called him world class, Sam Allardyce hailed his "controlling of midfield, lovely passing, skill and ability" and Gudni Bergsson said he was the best player on the pitch.

Can this be the same Ivan Campo who delivers heart attacks to Wanderers fans on a weekly basis and whose own team-mates do not know what he will do next?

It was and he was fantastic sitting just in front of the back four and delivering measured long range passes as it they were going out of fashion.

He looked for all the world like Glenn Hoddle, carrying space around with him and prompting the majority of Wanderers' attacks in a classy manner that Robson later admitted his side could not handle.

Behind him the back four were untouchable. The frightening prospect of Alan Shearer and Craig Bellamy did materialise. But only twice.

Unfortunately that was enough. Bellamy's pace was unleashed by Steven Caldwell's pass in the 18th minute and, although Bruno N'Gotty reeled him in, Bellamy poked a pass through the defender's legs into the path of Jermaine Jenas to slot home.

N'Gotty was brilliant apart from the goal, especially considering the difficulty of the test so soon after recovering from a lengthy injury absence.

Alongside him Gudni Bergsson put in a captain's performance while Anthony Barness was rock solid and Simon Charlton a frenzy of constructive activity.

But the biggest positive of the night was the performance of Bernard Mendy playing as an old fashioned right winger.

Time after time he got his head down and ripped through the heart of Newcastle, clipping the outside of a post with a rasping 25-yard drive at the end of one thrilling run.

Wanderers should also have had a nailed-on penalty, when Henrik Pedersen was bundled over by Nikos Dabizas, and it is no wonder Wanderers left St James' wondering how they had failed to get something from the game.