Wanderers 2, Wolves 1 IT isn't always the best team that wins a football match but the team with the best players in the key positions usually stands a pretty good chance, writes BEN Chief Soccer Writer Gordon Sharrock.
Wanderers have played better than they did at the Reebok on Saturday - recent performances at Blackburn and Gillingham instantly spring to mind - yet they still managed to secure their first win in four attempts, reaffirming their status as one of the leading lights in Division One.
Wolves were no slouches but they left Bolton empty handed yet again because they had no answer to two goals of the most outstanding quality.
Dean Holdsworth will never again hit a better strike than the diagonal right-footer that curled out of Michael Oakes' reach into the far top corner and, if a couple of Brazilians had produced the sort of magic Gudni Bergsson and Ian Marshall conjured up for the matchwinner, the noise would have shaken the foundations of the Maracana.
No wonder Colin Lee laments the enforced sales of Robbie Keane and Ade Akinbiyi in recent times. He had every reason to be pleased with his team's performance ... but only up to a point and that point just happens to be where games are won and lost.
Wanderers know they had their moments of good fortune: Wolves had a good shout for handball when Holdsworth cleared Ludo Pollet's header off the line in the 17th minute and there were times aplenty when, as Lee put it, a 25-goal-a-season man would have converted one of the various chances that came their way.
But you can't keep good men down and, at the moment, Sam Allardyce's squad has good men in abundance and they are doing him proud.
Against the odds too! For while it's clear that there is a strong sense of camaraderie among the players, there's still an element of make-do-and-mend about the team with so many underlying problems that it's a wonder they're in the top half of the table let alone the top three.
For while Holdsworth and Marshall stole the show with their impressive performances - the former unfortunately lasting just 44 minutes before he overstretched in pursuit of a second goal - much of the post-match talk was of their contractual situations. Marshall, don't forget, is still working on a pay-per-play basis while Holdsworth's current deal runs out next summer.
It's a distinct possibility that neither will be Bolton players next season!
Likewise Mark Fish, who has still not signed the contract extension he has been offered, and Gudni Bergsson, who would have called it a day last May if he hadn't been subjected to some powerful persuasion by the powers that be.
With Bo Hansen having to grin and bear a tactical approach that means him playing in an alien position, Gareth Farrelly and John O'Kane making valuable contributions having been virtually written off last season and Isaiah Rankin only a temporary Wanderer, it's something approaching a miracle of man management that Allardyce has guided his team to where they stand today!
Big Sam speaks with pride about his days in a Preston team known as 'The Misfits' so it's no surprise to see him enjoying life now in charge of the 'Unlikely Lads'.
Marshall is the prime example. Effectively out of the game with no prospects of employment, when he turned up at the Reebok on the eve of the season looking for a place to train, the old warhorse has turned in a string of priceless performances to prove he is a long way from the knackers' yard.
Throughout his career he has switched from centre-half to centre-forward and back again. But rarely in the same game and probably never to such effect as he did on Saturday.
His performance at Gillingham rewarded him with a place in the starting line-up ahead of Fish, who had to settle for the bench on his return from Johannesburg where he had helped South Africa shut out World Champions. And he justified his selection as Wanderers had to cope with an early onslaught from the Wolves attack.
Then his versatility came into its own. He proved a natural replacement up front when the combative Holdsworth limped off, allowing Fish to resume his normal duties, then, after teeing up Bergsson with the deftest of return passes for what proved to be the matchwinner, he ended the game back in defence after the captain surrendered to a bout of cramp!
It had been touch and go for Wanderers. They'd taken the lead against the run of play, bossed the game for a while then lost the initiative when Tony Dinning chipped in one of his trademark penalties seven minutes into the second half after Fish brought down the pacy Michael Branch.
Allardyce had no complaints about the penalty and chastised Fish for not heeding a warning three minutes earlier when the Wolves man got the better of him, only to squander one of the many opportunities that caused Lee so much frustration and grief.
The Molineux men knew they had missed a chance to settle a few old scores in an end to end game typical of many recent clashes.
It was no surprise to learn that John McGinlay - the scurge of the Old Golds in his playing days and still a talisman since hanging up his boots - was in the crowd to cheer another victory over the old enemy and revel in the quality of the goals.
When did he ever lose any sleep worrying about the finer points of a performance when hard-earned points were safely in the bag?
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