Manchester City 0 Bolton Wanderers 1
If pushed, even Bolton fans would probably admit they find it hard to like El-Hadji Diouf, but no doubt they are warming to him after football's pantomime villain scored the goal which beat Manchester City and took their team into sixth position in the Premiership last night. Uefa Cup football beckons Sam Allardyce's side.
For City, Kevin Keegan had Willo Flood come in for Sean Wright-Phillips, and recalled Claudio Reyna, fit again after almost six months.
The American quickly made his presence felt, snapping into tackles and running hard in support of Robbie Fowler and Antoine Sibierski up front.
Fowler, whose first of two goals at Norwich last week was his 150th in the Premiership, is probably in the best form of his City career, and with Flood and Kiki Musampa offering width, City's early attacks carried a real threat.
But their best chance came courtesy of two Bolton errors. The first was by Vincent Candela, who sliced an attempted clearance back towards his goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelaianen, the second by Jaaskelainen himself, who somehow fumbled the ball. Fowler reacted quickly but from six yards lifted the ball over the bar as the goalkeeper desperately tried to recover.
Moments before half-time, Diouf made up for an earlier miss. City looked to have cleared a free-kick but Kevin Nolan headed the ball back into the area and, from close to the byline, Stelios Giannakopoulos squared the ball across goal for Diouf to turn in at the far post.
City emerged for the second-half with Steve McManaman in place of Flood and were immediately handed a splendid opportunity to equalise when Candela clambered all over Fowler on the edge of the area.
Sibierski wasted the free-kick, setting the pattern for a second half which saw City enjoying plenty of possession but rarely testing Jaaskelainen.
Guardian Service
MAN CITY:James, Mills, Distin, Dunne, Sommeil, Flood (McManaman 45), Bosvelt (Bradley Wright-Phillips 68), Reyna, Musampa, Fowler, Sibierski (Croft 83). Subs Not Used: Weaver, Bischoff. Booked: Dunne.
BOLTON:Jaaskelainen, Candela (Jaidi 89), N'Gotty, Ben Haim, Gardner, Nolan, Okocha (Speed 45), Hierro (Campo 86), Giannakopoulos, Davies, Diouf. Subs Not Used: Poole, Pedersen. Booked: Candela, Ben Haim. Goals: Diouf 45.
Referee:A Wiley (Staffordshire).