Andy Walker headed his 29th goal of the season to give Bolton Wanderers three more points to aid their promotion push as they beat a poor Fulham outfit at Burnden Park this afternoon.
The Scottish striker nodded Mark Patterson’s excellent cross beyond the grasp of visiting goalkeeper Alan Gough midway through the second half to give the hosts all three points – and the surprise was that the margin of victory for Bruce Rioch’s side was so slender. Wanderers were dominant from the first whistle until the last but struggled to put the Londoners to the sword, which makes Fulham’s failure to contain the division’s leading scorer all the more galling.
Rioch reckoned the result mattered more than the performance, which was workmanlike without ever appearing fluent. The Trotters boss told the press afterwards: “People will look back in the history books and see this was a 1-0 win for us. They won’t remember the game for what it was. We were not able to get into top gear, we were always in third. Often this sort of game ends up 0-0 but while we know we can play better, this result was terrific.”
For a long time, it looked as if Gough, only drafted in to replace the flu-ridden Jim Stannard in the Fulham goal, would deal a serious blow to Bolton’s promotion hopes. The former Republic of Ireland under-21 international made magnificent saves to keep out two efforts from John McGinlay and somehow stopped Mark Seagraves from breaking the deadlock at point blank range.
Fulham looked toothless up top having lost the services of Sean Farrell – who was also afflicted by the flu bug – five minutes before the break. Alan Stubbs cleared a Kelly Haag shot off his own line before Mark Kelly had a shot blocked in the second half whilst attempts from Glen Thomas and Julian Hails lacked conviction. The Cottagers only upped the intensity when Ara Bedrossian replaced Udo Onwere to make his Fulham debut but even the classy Cypriot international couldn’t conjure up a late leveller.
BOLTON WANDERERS: Branagan; Seagraves, Stubbs, Burke, Brown, Lee, T. Kelly, Parkinson, McAteer, McGinlay (Green 89), Walker. Subs (not used): Darby.
GOAL: Walker (64).
FULHAM: Gough; G. Thomas, Pike, Marshall, Morgan, Newson, Onwere (Bedrossian 80), M. Kelly, Hails, Farrell (Brazil 40), Haag.
ATTENDANCE: 8,402.
