Defensive Frailty Costs Bolton Dear

In his more benign moments, Sam Allardyce gives the impression that he would make a wonderful Fred Flintstone – but it’s doubtful whether that’s a side Bolton players would have seen either during or after their game against Middlesbrough.

The truth is that Bolton were uncharacteristically frail at the back and in a game of two rather tentatively executed penalties, one for each side, it was the home side that eventually triumphed in stoppage time when Stuart Parnaby won the race to run in an irresistible cross from substitute Yakubu, whose appearance had deprived Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink of the chance of a hat-trick.