Source: Daily_Mail
Bolton 2 West Bromwich 0: Matt Taylor and Johan Elmander punish wasteful Baggies
Bolton returned to the top six and are back on course for Europe. But even as they clinched this fortunate victory, their 13th under Owen Coyle in less than a year, the Wanderers manager and his players turned their thoughts to absent star Tamir Cohen. [LNB]The Israeli midfielder spent Christmas at the bedside of his critically ill father Avi, the former Liverpool defender, who was injured in a motorbike accident last week near Tel Aviv. [LNB] United front: Johan Elmander (right) pays tribute to Avi Cohen[LNB]When top scorer Johan Elmander sealed this win with a late drilled second, he unveiled a T-shirt insupport of his team-mate, who is on indefinite leave. [LNB]'That shows the spirit of this team,' said Coyle. 'What has happened to Avi is very sad. He was over here a couple of weeks ago and I spent some time with him and he's a lovely fella. We all hope he makes a full recovery. [LNB][LNB] Fist up: Matt Taylor celebrates opening the scoring[LNB] [LNB] [LNB] [LNB]'Tamir is well liked by the wholegroup and he is in our thoughts and prayers and we wanted to show himwe are thinking of him.' [LNB]MattTaylor, who has been in and out of Coyle's side this season, finallyscored his first of the campaign against the run of play to put Boltonin front. The Reebok boss revealed: 'I told him before the game I had afeeling he would get his goal today and I'm delighted for him becauseit's been coming.'[LNB]Taylor started the move with aclever pass for Lee Chung-yong, who appeared to have taken the ball toofar past goalkeeper Scott Carson. But the South Korean, who is alsoabsent now for the Asia Cup, calmly played his pass from the byline toTaylor, who buried his shot low into the net.[LNB]Elmanderkilled off any chance of a West Bromwich revival with another drilledshot after Paul Scharner had slid back to prevent his cross reachingsubstitute Ivan Klasnic. [LNB]Elmander ruthlessly buried the rebound inside Carson's near post. That was cruel on Roberto Di Matteo's side, who dominated for long periods. [LNB]The Albion boss said: 'We had no luck today, not even a tiny bit. Once again we've come awayscratching our heads because we had much clearer chances. [LNB]'You get punished in the Barclays Premier League if you have five or six chances and don't score.'[LNB]Aseason or two in Moscow may have helped West Bromwich striker PeterOdemwingie acclimatise to Britain's current Arctic conditions butdespite being presented with three excellent opportunities on hisreturn from injury yesterday he fluffed them all. [LNB]Di Matteo said: 'Peter was a bit rusty. It's quite unusual for him to miss but it will come. He had been out for a few weeks.'[LNB] [LNB] Fulham boss Hughes tempted by a move for Bolton's TaylorManchester City rule out a cut-price loan for Wright-PhillipsBOLTON WANDERERS FC
