Chung-Yong Lee fired Bolton Wanderers to their second successive away win as they beat Birmingham City 2-1.
Substitute's cool finish seals win at St. Andrews
Chung-Yong Lee fired Bolton Wanderers to their second successive away win as they beat Birmingham City 2-1 on Saturday.
Substitute Lee gifted possession in the 84th minute to allow veteran striker Kevin Phillips to cancel out Tamir Cohen's first-half header.
But the winger made amends two minutes later after Matt Taylor's free-kick hit the post and the South Korean international reacted first to coolly slot home the winner.
David Sullivan's final home game as Birmingham co-owner ended in disappointment as his promoted side were leap-frogged by the Trotters, who now move into 13th position.
There was nothing pretty about their performance but they were content to sit back and defend in depth and were also effective at times on the counter-attack.
Birmingham had plenty of possession but lacked a cutting edge and three goals in seven games is a worrying statistic for manager Alex McLeish.
England head coach Fabio Capello made a rare visit to St Andrews to watch the game and it looked like nerves got the better of South Africa hopeful Joe Hart when the goalkeeper came out of his box to try and head clear.
The on-loan Manchester City shot-stopper failed to put the ball out for a throw-in and was relieved when an ambitious effort from the touch-line by Ivan Klasnic was only just too high.
Stunned
Then after 10 minutes Bolton stunned the home fans by taking the lead through Cohen.
A throw from Sam Ricketts was flicked on at the near post by Kevin Davies and Cohen beat Hart with a header which looped into the corner of the net for his third goal of the season.
Blues retaliated and after 30 minutes Teemu Tainio came close to equalising for the home side.
Lee Bowyer found the overlapping Gregory Vignal in space on the left flank and his first time cross picked out the run of Tainio into the box and his volley contained plenty of power but flashed a yard wide with Jussi Jaaskelainen well beaten.
Another probing cross from Vignal was turned goal-bound by Barry Ferguson and took a deflection off Gary Cahill before forcing a fine save out of Jaaskelainen.
Blues appealed for handball against Cahill, who came close to joining them from Aston Villa last season, but their protests were waved aside by referee Steve Bennett.
City were now enjoying most of the possession and Keith Fahey thundered a fierce 20 yarder against the Bolton crossbar.
Ferguson was also just off target with a volley after Bolton were guilty of some slack defensive play. Lee Bowyer also claimed a penalty after a challenge by Jlloyd Samuel but it would have been harsh had Bennett pointed to the spot.
Second-half
Birmingham began the second half on the offensive but 20-yard drives from Christian Benitez and Sebastian Larsson caused no problems for Jaaskelainen.
Bolton boss Megson made a substitution after 54 minutes with Klasnic replaced by Lee with Kevin Davies reverting into the central striker role.
Birmingham fans began chanting '4-4-2' in response to McLeish continuing with Benitez on his own upfront.
Lee could have doubled Bolton's lead when he seized onto a pass from Davies and went around Hart but the angle became narrow and he dragged his shot across the face of goal.
McLeish switched to 4-4-2 after 62 minutes with Tainio replaced by Garry O'Connor before Johnson became the first player to be yellow carded two minutes later for dissent.
Megson brought on Gavin McCann in place of Ricardo Gardner with 20 minutes remaining and he came close to scoring only to be denied by Hart who came quickly off his line to block his shot.
Phillips replaced Vignal and levelled for Birmingham with five minutes remaining after collecting a pass from Benitez.
But Lee grabbed the winner a minute later after Taylor's free-kick had hit a post.
| Birmingham City |
Team Statistics |
Bolton Wanderers |
| 1 |
Goals |
2 |
| 0 |
1st Half Goals |
1 |
| 4 |
Shots on Target |
4 |
| 7 |
Shots off Target |
6 |
| 4 |
Blocked Shots |
2 |
| 8 |
Corners |
4 |
| 10 |
Fouls |
16 |
| 4 |
Offsides |
3 |
| 2 |
Yellow Cards |
1 |
| 0 |
Red Cards |
0 |
| 79.6 |
Passing Success |
68 |
| 13 |
Tackles |
17 |
| 84.6 |
Tackles Success |
82.4 |
| 61.9 |
Possession |
38.1 |
| 56.7 |
Territorial Advantage |
43.3 |
|
