The young midfielder sent the Wanderers through on aggregate with his strike four minutes from the end, but it wasn't easy for the Premiership club against a Lokomotiv Plovdiv side who made life difficult in a frantic second half spell.

Bolton made a number of changes from the side which faced Portsmouth as Ian Walker, Abdoulaye Diagne-Faye, Joey O'Brien, Jared Borgetti, Fabrice Fernandes and Stelios Giannakopoulos all came into the reckoning as manager Sam Allardyce had one eye on Sunday's local derby with Wigan Athletic.

Neither side excelled in the first half on what was a very bumpy pitch, but the Wanderers can be proud at the way they kept things tight defensively in a very cagey opening period.

Plovdiv had the first effort of note on seven minutes when Aleksander Tunchev's header sailed over the crossbar of Wanderers debutant Ian Walker. Walker like opposite number Stoyan Kolev had little to do in the first half which was played in some incredible heat.

On 25 minutes Yavor Vandev combined well with the dangerous Georgi Iliev but was unable to keep his strike towards the Bolton goal low enough to test the experienced Walker.

Indeed it was Iliev who broke the deadlock shortly after half time when firing in a peach of a shot from all of 25-yards which left Walker with no chance at all. The Bolton defence had just backed off from the midfielder and he was able to take time out to review his options before firing hime.

The Naftex Stadium was suddenly lit up with fire crackers as the sun went down and Wanderers where dangerously close to going out of the competition owing to the away goals rule.

On 56 minutes Sam Allardyce made an inspired double change for the Wanderers and like the first leg this was to eventually change the course of the game. The ineffective Jared Borgetti was replaced by fans favourite Kevin Davies whilst Fabrice Fernandes made way for eventual hero Kevin Nolan.

Tal Ben-Haim thought he had ruined Bolton's chances once and for all when fouling Plovdiv substitute Metodi Stoinev on the line of the 18-yard area but the appeals for a penalty where correctly waved away by Finnish referee Jouni Hyttia and the resulting set piece came to nothing.

Substitute Nakata then fired in a free kick which was comfortably gathered by Loko goalkeeper Kolev and there seemed to be no way back for the English side up until the last ten minutes of the match.

Left back Tunichev somehow diverted a low left wing cross by Bolton's Henrik Pedersen past his own goalkeeper to hand the advantage back to the visitors and from there on in the Trotters looked comfortable.

Bolton continued to bombard the left hand side and Kevin Davies clever cutback was smartly finished off on 86 minutes by Nolan from the edge of the area to send the Lancashire faithful into raptures.

The First half showing was not the best on either front, but a touch of good fortune and determined play in the second half means that the Trotters now await Tuesday's draw to see who they are paired with in the five game group stage.

Bolton Wanderers: Ian Walker, Tal Ben-Haim, Abdoulaye Diagne-Faye, Bruno N'Gotty, Henrik Pedersen, Fabrice Fernandes (Kevin Nolan), Joey O'Brien (Hidetoshi Nakata), Jay-Jay Okocha, El-Hadji Diouf, Jared Borgetti (Kevin Davies), Stelios Giannakopoulos

Subs Not Used: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Ricardo Gardner, Ricardo Vaz-Te, Jarostaw Fojut

Lokomotiv Plovdiv: Stoyan Kolev, Kiril Kotev, Robert Petrov, Vladimir Djordani, Aleksander Tunchev, Vladimir Ivanov, Ivan Krizmanic (Iljami Halimi), Krasimir Dimitrov, Yavor Vandev (Metodi Stoinev), Georgi Iliev, Boban Janchevski.

Subs Not Used: Vassill Kamburov, Dimitar Iliev, Velko Hristev, Vladislav Zlatinov, Daniel Georgiev

Referee:

Attendance:

Booked:

Hidetoshi Nakata (Bolton

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