The home side had earlier squandered a few chances to put themselves in front whilst Albion will rue a penalty miss from Diomansky Kamara early on in the first half.

Bolton had made a number of changes from the side which drew against Besiktas in Turkey but Abdoulaye Diagne-Faye and Joey O'Brien managed to keep their places in the eleven.

Youngster O'Brien performed well in a different role on the right which was similar to that usually occupied by the likes of Nicky Hunt whilst Faye sat in front of the centre back pairing of Tal Ben-Haim and Bruno N'Gotty.

The first clear cut chance of the game came just before the quarter hour mark as Kevin Davies fired a low left wing cross by Hidetoshi Nakata straight at the legs of Albion's on loan England international goalkeeper Chris Kirkland.

Four minutes later some quick footwork and determination by Diomansky Kamara caused confusion in the Bolton area leading to the former Portsmouth striker being tripped by El-Hadji Diouf en-route to goal.

Referee Mike Dean proceeded to award the penalty to Albion for which Kamara comfortably despatched, but the Wirrall-based official saw an infringement and called for the spot kick to be re-taken with Kamara blazing over the crossbar and into the North Stand at the second attempt.

Senegal pair Diouf and Kamara later had another flashpoint on the edge of Jussi Jaaskelainen's area in an challenge which left the Bolton striker in need of some lengthy treatment.

On the half hour Bolton missed another glorious chance, a deep left wing cross by Henrik Pedersen was headed back across the area by Abdoulaye Faye but the resulting shot from the impressive Nakata was blocked on the line by his own player Stelios Giannakopoulos.

Former Luton Town defender Curtis Davies was to go so close to netting his second goal in Albion colours at the other end of the field, but he failed to connect with a header from a dangerous left wing cross into the Bolton penalty area.

Two minutes before the break Albion keeper Kirkland showed many why he is back to his best as he tipped away a point blank header from Bolton captain Kevin Nolan.

Nolan's attempt from Stelios deep right wing cross was to be the first of four on target for the industrious midfielder throughout the course of the afternoon as he looked to build on his last home goal against Portsmouth.

Bolton went into the dressing rooms at half time wondering just how they had failed to take at least one of the opportunities which had been created whilst Albion where still sore about missing the re-taken 20th minute spot kick.

The second half started very much in a similar veign to the first half as both sides proved to be cagey in their approach. The Wanderers seem to shade the play in terms of possession but Albion where by no means on the back foot.

With half an hour remaining, Henrik Pedersen found himself in with a chance of getting his first Bolton goal of the season as he tried to prod the ball past Kirkland. Giant defender Darren Moore and team mate Neil Clement later combined to hack the ball to safety but the home side where incensed as Greek star Giannakopoulos was upended when trying to follow up Pedersen's original shot.

A defence splitting pass by Albion midfielder Jonathan Greening gave Kamara the perfect chance to atone for his earlier penalty miss. The quickfire forward managed to beat Bolton defender Tal Ben-Haim for pace but Jussi Jaaskelainen was on hand to keep the scores level.

The game then threatened to boil over somewhat as Abdoulaye Faye and Bruno N'Gotty where both upset by clumsy challenges coming in from Albion players. Faye was unhappy about a tackle by Greening whilst later on in the half N'Gotty was furious with young midfielder Darren Carter, the latter was booked for his troubles by referee Dean, who was by now facing the wrath of some of the supporters.

Bolton's Nolan then had two chances to get his name on the scoresheet, the first from a free kick going just over and the second, a low shot which flashed just wide of Kirkland's right hand post at the last moment.

In the final quarter of the game it looked as if things would end all square no matter how much each of the two sides threw at the respective goalkeepers. However, this was all to change in the last ten minutes.

Danish international Martin Albrectsen gave away a clumsy challenge on the egde of his own area. The Albion players thought their team mate would be dismissed from the field as he had earlier been given a yellow card following a foul on Diouf.

West Brom keeper Kirkland was frantically trying to prepare his wall following the disruption, and with that in mind Nakata's quick thinking opened the deadlock as he produced a fine free kick which was to elude everyone and sail into the Kirkland's bottom right corner.

It was Nakata's first goal in Bolton colours since moving to the club from Fiorentina in the summer and the many travelling Japanese contingent in the home crowd will have been impressed by the performance of the former Asia player of the year.

By now there was some releif in the stadium that the deadlock had been broken, it was a long time coming and in all fairness Bolton deserved it given their amount of chances and possession.

As the game drew to a close Nolan added a second Wanderers goal as he took advantage of some slack West Brom defending to curl the ball into the bottom corner of the net after Nakata had made the opportunity.

Bolton can get the last two league results out of their system thanks to this fine win and focus on the next game which will be in the Carling Cup against West Ham United in midweek

Bolton Wanderers: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Joey O'Brien, Tal Ben-Haim, Bruno N'Gotty, Henrik Pedersen, Kevin Nolan, Abdoulaye Diagne-Faye, Hidetoshi Nakata, Stelios Giannakopoulos, Kevin Davies, El-Hadji Diouf (Khalilou Fadiga)

Subs Not Used: Ian Walker, Radhi Jaidi, Fabrice Fernandes, Jared Borgetti

West Bromwich Albion: Chris Kirkland, Martin Albrechtsen, Darren Moore, Curtis Davies, Neil Clement (Robert Earnshaw), Paul Robinson, Steve Watson, Darren Carter, Jonathan Greening, Geoff Horsfield (Nwankwo Kanu), Diomansky Kamara

Subs Not Used: Tomasz Kuszczak, Richard Chaplow, Riccardo Scimeca

Referee:

Mike Dean

Attendance:

24,151

Booked:

Martin Albrectsen (West Brom)

Kevin Nolan (Bolton)

El-Hadji Diouf (Bolton

Darren Carter (West Brom)

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