Trotters pick up crucial point - Sport in brief - Evening Standard
       

Trotters pick up crucial point

Bolton's relegation battle looks set to go to the wire after they earned a valuable point from a 1-1 draw with Tottenham at White Hart Lane.

Stelios Giannakopoulos came on at the break and opened the scoring for the visitors, only for Steed Malbranque to reply shortly after, with Spurs failing to take their chances to dent the survival hopes of Gary Megson's men.

Grzegorz Rasiak deputised as Bolton's lone attacker in the absence of the suspended Kevin Davies but lacked his physical presence and was taken off at the break.

As usual, Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane were at the heart of Spurs' attacks. Keane had the first effort on goal, toe-poking straight at Ali Al Habsi after latching onto a Berbatov flick.

Spurs' clearest chance of the half came seconds before the break when Keane had a close-range effort bundled wide by Ivan Campo.

It was Bolton boss Gary Megson's double substitution at half-time that got the game going, with the visitors rewarded within 30 seconds of the restart.

Spurs failed to clear and El-Hadji Diouf, who was on for Rasiak, laid the ball back to Gretar Steinsson on the right flank. Michael Dawson and goalkeeper Radek Cerny collided in the six-yard box and Stelios, on at the break for Campo, prodded home.

Tottenham's reply came in the 52nd minute, with Keane slipping the ball to the back post and Malbranque clipping his finish past Al Habsi for the equaliser.

Ramos brought on Darren Bent for Dawson and Spurs should have taken the lead when Keane was on the end of a flowing move, but Al Habsi was out to block bravely.

Al Habsi saved Berbatov's drive and Bent had a header cleared off the line by Danny Guthrie in stoppage time, while Berbatov headed over when found unmarked.

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