Loading...EPL Result: Derby 1-1 Bolton: Miller hits first Derby goal
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Bywater had seen 20 goals sail past him in just seven league games to date, but he showed he has lost none of his confidence when he denied Bolton's Christian Wilhelmsson and Nicolas Anelka late on.
First, Bywater dived to parry Wilhelmsson's drive before somehow recovering to tip Anelka's fierce follow-up onto the underside of the bar and deny fellow strugglers Bolton a priceless victory.
Kenny Miller had given the home side a 19th-minute lead in a ragged and nervy tussle between the division's bottom two before Anelka's fortunate 32nd-minute equaliser, which took a heavy deflection off Claude Davis.
With Jussi Jaaskelainen also on top form at the other end to deny Miller a second goal, Bolton boss Sammy Lee will ultimately have breathed a sigh of relief that his side avoided defeat and possibly safeguarded his job in the process.
Until the late drama the Rams had looked the most likely winners from the start, and they had the first chance in the third minute when Stephen Pearson cut through the visitors' defence but scuffed his shot wide.
Bolton responded almost immediately through Ricardo Gardner, who got round the back of the home defence, only to send in a low cross which proved too strong for Kevin Davies in the box.
It was easy to see why these two sides were propping up the table table as each toiled admirably but plainly lacked quality and the nerves associated with such a crucial occasion were evident for all to see.
The home side broke through with a rare moment of class, Steve Howard chesting down Tyrone Mears' long ball and crossing for Miller to drill the ball low past Jaaskelainen.
Bolton's responses were sporadic and scarcely looked like giving Bywater more to worry about.
Anelka and Joey O'Brien both saw long-range efforts sail well wide of target, before the French striker finally seized upon a stroke of good fortune to snatch his side's equaliser.
Anelka moved to the edge of the Rams box and fired a shot which Bywater appeared to have covered, before it took a wicked deflection off Davis and squirmed into the far corner of the net.
Kevin Nolan went close to giving the visitors the lead five minutes from the break when Dean Leacock attempted a tight back-pass under pressure and Nolan nipped in but could only hit the side-netting.
Derby dominated the opening stages of the second half and came agonisingly close to going back ahead in the 49th minute, when another low Miller drive was brilliantly blocked by Jaaskelainen.
The Rams kept pressing, but as four goals from their seven previous matches testified, a second was going to be hard to come by. James McEveley's long-range effort was deflected behind, and Miller blazed over from an Eddie Lewis cross.
Anxious to turn the momentum of the match back in his favour, Lee made his first change in the 59th minute, replacing Davies with fellow striker Wilhelmsson.
The ever lively El-Hadji Diouf caught the Rams defence sleeping with his cross which trickled across the face of goal in the 62nd minute, but much to his obvious frustration there was no-one to poke the ball home.
Rams boss Billy Davies responded by introducing his young star Giles Barnes in place of David Jones in the 63rd minute in the hope of capitalising on his side's evident superiority since the break.
Wilhelmsson had his first chance for the visitors in the 67th minute when he cut into the left side of the Rams box, but his low shot was comfortably saved by Bywater.
Bywater was back in action in the 79th minute with his stunning saves from Wilhelmsson and Anelka, before Pearson booted Nolan's follow-up off the line to save a precious point.
Source: Soccernet.com
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