English Premiership
Sunderland down Bolton
2011-10-22 18:25
Bolton - Late goals from Stephane Sessegnon and Nicklas Bendtner handed Sunderland a deserved 2-0 win at Bolton as the Trotters slumped to a fifth defeat in five home league games this season.
Sessegnon fired home from close range with eight minutes remaining, and the Benin international then set up Bendtner to secure the points in stoppage time as Bolton piled forward in search of an equaliser.
The goals were just reward for a dominant second-half performance from the visitors, who climb to 12th after what was their first away win in this Premier League campaign.
The three points will ease the pressure on their manager Steve Bruce, but his Bolton counterpart Owen Coyle will have more questions to answer after a poor showing by the home side, which leaves them stuck in the Premier League relegation zone.
Manchester City, Manchester United, Norwich and Chelsea had already come to the Reebok Stadium and won this season, but Bolton had been buoyed by last weekend's 3-1 win at near neighbours Wigan.
Coyle named an unchanged team, while Sunderland welcomed back Bendtner and Connor Wickham was handed his first start since signing from Ipswich in the summer.
However, despite the array of attacking talent on display, chances were few and far between in the first-half on a crisp afternoon in the north-west of England, with a Chris Eagles shot that was sliced well wide as close as the hosts came to scoring, while John O'Shea headed just past from a free-kick at the other end.
However, the Black Cats turned up the pressure after the restart, and a Kieran Richardson shot from six yards was blocked while David Vaughan blazed over from 16 yards as Bolton defended grimly.
Then, just when it looked as if they would hang on for that elusive first home point, Sessegnon struck, swivelling to fire home from six yards after Bolton had again failed to fully clear a corner.
Darren Pratley almost snatched an equaliser in the dying seconds, only for Sunderland 'keeper Simon Mignolet to make a brave block.
Bendtner then made sure of the win in injury-time when he tucked home a Sessegnon pass at the end of a counter-attack for his second goal since joining on loan from Arsenal.