After back to back defeats in the away games against Everton and Sunderland over the Christmas period, the Wanderers where hoping that they could get back to winning ways and maintain their good recent home record which stands at only one loss since Gary Megson took over as Bolton manager.

Megson made changes from the side which lost at the Stadium of Light five days ago, out went Jlloyd Samuel and Gavin McCann and in came Danny Guthrie and Ivan Campo, full back Nicky Hunt was still injured.

It turned out to be a frustrating match for the hosts on a bitterly cold evening in front of the Wanderers lowest ever Premiership crowd, and the mood was nearly decimated even more so in the fourth minute when the lively Craig Fagan broke clear of the Bolton defence only to see Jussi Jaaskelainen save well with his feet at the near post.

Fagan, with only one goal to his name all season, looked the most likely threat to the Bolton rear guard alongside the experienced Scottish international Kenny Miller.

On nine minutes Trotters defender Abdoulaye Meite, on the same amount of goals as Fagan for the season, headed a curling El-Hadji Diouf corner just wide of Lewis Price's right hand post and but for a comfortable spell in possession that was as good as it got for chances within the first quarter of the half.

County lost left back Jay McEveley due to injury midway through the half and the former Blackburn Rovers player was replaced by the experienced Michael Johnson who was making only his third Premier League appearance for the Rams.

Bolton had a lot of possession but they seemed to be unable to make it count in the final third of the field and that could have so easily gone against them later in the half.

Just after the half hour mark Nicolas Anelka was fed down the right flank and the much talked about striker cut back a delightful cross which skipper Kevin Nolan fired high into the stand of the visiting supporters.

Seven minutes before the interval Derby went closest to breaking the deadlock when an Eddie Lewis corner from the right was met by Fagan only for the ex-Hull man to see his header expertly tipped over by Jaaskelainen.

Soonafter substitute Johnson produced an unlikely piece of skill when he fired in a curling shot which struck the corner of the crossbar and went out of play but it was fair to say that Derby had ended the half well and put Bolton under some pressure.

Bolton's plans took a turn for the worse at the half time interval when they lost Kevin Davies through injury so Christian Wilhelmsson came on for his first game in nearly a month.

Wilhelmsson's first piece of the action was to make a darting run down the left but the Swedish international on loan from FC Nantes could not find a team mate at the end of it all.

Nolan and Meite then had ideal opportunities to hit the net but the best chance of the early stages of the second half fell to Danny Guthrie on 64 minutes after Joey O'Brien's low cross had been deflected into his path by the Derby defence.

Guthrie hit the ball first time and with power but the accuracy eluded him at the end and the ball zoomed over the crossbar much to the frustrations of the Bolton crowd who where becoming restless despite the home team upping their game slightly.

Diouf thought he had put Bolton in front a minute later only for the linesman's flag to rule the goal out for offside in a similar incident to that of Kevin Nolan's goal against Birmingham which was also chalked off.

Wanderers tried to take advantage of the fact that Rams goalkeeper Lewis Price had limited top flight experience and it nearly paid off with just over twenty minutes left on the clock when Anelka's heavy drive from the edge of the box was tipped over by the Welshman.

Ten minutes later a through ball by Diouf was somehow fired over from close range by the onrushing Nolan and a small section of the Bolton support, somewhat unfairly, jeered their team's captain as he left the field for Stelios Giannakopoulos.

Giannakopoulos made an almost immediate impact as six minutes after his introduction he hit the all important matchwinner just as Derby had prepared themselves for getting a share of the points.

Jaaskelainen hit a long clearance which went almost the full length of the field and some indecision by goalkeeper Price and his defender Claude Davis allowed Stelios to nip in for his third of the campaign.

The win takes Bolton back up to 14th position and gives them a small gap to take comfort from, despite some of the teams having gained ground on them over the festive season.

Bolton now have a break from league action at the weekend with a home FA Cup tie against Sheffield United and this will be followed by the visit of local rivals Blackburn Rovers on Sunday week.

BOLTON WANDERERS: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Joey O'Brien, Andy O'Brien, Abdoulaye Meite, Ricardo Gardner, Kevin Nolan (Stelios Giannakopoulos), Ivan Campo, Danny Guthrie, Kevin Davies (Christian Wilhelmsson), Nicolas Anelka, El-Hadji Diouf

SUBS NOT USED: Jlloyd Samuel, Lubomir Michalik, Ali Al-Habsi (GK)

DERBY COUNTY: Lewis Price, Tyrone Mears, Darren Moore, Claude Davis, Jay McEveley (Michael Johnson), Gary Teale (Jonathan Macken), Matt Oakley, Giles Barnes, Eddie Lewis, Kenny Miller, Craig Fagan (Benny Feilhaber)

SUBS NOT USED: Lee Holmes, Ben Hinchcliffe (GK)

REFEREE:

Howard Webb

ATTENDANCE:

17,014

BOOKED:

Davies (Bolton)

A.O'Brien (Bolton)

Fagan (Derby)

Mears (Derby)

Feilhaber (Derby)

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