It was very much a drab affair from Bolton Wanderers for all of 75 minutes as they welcomed Charlton Athletic to the Reebok Stadium. For the entire first half and the vast majority of the second half, it was dire watching. Bolton maintained much of the possession but not much of it was in a forward direction.
Neither goalkeeper was really tested in the first 45 minutes but Chris Eagles looked to be the danger man for Bolton Wanderers in the first period. He had played a good ball across the face of goal that Kevin Davies could not reach first before testing Charlton goalkeeper Ben Hamer from a corner just a couple of minutes later. Eagles' turning shot forced a very good save out of Hamer.
The second half started much the same as the first half went. The real impetus came from Bolton when Dougie Freedman introduced David Ngog and Martin Petrov for Chung-Yong Lee and Jacob Butterfield on 59 minutes. Bolton moved from their starting 4-5-1 formation into a 4-4-2 with Ngog and Kevin Davies up front. It only took 15 minutes before the breakthrough came for Bolton.
David Ngog was the man to score from a world-class effort. Jay Spearing played a very good ball into the box and Ngog provided some excellent hold-up play, showing good foot skill to keep the ball before stabbing it past goalkeeper Ben Hamer to give Bolton the lead.
Ngog capped his wonderful performance with a second goal, this one coming six minutes later. A nice bit of interplay between Kevin Davies and David Ngog saw the Frenchman with the ball on the edge of the penalty area. Ngog hit it powerfully with his left foot and it went nicely into the back of the net.
The match ended 2-0 to Bolton as the Trotters managed to keep what was only their third clean sheet of the season. Tyrone Mears had a brilliant game in defense for Bolton alongside Zat Knight, who was once again a rock at the back. Bolton move up five spots in the table to 13th, leapfrogging Charlton, Huddersfield Town, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Blackburn Rovers, and Burnley.