City penalised as lucky Bolton steal the points

English FA Premiership/ Manchester City 0 Bolton Wanderers 1: Talk about life being unfair. Having struck the woodwork five times and conjured by far the better football, Manchester City were ultimately undone by Richard Dunne's 93rd-minute handball and Gary Speed's proficiency from the penalty spot.

It was only Stuart Pearce's second defeat since succeeding Kevin Keegan as City's manager and, by way of exacerbating the injustice, Dunne handled under pressure from Henrik Pedersen.

He had earlier proved himself a distinctly ersatz left-back but, reverting to natural attacking type, was cute enough to flick the ball up towards the defender's arms. But maybe the triumphalism of City's build-up to kick-off tempted fate.

After the guest of honour Freddie Flintoff marched on to the pitch in a City shirt amid tumultuous acclaim, and Pearce received a similarly ecstatic ovation for his manager-of-the-month award, a sense of anticlimax seemed inevitable. The first half duly proved as scruffy as Flintoff's jeans, not to mention painful for Trevor Sinclair. City's erstwhile England winger was carried off with what appeared a serious lower-leg injury and was replaced by Sun Jihai.

Initially Pearce's team struggled to sustain any sort of rhythm but as the first half unfolded they increasingly dominated proceedings, with one Joey Barton cross leading to Jussi Jaaskelainen tipping Antoine Sibierski's header onto the bar. Deployed just behind Darius Vassell, Sibierski's roving brief was discomfiting Sam Allardyce's defence and the striker pounced on a ricochet and forced Bolton's Finnish goalkeeper into another decent save.

Bolton created precious little and, depressingly, were intent on engaging City in a form of aerial combat that did nothing for the afternoon's aesthetics.

A cross from Danny Mills was met by Sibierski's head, only for Jaaskelainen to arch his back and tip the ball inches over his bar.

After the interval City continued to dominate. Barton, Musampa and Sun were all in turn denied by the woodwork while only Jaaskelainen's outstretched foot preventing Reyna's low shot from ending up in the bottom corner. But a City goal still refused to materialise. Cue Dunne's handling, Speed's evasion of James and Flintoff's first disappointment in quite a while.

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