2-2

*Bolton return to Europe as Allardyce says farewell*

It is a measure of the impact Sam Allardyce has had at this club that the arrival of European football is greeted with celebration but not a hint of surprise. Allardyce took his seat in the directors’ box for the final time yesterday, accepting a special invitation to run an eye over the empire he has created during eight years at the Reebok. Unsurprisingly he left with the broadest of smiles.

Any Newcastle United supporters unsure whether Allardyce possesses the credentials to succeed at St James’ should rest assured.

The 52-year-old has transformed Bolton from a side struggling in the nether regions of the second tier in 1999 to one that has now gained three top-eight Premiership finishes in as many years and qualified for the Uefa Cup for the second time in three seasons. Allardyce departs for Tyneside a hero.

Sammy Lee, his former understudy and Bolton’s new manager, will be grateful for what has been left behind - Allardyce had a 21-strong backroom team and there are also the likes of Nicolas Anelka, Kevin Nolan and El Hadji Diouf - but is aware of the potential implications should his predecessor become Newcastle manager.

“You would think Sam would [come back for players and staff] because it’s vindication of the good people we’ve got working at this football club. Whether they will be allowed to go there is a matter for other people to decide,” Lee said.

Allardyce would most probably have still been Bolton’s manager next season had, as appeared likely for long periods of the season, they qualified for the Champions League - “There was a little period just after Christmas when you thought, ‘Wait a minute, if Arsenal or Liverpool drop a few more points they might make it’,” said the Villa manager Martin O’Neill - and Lee will be concerned at the way the season has tailed off.

Bolton ended up winning only two league matches in 2007 and, had Reading won at Blackburn yesterday, they would have missed out on Europe altogether. Lee will almost certainly use the summer to shore up a defence that leaked 12 goals in its last five games and which was, at times, carved apart by Aston Villa.

Despite falling behind twice here the visitors always looked capable of extending their unbeaten sequence to nine games. O’Neill’s men have hit a rich vein of form in recent weeks and, with the manager to be handed significant transfer funds this summer, to a man they played as if desperate to be part of his future plans. “We would like to add to the squad if we can but the players who came in around January I’ve been really pleased with,” said O’Neill.

Their response to Bolton’s opener, Gary Speed collecting Anelka’s knockdown to slot home, was most impressive. When Thomas Sorensen launched a goal-kick downfield there appeared little danger but John Carew flicked astutely on for Craig Gardner, Villa’s 20-year-old right-back, who spectacularly volleyed past Jussi Jaaskelainen from 25 yards.

News of Reading’s fightback against Blackburn will have filtered through to the Bolton players at the interval and their early second-half pressure soon told. Feeding off Martin Laursen’s inability to clear an Iván Campo free-kick after 57 minutes, Kevin Davies finished calmly. Villa’s refusal to accept defeat saw Carew come close to equalising before, with 10 minutes remaining, the substitute Luke Moore acrobatically guided Young’s cross into the net.