HAVING taken 131 years to enter Europe, Bolton Wanderers left it until 11 minutes from the conclusion of this first-round tie before finding a way into the group phase of the Uefa Cup. Even then, it took a bizarre own goal from Alexander Tunchev to bring Sam Allardyce’s team to the portal of the next stage before a late winner from Kevin Nolan added a satisfying glow to the occasion.

Bolton were deservedly trailing to Georgi Iliev’s goal scored early in the second half when Henrik Pedersen delivered a low centre towards the near post. Stoyan Kolev started to bend down to collect the ball when Tunchev, attending his goalkeeper unnecessarily closely, allowed the ball to deflect off a knee and into the net.

Nolan slotted in a fine second goal four minutes from time, sidefooting home from the edge of the penalty area after Kevin Davies’s intelligent pull-back, but Allardyce knew that his team were fortunate.

“I’m relieved,” the Bolton manager said. “Our game plan was working OK but we became too negative, just trying to protect our advantage (2-1 from the first leg), and we were on the back foot. With hindsight, them scoring was the best thing that could have happened to us because it kickstarted us into life and we started playing better passes.”

With a Barclays Premiership match away to Wigan Athletic on Sunday, Allardyce left some of his bigger guns on the substitutes’ bench but the introduction of Nolan, Davies and Hidetoshi Nakata helped to lift his team into the group stage that starts in three weeks’ time.

Not everything was in black and white to start with. Bolton knew that they would go through with a clean sheet but the floodlights shone out under the blue afternoon sky and some Plovdiv fans turned up to a match 200 miles from home wearing Newcastle United and Juventus shirts.

Some booing for Bolton’s black players started midway through the first half. Jay-Jay Okocha ignored the abuse to play a couple of inventive long passes but Allardyce’s rejigged team struggled to find any attacking fluency.

The Bolton manager has had to juggle his resources in the wake of a lengthening injury list and Joey O’Brien, the Ireland Under-21 player, had an accomplished start anchoring the midfield.

The 2004 Bulgarian champions had to play at the modern if modest Naftex Stadium because their own ground in Plovdiv does not meet Uefa requirements. However, the pitch was barely up to standard, contributing to a fitful first period when neither team was able to pass the ball smoothly. Ian Walker, one of four newcomers for Bolton, had an edgy start.

Uncharacteristically, Bolton struggled to defend corners with conviction. A minute before the interval, Ivan Krizmanic beat Walker to Krasimir Dimitrov’s corner to head narrowly over. Six minutes into the second period, Bolton went behind. As smoke from blue and red flares wafted across the field, there appeared no danger as Stelios Giannakopoulos came away with the ball from his defensive duties. He was dispossessed, however, and the ball fell to Iliev, who unleashed a wonderful shot from 25 yards that dipped over Walker and high into the net.

Allardyce’s reaction was to introduce the heavy artillery, but even as Bolton started searching for some offensive rhythm, they were nearly undone again as Tal Ben Haim brought down Metodi Stoynev on the edge of the penalty area. Bolton were relieved that Ben Haim went unpunished and Iliev’s free kick floated over the crossbar.

Having started the game content to play for a goalless draw, Bolton struggled to adapt. Nakata’s free kick was easily saved but, just as it seemed that Bolton were running out of ideas, Tunchev’s comic-book defending came to their rescue.

LOKOMOTIV PLOVDIV (4-1-3-2): S Kolev — K Kotev, V Giordani, A Tunchev, R Petrov — I Krizmanic (sub: I Halimi, 80min) — V Ivanov, G Iliev, K Dimitrov — B Janchevski, Y Vandev (sub: M Stoynev, 63). Substitutes not used: V Kamburov, I Mihailov, D Georgiov, V Hristev, V Zlatinov. Booked: Iliev, Janchevski.

BOLTON WANDERERS (4-1-4-1): I Walker — T Ben Haim, A Faye, B N’Gotty, H Pedersen — J O’Brien (sub: H Nakata, 66) — S Giannakopoulos, F Fernandes (sub: K Nolan, 56), J-J Okocha, E-H Diouf — J Borgetti (sub: K Davies, 56). Substitutes not used: J Jaaskelainen, R Gardner, R Vaz Te, J Fojut. Booked: Nakata.

Referee: J Hyytiä (Finland).

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