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Bolton Wanderers

Give Elmander time - Nolan

KEVIN Nolan reckons it's only a matter of time before Johan Elmander shows why Bolton invested a record transfer fee to bring him to the Reebok.

The Swedish international has scored only one goal since his £11m summer move from Toulouse.

And he was restricted to a couple of half chances as Wanderers again failed to register a home Premier League victory over their neighbours.

"It's going to take time for Johan," said Nolan.

"That's his first 90 minutes of the season and it doesn't matter who you are or how good you are, it's going to take time to get used to the Premier League.

"He's still getting to know us and we're still getting to know him. I am sure when it clicks he will start banging in the goals.

"But we are not scoring enough goals as a team and hopefully we can change that round."

Matty Taylor went closest to breaking the stalemate of this Lancashire derby that only rarely caught fire.

Unchallenged

He drifted a left foot shot just wide in the second half, while defender Andy O'Brien failed to connect with Taylor's in-swinging corner when unchallenged six yards out.

But Blackburn wasted the best opportunity. Former Wigan striker Jason Roberts, last season's match-winner in this fixture, headed wide from the same range with only Jussi Jaaskelainen to beat.

Benni McCarthy, strangely left on the bench by Paul Ince in favour of Robbie Fowler, shot into the side-netting late on.

Thankfully for Bolton, Fowler, scorer of 13 goals in 12 games against them with various clubs, never saw sight of the net.

And Nolan insisted: "I think the crowd will go away quite pleased because we played some nice stuff at times.

"We're trying to change things slowly from the Sam Allardyce/Sammy Lee era.

"The fans are coming round to that way of thinking and we'd ask them to stick with us.

"Besides, it's a lot better than last year at this stage. We are onwards and upwards. In the next couple of years we are looking to get back into the top eight."

Manager Gary Megson said: "This was two points dropped."

WANDERERS chairman Phil Gartside has responded angrily to criticism of the club's new fan initiatives. Gartside says suggestions that Bolton were trying to entice supporters with free beer and food in order to boost lost corporate finance was absolute rubbish.

"This isn't an attempt to bring them to the game early to get more money out of them.

"I admitted publicly in the summer that perhaps in the last few years we hadn't engaged the fans as much as we should have done.

"We are a family club and these initiatives are aimed at fans enjoying the company of other people and to benefit from the facilities we've got."

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MEN get your facts right!! £8.3 million not £11.

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