We started the game very well despite missing Kanu and Pedro Mendes. In fact for the first 20 minutes we played some of the best football I have seen all season. Some beautiful fluid passing and one-touch football had the home side ragged, especially after Andy Cole put Taylor through to score from close range in the second minute.
However, after that period of great football Bolton managed to impose their "style" of play onto us and after a long spell of pressure they got the mother of scrappy equalisers after David James failed to get a decent punch from a corner and Abdoulaye Faye headed in the follow up.
Bolton then took control and grabbed a somewhat fortunate second after a goalward bound strike was saved by James only for Ivan Campo to head in the rebound. It's always irritating to let a lead slip and I and the other Pompey fans were even more frustrated when Jussi Jaaskelainen saved a close range shot right before half-time.
Things got worse after the break as Kevin "Scummer" Davies broke down the left and produced a cross that Campbell missed and that James should have held but instead could only parry it out to Anelka who isn't going to miss an open goal from a few yards out.
Not too much happened after Bolton went 3-1 ahead. We failed to create much whilst Bolton tried to hit us on the break and might have had another before the end. Instead, Andy Cole took the ball round a couple of Bolton players before placing the ball in the corner of the net with accuracy in the 89th minute. But it was too little, too late and Pompey ended up losing their sixth match of the season.
There are some positives we can take from the game. We played some amazing football at the start of the game which Harry likened to Real Madrid. It was very high-quality passing and moving, something Bolton fans can only dream of as all they ever seem to do is go direct all the time.
I was also pleased with the performances of Niko Kranjcar and Andy Cole. "Krunchie" looked good when on the ball and I think he could be a real asset to the team when given a fair chance. Cole looked sharp and scored a great vintage goal made by himself.
However, there were also negatives that need to be addressed. That game featured our worst defensive performance of the season. Whether that was down to Bolton's hoofball or just a rare off-day remains to be seen. David James also had a bit of a stinker, but I'm sure he'll bounce back.
Overall, this defeat hasn't hurt us too much. The gap between ourselves and 3rd placed Bolton is only 4 points and looking at our fixtures in January we have a potential 12 points for the taking:
Tottenham (H)
Sheffield United (A)
Charlton (H)
Middlesbrough (H)
All of the real difficult fixtures are now out of the way with only the home games against United and Chelsea and the away game at Everton being the only fixtures I would take a point from if you offered it to me now. The rest of them we should be looking to win.
For now, we just have to forget this defeat and move on to Spurs on New Years Day, with one eye on the January transfer window.
One final thing, I really don't like the "European Tour" song at the moment. It's very premature to be singing that at this stage of the season and it could easily go tits up in the space of a few weeks. But more on the European football rant another time...
Pompey Player Ratings
David James: 5 - Made a couple of decent saves but was at fault for the first and third Bolton goal. James' worst game in a Pompey shirt so far.
Glen Johnson: 6 - Probably the best of our defence, but that isn't saying much.
Sol Campbell: 6 - Strong at times, struggled at times.
Linvoy Primus: 5 - Found it hard to deal with the Bolton hoofball.
Noe Pamarot: 5 - Davies and Anelka had the better of him.
Gary O'Neil: 5 - Really bad touch and made too many mistakes.
Manuel Fernandes: 6 - Didn't do too badly in what is likely to be his last game for us.
Niko Kranjcar: 6 - When he was on the ball he was generally pretty good but just needs to up the tempo a bit more.
Sean Davis: 7 - One of our better players. Fought well in general.
Matthew Taylor: 7 - Got us off to a great start and has to be in with a decent shout of the player of the month award for December.
Andy Cole: 7 - Pompey's man of the match. Nice little through ball for the opener and a quality individual goal at the end. Great to see him come through the whole 90 minutes too.
Subs
Jamie Ashdown
Andy O'Brien: 6 - Came on as a second half sub for the tiring Primus. Steady performance.
Richard Hughes
David Thompson: 4 - Very sloppy.
Benjani: N/A - No time to make an impact as a late sub.