A devastating late goal from Teddy Sheringham pushed Tottenham up to fifth after a spirited display from Bolton finally came to nought at White Hart Lane last night.
Christian Ziege was the creator, swinging in a free-kick from the right touchline after Simon Davies had been fouled by Mike Whitlow. Sheringham reacted first to head past Jussi Jaaskelainen.
Bolton had hardly promised to give Spurs an easy ride. They arrived with an impressive away record, including victories at Manchester United and Ipswich, and draws at Arsenal and Leeds.
With these clubs playing each other again next Wednesday in the quarter-finals of the Worthington Cup, this game carried psychological importance. To widespread surprise, Sergei Rebrov kept his place in the Spurs side after his cup goal at Fulham last week.
The Ukrainian's first Premiership start since the opening day of the season meant that Les Ferdinand began on the bench, breaking his partnership with Sheringham in the league for the first time since early September.
A couple of neat early exchanges involving Sheringham and Rebrov looked promising, yet Bolton were ahead inside eight minutes as Michael Ricketts again showed what a bargain Sam Allardyce got at £400,000 sterling from Walsall last summer .
The quick, muscular striker has been a key figure in Bolton's successful counter-attacking away from home and his 10th Premiership goal of the season was fantastic in its execution.
There appeared little danger for Spurs when Ricketts picked up possession near the edge of their area. Yet the forward showed excellent footwork to manufacture a shooting chance and send the ball low past Neil Sullivan for his seventh goal in as many matches.
Spurs were showing little of the fluency they are capable of early on, though it needed a fine one-handed save by Jaaskelainen to keep out a Ziege free-kick.
With Bolton's 4-5-1 formation easily converting to 4-3-3 on the break, Spurs lived dangerously at times. Yet the opening period largely saw Tottenham in possession, coming forward without creating much.
Sheringham did set up Poyet for a low shot which was saved by Jaaskelainen, but Tottenham's insistence of playing down the centre of the field seemed to be doing them few favours. Faced by so many Bolton bodies, a better option appeared to be to move the ball wide via their wing-backs.
Frustration for Spurs might have become "game over" before half-time. A fine example of the speed with which Bolton can break came when Per Frandsen set up Wallace for a chance he might have done better with, allowing Sullivan a low save. And although Spurs enjoyed plenty more pressure before the interval, Bolton looked reasonably comfortable.
Glenn Hoddle made a double substitution at the interval in the hope of changing things, bringing on Ferdinand as a third striker together with Goran Bunjevcevic. But not even the Spurs manager can have expected his changes to have such an instant impact.
Within two minutes Poyet had headed Spurs level, pouncing from close range after Ferdinand's looping header had hit the post and Bolton's Mike Whitlow knocked the rebound against the bar.
Less than 90 seconds later Tottenham were ahead, Bunjevcevic providing the pass for Ferdinand to sweep the ball beyond Jaaskelainen. Yet if Spurs felt the game had turned decisively their way they were mistaken.
Before the hour Rod Wallace burst past Ledley King and shot into the far corner, and Bolton seemed to have regained their composure as Spurs went in search of a winner.
TOTTENHAM: Sullivan, Davies, Richards, Perry (Bunjevcevic 45), King, Ziege, Poyet, Anderton, Freund (Ferdinand 45), Rebrov (Leonhardsen 88), Sheringham. Subs Not Used: Beasant, Thatcher. Goals: Poyet 47, Ferdinand 48, Sheringham 86.
BOLTON: Jaaskelainen, N'Gotty, Whitlow, Bergsson, Charlton, Gardner (Johnson 87), Nolan, Farrelly (Hansen 87), Frandsen, Wallace, Ricketts (Holdsworth 74). Subs Not Used: Poole, Southall. Booked: Nolan, Ricketts. Goals: Ricketts 8, Wallace 56.
Referee: P Durkin
