Football: Wallace rises to the task

Blackburn Rovers 1
Neill 87
Bolton 1
Wallace 69

Rod Wallace jumped at the chance to send Bolton heading back to the top of the Premiership.

The 31-year-old striker headed home a Ricardo Gardner corner after 69 minutes, just six minutes after being sent on as a substitute, to earn his side a point against their biggest rivals.

Wallace trained on his own through the summer after leaving Rangers at the end of his contract. Bolton manager Sam Allardyce finally took him on for the season for nothing and was delighted with his immediate impact.

Allardyce said: 'He's only trained with us since Monday. His track record is there for all to see. That's why we brought him to the club. He found space, lost his marker, put in a good header and sent it into the top corner. It wasn't easy coming off the line like he did.'

Blackburn, who made and wasted most of the chances in a keenly-contested match, equalised after 87 minutes through Lucas Neill, a £600,000 buy from Millwall.

Neill rounded off an impressive first home appearance by going forward from defence to head home firmly from a Damien Duff corner after Jussi Jaaskelainen had made an astonishing save from Matt Jansen.

Allardyce said his players were adamant the corner should not have been given because Jansen was offside.

Blackburn manager Graeme Souness complained his defenders should not have allowed Wallace - 'the smallest player on the field' - to get up and head his goal.

He also said: 'We absolutely mullered them.'