Bolton beat Manchester City as drop zone clubs land hat trick

Bolton last night stunned moneybags Manchester City to complete an extraordinary hat-trick of victories by the Premier League's bottom clubs.

Spurs, Wigan and Bolton propped up the table on Saturday morning, but all won at the weekend to prove that the battle for Premier League survival is destined to be a season long affair.

Ricardo Gardner ended Bolton's 350-minute wait for a Premier League goal - but that drought is nothing compared to his own wait for a top-flight strike.

The Jamaican star squeezed in the all-important opener for Gary Megson's men, whose shot-shy run had left them bottom of the table, and ended a personal agony going back 2,138 days to 2002.

Bolton ensured victory when Gardner's cross was put into his own net by Richard Dunne, with the result taking them out of the bottom three.

Gardner, who came on as a first-half substitute, said: "Things have not been going well for us lately. Hopefully this can lift our spirits now and we can go on to the next game and do better."

Megson said: "All we've been missing is goals. The performance was similar to any this season, we will have outrun the opposition as we have done in every game too.

"You don't want to be in the bottom three or at the bleeding end of the table, but it is very tight and if you are not scoring goals you are going to be in trouble."

City are marooned in midtable after their second away defeat in a row.

Boss Mark Hughes is due to meet the club's new Abu Dhabi owners to outline plans for the transfer window.

He still needs a centre-forward, a left-back and an experienced keeper. But the Arabs may be reluctant to spend if they are off the pace for a Champions League place.

Hughes hinted at needing new faces, saying: "You have to look at the personnel we have. We are technically gifted but on occasions we need different qualities.

"We have not got the variety of players to be able to do that to any great extent."

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