CITY moved to within just two points of a play-off place on Saturday after beating struggling Bolton Wanderers 2-1 in an entertaining encounter at Ashton Gate, writes Will Collins.

City comfortably had the better of the first-half with Weimann going closest for the hosts as he hit the bar with a deflected shot from the edge of the area.

City began the second-half at a pace, carving out several clear-cut chances. Webster hit the bar from a Paterson corner before Diedhiou blasted over the rebound from close-range. Then Diedhiou again was inches away from converting a low-cross from O’Dowda.

City should’ve been in the lead but against the run of play Bolton scored. Kelly lost the ball near the corner flag and the resultant cross into the box was met by the head of Buckley who fired past Maenpaa. Johnson then made a triple substitution bringing on Taylor, Palmer and DaSilva which proved to be key.

Just six minutes later City levelled things up. Taylor turned in the area and his shot beat ‘keeper Alnwick at the near post. Ashton Gate was in full-voice and things got even better two minutes later. Debutant Palmer – on loan from Chelsea – got on the end of Taylor’s flick back across the goalmouth to send the home crowd into raptures. One criticism of the performance was perhaps that City then seemed to sit back and not go for a third and fourth but nevertheless we were rarely troubled for the remaining 25 minutes of the game.

City are now 10 games unbeaten going into Saturday’s encounter at Nottingham Forest (3pm).

The East Midlands club have themselves had a bit of upheaval recently as former manager Aitor Karanka was sacked last week to be replaced with former Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill. I suspect that appointment makes this an even tougher game for City but hopefully we can keep the unbeaten run going with at least a draw.