Bolton survived a comeback from Everton before winning 3-2 to seal their first home win of the season in the Premier League. Gary Megson’s side triumphed at the Reebok Stadium as substitute Ivan Klasnic scored his first goal for the club with the decisive strike in the 87th minute.

Megson named the same starting XI for Bolton that had performed so creditably at Old Trafford a week earlier. John Heitinga and Lucas Neill returned to the Everton defence after being cup-tied for the Europa League fixture against Benfica on Thursday, and with Yakubu ruled out, Saha came back into the starting line-up to play up front with Jo.

Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, who scored his first goal for the club in the 1-1 draw against Wolves last week, did not make the squad after injuring his calf in Lisbon, while youngster Seamus Coleman dropped to the bench.

The 2-1 defeat to Manchester United had been Bolton’s first for six matches and the hosts looked set to continue their good run in the opening stages, making a positive start to the game.

Jlloyd Samuel floated a cross in for an unmarked Tamir Cohen in the third minute, but the Israeli sent his header across goal and two minutes later Kevin Davies connected with a delightful free-kick from Matt Taylor, only for the captain to direct his header down into the turf, the ball bouncing up over Tim Howard’s goal.

Everton attempted to hit back but Jo lost his footing on the edge of the box and shot tamely at Jussi Jaaskelainen before sending a glancing header wide from a corner.

With 17 minutes on the clock, it was Bolton who made a deserved breakthrough, Sam Ricketts beating Tony Hibbert on the right and sending a bouncing ball across the box which evaded the Everton defence and found Lee, who coolly slotted past Howard.

Again Everton attempted to rally but the visitors were showing little conviction in front of goal and Bolton doubled their lead on 27 minutes. Taylor sent in another wonderful delivery from a free-kick on the left and centre-back Cahill rose tallest from a crowd of players in the area to loft the ball over Howard.

Everton looked like they might crumble completely, yet within five minutes, they had found a response out of nowhere. There appeared to be little on when Neill found Saha in space midway into the Bolton half, but the Frenchman caught the entire ground by surprise as he advanced a few yards before rifling the ball into the top corner to put the Toffees back in the match.

Everton finished the first half the stronger side and having emerged for the second looking similarly purposeful, drew level within ten minutes of the restart. Neill was the provider once again, lofting the ball towards the Bolton box where Fellaini brought it down, turned Cahill and then smashed it into the roof of the net from a tight angle.

Suddenly Everton were in the ascendancy and as Bolton’s passing game broke down, their frustration became apparent, with Cahill and then Samuel both booked for rash tackles in quick succession.

David Moyes’ side looked like they might win it with 15 minutes to go when Dan Gosling broke clear, but he ran out of steam before getting a shot away and, having survived that scare, Bolton managed to regain their composure.

Davies wasted a glorious opportunity from six yards after misdirecting a header from Lee’s inswinging corner, but Wanderers’ tails were up and it was the substitute Klasnic who had the final say with just three minutes remaining.

Jaaskelainen hit a long ball straight into the Everton box and when Davies managed to head it down for Klasnic, the Croatian made no mistake, drilling it past Howard to notch his first goal in English football and Bolton’s first home league victory of the campaign.

Gary Megson praised the striking instincts of Ivan Klasnic after the Croatian hit a late winner to give Bolton a 3-2 victory over Everton. Klasnic came off the bench to give Wanderers their first Premier League home win of the season when he rifled the ball past Tim Howard with three minutes remaining.

It was the 29-year-old’s first goal in English football and Megson said he was not surprised to see him get off the mark. ”Ivan has just got one thought in his mind when he’s in there,” Megson said. ”He had a shot just before that from about 20 yards when really he should have passed it to Chung-Yong Lee.

”But you can’t criticise forwards for doing that, that is what they are there for and him being that kind of personality was probably a good thing for us because he certainly wasn’t looking to pass when the ball dropped to him. It was a fantastic strike.”

Klasnic’s rise to Premier League match-winner is all the more remarkable given that he underwent a kidney transplant in 2007, but Megson insists the focus should be on his qualities as a player. ”I can fully understand people talking about this - he has had this kidney transplant and he’s come through,” Megson said. ”But I think in time we’ll move on from that and just recognise that he’s a good player. He doesn’t mention it at all. He doesn’t have any fuss and he isn’t treated any differently to anyone else, he just gets on with it .”

Megson was delighted to see his team regain their composure and seal a victory he felt was long overdue, but warned his players that there were important lessons to be learned from the match. ”We’d been knocking on the door” Megson said. I don’t know if we would have beaten Liverpool with a full complement of players but we were 2-1 up there and I think we should have beaten Tottenham.

”But should and could doesn’t get you too far. Today you have seen the good side of us and the bad side of us. We should have been two goals up before we actually scored. Then we were two up, but we kept on playing the same way, without showing a little more patience and recognising that we are not going to be able to play like that for a full 90 minutes. It’s too taxing, nobody can do that. It was a really good performance, a great result. We just need to recognise when to slow it down and when to speed it up again.”

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