Vintage Sheringham sinks Bolton with hat-trick

Portsmouth 4 Bolton Wanderers

Portsmouth continued their great start to the season as Teddy Sheringham scored a hat–trick to take them to the top of the Premiership as their unbeaten run continued at Fratton Park.

Bolton, victims of a two–goal fightback by Blackburn Rovers on Saturday when they had looked certain to claim their own first success of the season, held their own in a lively first half that needed some alert defending to deal with muscular Portsmouth striker Yakubu Ayegbini who has been asked to fill the gap left by last season's top scorer, the injured Svetoslav Todorov.

The Nigerian was only inches from connecting with Steve Stone's superb low cross following the best move of the match so far which was started by Sheringham.

Sheringham strutted his stuff, reminiscent of his glory days at Manchester United and Tottenham. But this was far from a one–man show although clearly Sheringham's heroics, crowned by two goals in the closing five minutes, will reverberate all the way back to White Hart Lane where he was allowed to leave on a free transfer at the end of the last season.

There were no goals in a lively first half but once Pompey got going Bolton were overwhelmed and finished with a repeat of their defeat by Manchester United on the opening day of the campaign.

Henrik Pedersen showed why manager Sam Allardyce could keep on–loan Brazilian ace Mario Jardel on the sub's bench for so long with two spearing shots that stretched Shaka Hislop.

But when the breakthrough came it arrived at the double early in the second half. Patrik Berger moved serenely into the Bolton area despite two muscular attempts at capture when he latched on to Sheringham's pass.

Jaaskelainen saved his shot with an outstretched foot but the ball fell conveniently for Stone to bundle into an empty net. Eight minutes later Sheringham was on the mark to follow up his opening day strike against Aston Villa.

Boris Zivkovic collected Nigel Quashie's pass down the left and put over a peach of a cross for Sheringham to bullet home with a header just inside the near post.

But you could see Bolton visibly wilt from that twin body blow and they threatened to lose their discipline altogether when Pedersen and Greek substitute Stelios Giannakopolous lunged in to tackles that brought down Dejan Stefanovic and then Quashie. They were extremely lucky that referee Dermot Gallagher's cards were only yellow instead of red.

Bolton paid the price when Sheringham completed his treble with a flourish right at the end. He tapped home from Stone's pull back in the 87th minute and then stepped up to score from the spot after substitute Vincent Pericard was toppled by Ivan Campo's ill–judged lunge.

Among the crowd was Russia captain Alexei Smertin, Chelsea's new signing who is expected to be sent on loan to Portsmouth for the season if terms can be agreed.

Portsmouth: Hislop, Schemmel (Primus, 79), De Zeeuw, Stefanovic, Zivkovic, Stone, Quashie, Faye, Berger, Sheringham, Ayegbini (Péricard, 83). Substitutes not used: Wapenaar (Gk), O'Neil, Harper

Bolton: Jaaskelainen, Barness (Charlton, 40), N'Gotty, Campo, Laville, Frandsen (Jardel, 63), Pedersen, Okocha, Gardner, Davies (Giannakopoulos, 63), Djorkaeff. Substitutes not used: Poole (Gk), Nolan, Jardel

Referee: D Gallagher (Oxfordshire).