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Cardiff City 0-3 Bolton Wanderers: Player Ratings

Wanderers finally ended their away day hoodoo with their second 3-0 victory over Cardiff this season, but how did the Whites players rate?

Craig Davies notched a brace at Cardiff, but how will he rate compared to his teammates?
Craig Davies notched a brace at Cardiff, but how will he rate compared to his teammates?
Stu Forster/Getty Images

Bolton Wanderers racked up a first away day victory since mid-January as they put Cardiff City to the sword with three second half goals, the opener from Eidur Gudjohnsen followed by a Craig Davies brace.

Here's how we rated the egg-sellent performances from the boys in white on Easter Monday.

GK: Adam Bogdan - 6

In reality Bogdan had little to do, despite Cardiff being on top for most of the first half I don't think he had a save to make and was rescued by Bannan when Eoin Doyle's effort had him beaten.

CB: Dorian Dervite - 7

An impressive return to the Wanderers starting lineup for the big centre half. I like Dervite and I think he's had a good season.

CB: Matt Mills - 6

Cardiff didn't give Mills a great deal to worry about at the centre of Bolton's defensive trio, and he looked much less of a loose cannon than he has in recent weeks.

CB: Tim Ream - 7

The American struggled a little in the first half as Wanderers struggled to get to grips with lively winger Craig Noone - partly because neither Ream nor left wing back Walker had decided who was responsible for picking him up. But Lennon clearly had a word with Ream at half-time, as he got much closer to the winger and diminished his threat to the Bolton defence.

RWB: Saidy Janko - 5

Janko wasn't involved a great deal at Cardiff, he's become a shadow of the player we thought we had after his first couple of games in the side. I'm not convinced defending is his greatest quality, so when the added pressure of going back towards his goal is put on him at wing-back or full-back he struggles more than when he plays as a winger.

LWB: Tom Walker - 7

Up until he was substituted on 55 minutes I think Walker was one of our better players. He's adapted well to the wing-back role despite not being naturally defensive minded, works hard and he's confident on the ball. He also has a mean cross on him and an eye for goal, so it's great to see him seizing his opportunity in the first team. Against Cardiff, Walker put a couple of excellent balls into the box that on another day could have easily set up a teammate for a goal. The decision to again take him off early on in the game was odd, but he's only young so presumably Lennon is just keeping him fresh.

CM: Josh Vela - 8

I love Vela in the central midfield area, he has passion and makes things happen with his energy. He's the epitome of a box-to-box midfielder and, like Walker, it's great to see him performing so well. Vela and Bannan bossed the experienced duo of Aron Gunnarsson and Peter Whittingham on Monday.

CM: Barry Bannan - 8

Once again Bannan was excellent in midfield. He almost created a third goal for Davies late on and made a vital goal-line clearance to deny Eoin Doyle in the first-half. If the opportunity arises this summer, Bannan must be snapped up for next season.

AM: Eidur Gudjohnsen - 9

Okay, so Eidur didn't actually play that brilliantly for the entirety of the Cardiff match - in fact, he almost invisible in the first half. But what Eidur brings us is world class quality that we haven't seen since the days of Jay-Jay Okocha, Youri Djorkaeff et al.

His opening goal at Cardiff was testament to that. He latched onto Heskey's knock down and smashed an unstoppable half volley into the top corner of the net. I don't think anyone else in our team, and probably very few players in the entire league, would have the prowess to finish with such aplomb. He's been a revelation since he signed, becoming our second highest scorer at the ripe old age of 36. I'd love it if we kept him on for next season.

CF: Emile Heskey - 9

This was probably Heskey's best game since he signed for us. He was an absolute handful for Cardiff's defence and made things happen whenever we knocked the ball up to him. On top of setting up Eidur for the opener, his excellent hold up play rolled back the years as he sent Cravies on the way to his first goal. At times he looks his 37 years of age, but Emile was absolutely superb at Cardiff.

CF: Craig Davies - 9

Cravies put away too top class finishes against Cardiff. Cutting in from the left flank, the striker scored two goals you expect to see from strikers that are brimming with confidence - not a striker who only scored his sixth and seventh goals of the season. In so doing he became Wanderers' top scorer this season, which in itself is pretty terrible!