Tottenham Hotspur 3 - 1 Bolton: Spurs on their way to Wembley after late goal surge

Bolton had weathered wave after wave of Tottenham attacks, with goalkeeper Adam Bogdan in inspired form, when Ryan Nelson finally breached the dam with a 74th minute back-post header. Three minutes later Jermain Defoe teed up Gareth Bale for the second to settle a quarter-final tie that was rearranged following the collapse of Fabrice Muamba in the original fixture nine days ago.

Kevin Davies scored a late consolation for Bolton before Louis Saha applied the coup de grace, beating Bogdan from 25 yards with the final kick of the game.

Mark Davies took over from Fabrice Muamba in the heart of Bolton’s midfield and he and Chris Eagles were the only changes from the Bolton side that started the original tie, which was abandoned after Muamba suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch.

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp made three changes from last Saturday’s tie with Ledley King, Emmanuel Adebayor and Jake Livermore all included.

The kick-off was delayed by 15 minutes due to a traffic accident near the ground and was preceded by a minute of applause for Muamba. The 23-year-old Bolton midfielder remains in intensive care but he has made “encouraging progress” since his collapse on 17 March.

Tottenham were the most threatening from the outset with Luca Modric, Rafael Van der Vaart and Gareth Bale combining well to stretch the Bolton defence.

Bale tested Adam Bogdan with a powerful drive from distance before the Bolton goalkeeper pulled off a brilliant double save to deny Livermore and Modric.

Kyle Walker was causing Bolton problems down the right flank and Emmanuel Adebayor should have done better after being picked out by a Van der Vaart corner.

Bogdan was keeping Bolton in the game. He was called into action again and produced another double save after Adebayor had been released by Benoit Assou-Ekotto. The busy Hungarian goalkeeper pushed Adebayor’s low shot away from goal and then sprung to his feet and blocked Bale’s follow-up effort.

Spurs were soon back on the attack and Adebayor slid a delightful pass through for Van der Vaart, whose low first-time shot was blocked by Bogdan’s boot. The Bolton keeper continued to produce the heroics. When Van der Vaart turned provider and released Adebayor, Bogdan turned the shot behind for a corner.

Jermain Defoe was sent on and also saw his first effort saved by Bogdan but finally, after 73 minutes, Spurs breached the Bolton dam. Bogdan could not reach a corner from the right and Nelson rose at the far post to head the ball back across goal and put Spurs ahead. Bogdan was furious.

Within three minutes the goalkeeper was beaten again when Defoe led a Tottenham counter-attack and fed Bale, who cut inside and slid his shot under Bogdan. Kevin Davies came off the bench to score a late consolation for Bolton after being picked out in the box by Ivan Klasnic – but Spurs had the final say.

With the final kick of the game, Louis Saha fired a curling 25-yard strike past Bogdan - who did not deserve to concede three times – and wrap up the victory.