Or back to back wins, if you want to look at it like that. Bolton beat west Ham 2-1 away yesterday with Kevin Davies scoring after 10 minutes with a powerful header and then Jack Wilshere scoring his first goal for Bolton (and maybe his first league goal, not sure) after good work from Davies allowed Tamir Cohen to set him up for a volley. Cohen was later sent off for two yellow cards, the second of which was a silly booking and you’d think Owen Coyle would have made sure he knew it. That allowed West Ham back into the game. Diamanti scored a fine goal for them with two minutes left and both sides hit the woodwork in injury time. Overall though a good performance from the Wanderers and signs of progress continue under Owen Coyle. Bolton are now 13th, five points clear of the relegation zone.

the goals are here.

Bolton played a superb cup tie against Spurs this afternoon at The Reebok. Wanderers played much better football than they have been in the habit of - Owen Coyle’s influence already maybe - and had the majority of play in the first half. They created several chances and scored a wonderful goal, a long passing move leading to Elmander playing a 1-2 with Lee and crossing for Davies to score.
In the second half Spurs were dominant, and Bolton rode their luck. Spurs hit the bar twice before Defoe equalised and Jaaskelainen saved a penalty from Huddlestone after Ricketts handballed in the area. But overall, I’d say a draw was a pretty fair result.
The replay is due to be a week on Wednesday (Feb 24th), which means the game against Blackburn which was moved to Monday 22nd (presumably for ESPN) will now likely be moved back to Saturday 20th.
Fulham will host whoever wins in the quarter finals.


The goal and penalty save can be seen here.

Bolton lost 2-0 away at The City Of Manchester Stadium last night. A first half penalty scored by Tevez and a second half volley by Adebayor were the goals but the game was actually a story of two young player’s debuts - Jack Wilshere played well for Bolton but Adam Johnson, signed from Middlesbrough for £7 million took the Man of the Match award for his performance on the wing for City.

Despite the defeat Bolton played well enough and made several chances, as well as having two decent calls for penalties of their own. I don’t think anyone expected Bolton to get much out of the two games agains Arsenal and this game but once the cup game against Spurs is out of the way, the Wanderers have a string of games in which they might expect to pick up points. However the most immediate problem is finding a solution for the loss of Cahill. With Andy O’Brien also not available, Bolton played last night with three full backs in defence - Gretar Steinsson and Paul Robinson in their traditional roles, while Sam Ricketts deputised in the middle.

It has emerged that the reason Gary Cahill missed the game with Fulham at the weekend was that he was victim to a serious blood clot in his arm on Friday, which led to him being hospitalised. This is a condition which is generally treated with medication rather than surgery but has a rather long recovery time. It is possible Cahill may not be fit to play again this season. There could not be worse news for Wanderers as Cahill is not only Bolton’s best defender, he is also currently the club’s leading goalscorer...

Bolton drew 0-0 at the Reebok on Saturday against Fulham. It was quite surprising to see Fulham (who admittedly were short on strikers) come and effectively play for a 0-0. They didn’t actually manage a shot on target in the whole 90 minutes. Mind you, if they came for a 0-0 they succeeded. They shouldn’t have though - in the last 10 minutes Johan Elmander missed a gilt edged chance and Kevin Davies put the ball in the net, only to see his header ruled out for an offence that only referee Mark Clattenburg saw. And even after many TV replays and analysis by several sets of commentators and pundits, still nobody other than Mark Clattenburg has seen.

Bolton lost 2-0 away at Liverpool yesterday, a somewhat unlucky result as it happens. Both Liverpool’s goals took deflections which left Jaaskelainen unable to save them, the second of such degree that it’s been recorded as a kevin Davies own goal. Highlight for Bolton fans was probably Lee’s run from the half way line into the penalty area, however his shot was blocked on the line. After a pretty awful set of fixtures in January, Bolton have a much more reasonable February. A chance for Owen Coyle to show if he’s made the right decision and I suppose for Bolton to see if they have too...

Bolton have signed Jack Wilshire on loan from Arsenal until the end of the season. While still only 17, Wilshire is regarded as one of the most promising young midfielders in the country and, given Arsenal will have loaned him on the expectation he will gain significant Premiership experience, we are likely to get to see if the hype is justified. Between Wilshire and Weiss, Bolton suddenly have a pool of significant young talent available.

Given Owen Coyle was negotiating for the loan of Wilshire while he was at Burnley and Bolton have now ‘stolen’ the deal out from under them, it seems likely this will be another reason for Burnley fans to get upset.