FA PREMIER LEAGUE Bolton 1 West Ham 0:AS IMPORTANT as Kevin Davies' goal to beat West Ham may have been, his second-half booking could turn out to be even more significant to Bolton's Premier League survival hopes.
The former Blackburn striker put in a man-of-the-match performance leading the line and dominating the aerial battle against West Ham. His goal, only his fourth of the season but the 100th of his career, gave Wanderers their first league victory in nine matches and closed the gap on 17th-placed Birmingham to two points.
However, the caution he received for a 70th-minute foul on John Pantsil was his 10th of the campaign and, with the Football Association amnesty on yellow cards not kicking in until today, earned him an immediate two-match suspension.
Davies will miss fixtures at Middlesbrough and Tottenham and, with captain Kevin Nolan only returning yesterday from his own two-game ban, it means by the end of April Bolton will have been without at least one of their most influential players for the best part of a month.
Manager Gary Megson knows how important Davies is to his side and how difficult it will be to replace him.
"All the time he puts in a hard-working performance and battles away and works his socks off," the Bolton boss said.
"His performance had all those qualities, but he also led the line well on his own, brought the midfield players into it and gave us time to go join him. I'm really pleased both with Kevin, and for Kevin, for getting the goal."
West Ham certainly had no way of dealing with Davies' physical presence, and even a dislocated finger sustained in a second-half challenge with goalkeeper Robert Green could not stop the 31-year-old, who returned to the pitch a couple of minutes after having had the digit realigned.
Davies could have had two goals in the first half thanks to his aerial supremacy.
First Jonathan Spector headed out from under his crossbar from the Bolton striker's sixth-minute knockdown, before Scott Parker did the same 24 minutes later.
El Hadji Diouf had a goal disallowed just before half-time. He side-footed home at the far post from a flick-on, inevitably, by Davies, but had initially been offside from Ivan Campo's free-kick.
The breakthrough finally came a minute after the interval when Spector bungled an inswinging Matthew Taylor corner and Davies blasted home from close range.
Nolan also had an effort ruled out for offside after Green could only parry Diouf's 65th-minute shot.
The victory certainly silenced the critical home fans, a number of whom gathered outside Reebok prior to kick-off to express their displeasure at the manager.
