Davies - Respect 'man's game'

Striker claims United players are guilty of play-acting

By Laura Slatcher   Last updated: 12th April 2008

Kevin Davies Bolton v Lisbon

Davies: Tough stance

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Bolton striker Kevin Davies has hit out at players who do not treat football as a contact sport, insisting 'it's a man's game'.

His comments come after Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson branded Davies the dirtiest player in the Premier League before their clash last month.

The 31-year-old holds particular disapproval of Ferguson and accused the United players of play-acting to get decisions their way.

"There seems to be an attitude with some teams that you're not allowed to tackle them," Davies told The Sun.

Play-acting

"Football is a contact sport, a man's game - but now you're getting people like Cristiano Ronaldo throwing his arms in the air if he gets tackled instead of getting up and getting on with it.

"In the game against United at our place, I made one challenge on (Patrice) Evra which I got a yellow card for and he made a couple from behind that went unpunished.

"I wasn't rolling around on the floor, screaming and pretending to be injured. But then we had an accidental clash of heads - and it was accidental - and he was play-acting, trying to get me sent off.

"So what Ferguson said last month disappointed me. There was no need for it. But that's his trick isn't it."

Survival hopes

Bolton are currently fighting for Premier League survival and Davies admits it has been difficult for manager Gary Megson since he took the job in October last year.

"There's no doubt we have punched above our weight in recent years. Everyone has been trying to find out what has changed since Sam Allardyce left," added Davies.

"The way we played under Big Sam was tried and tested - we were a top-eight team. It was a system that didn't need to be changed.

"Gary Megson came in and has tried to take us back to it. But it has been hard because he inherited a team who were bottom of the table and confidence was low."