Nolan's Bolton blues

Nolan: still has hope

It's disappointing what has happened to us, but I feel the squad we've got is capable of being in the top 10. If we hopefully get out of trouble this season, we can hopefully put that right next season.

Kevin Nolan
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Kevin Nolan admits Sam Allardyce's departure was a key reason for Bolton's demise from European candidates to relegation battlers.

Allardyce left Bolton last summer an eight-year reign which saw him establish the team in the upper reaches of the Premier League and as regular candidates for European qualification.

But Bolton's fortunes have faded following the appointment of Sammy Lee, and subsequently Gary Megson, and they sit four points adrift of safety with just five games left to play this season.

Nolan admits it took a long time to get used to the radical changes on both the playing staff and the coaching staff, but he says the squad are united in their desire to get out of trouble.

"A lot of it has come down to change," Nolan told Goals on Sunday.

"I think a lot of it was down to the fact that Sam went and we had a new manager and several changes in personnel.

"We had to learn how to play with different people and how to play in a different way and it's affected us, everyone can see that.

"But we're all together and we know what's needed now to get us out of the situation that we're in.

"You're always going to miss a man like Big Sam, but we miss having Sammy Lee around too.

"But that's gone now and we've got to forget about that. Bolton are starting to rebuild under Gary Megson and I believe we will continue to be successful.

"It's disappointing what has happened to us, but I feel the squad we've got is capable of being in the top 10. If we hopefully get out of trouble this season, we can hopefully put that right next season."

Positives

Nolan has been a helpless spectator in recent games while he serves a suspension, but he is adamant he and his team-mates will bounce back from Saturday's 4-0 thrashing by Aston Villa and find the form that will take them to safety.

He continued: "This season has reminded me of what it was like when we first came into the Premier League - going in on a Monday morning after a defeat every week and trying to look at all the positives and towards the next game.

"It's been ever so tough for me personally over the last few weeks because I was suspended for having 10 bookings. Watching the games has been tough, but we're still in with a shout.

"We've got West Ham next week and teams around us who we believe we can beat - because on our day we can beat anyone.

"It's just not going for us at the moment, whether it's luck or us not taking our chances.

"Certainly before Aston Villa scored on Saturday we had a couple of half-decent chances, but when you're down there and something goes wrong then some of the heads go down and people start thinking 'here we go again'."

Plugging away

Nolan feels Bolton have returned to Allardyce's style under Megson, but he admits the team's failings in front of goal have cost them dearly this season.

But he has taken heart from the way Reading and Sunderland put winning runs together in recent matches to get out of danger and he believes Bolton will be able to perform a similar feat.

"The style is not completely different now," he added.

"Megson's tried to mirror what Big Sam did by making us hard to beat - not conceding goals and then trying to nick one at the other end.

"It's unfortunate that we haven't produced at the other end, apart from myself on five goals. I think that's the most. Nicolas Anelka is our leading scorer but he's been gone since January.

"We've got to keep plugging away because I know the luck's going to turn sooner or later. Reading and Sunderland have had a couple of wins to get them out of trouble and I think ours is just around the corner. I think we will go on a bit of a run and get ourselves out of it.

"When you're waiting for other teams to slip up then you're in trouble, but we're four points off and a couple of wins would get us right back in the mix and I'm sure that'll happen in the next couple of weeks."