Davies the right man for Bolton skipper

I was a bit disappointed not to get any snow in Bolton last week. London was in the news and on the front pages for days with the heaviest snowfall in 18 years but we had nothing! It hasn’t even been raining, which is quite unlike Bolton, so it hasn’t been too bad out on the training pitch.

Everyone was surprisingly bubbly in training on Monday morning, considering the 3-0 defeat we´d had at the weekend against Everton. It´s an understatement to say the gaffer was angry afterwards. He was in a rage, to say the least. He lets us know when we haven’t performed well.

I can´t put my finger on why we didn’t perform better, we just didn’t get going. We weren’t at our best and I think Everton sensed that. They´d had a long week after going to extra time against Liverpool in the FA Cup but they used the momentum from that game to beat us. They were doing all the running and, to be honest, we looked like the team who had played in midweek.

Everton were probably on a high from beating their local rivals but we were on a bit of a high ourselves after beating Spurs 3-2 the previous week and drawing with Blackburn away from home the week before. They were both tough games for us, but we dug deep and we were delighted to get four points. That´s why it was so disappointing that we didn’t come up with the goods against Everton.

It´s not that we lose our focus or get complacent after getting good results; I think we just need to be more resilient away from home. And, if we have a game plan, we need to stick to it.

Looking back a couple of weeks, it was a shock to all of us when Kevin Nolan moved to Newcastle. He was captain of the club and there was no talk leading up to it, it just happened. One day he was in training and the next he was gone. It’s the life you lead as a footballer, people are always leaving and it´s very transient but you do get used to it.

Kevin Davies is the new skipper and I think he´ll do a good job. I hope so. He´s been a great performer for us and he´s a wholehearted player. He has been at the club for a long time and he knows it as well as anybody. You know what Kev is about and you know what you are going to get from him week-in, week-out.

Apparently he is the most fouled player in the Premiership but I don’t notice him getting clattered that much. Other people seem to come out of challenges with Kev worse off - he is a big, strong guy and it is very hard to put him on the floor, and I wouldn’t advise going into a full blooded tackle with him!

We´ve got a break this weekend when the FA Cup fixtures are being played but I don’t want a break. When you lose you just want the next game to come so that you can put things right. If we´d have won against Everton then things would have been different but as it stands, I can´t wait to face West Ham. They are having a fantastic run of form under Gianfranco Zola and it´s going to be tough but we´re confident we can get a result at The Reebok. You´ve got to take your points at home and we have got to start climbing to safety in the league.