West Ham 1 - 2 Bolton

　　

　　

　　Bolton celebrate after Kevin Davies gives them the lead

　　By Chris Bevan

　　Bolton made the most of some poor West Ham defending to clinch their first away victory since September and climb away from the Premier League drop zone.

　　Kevin Davies nodded Bolton ahead from Lee Chung-Yong's cross before James Tomkins' error let in Davies to help set up Jack Wilshere's volleyed finish.

　　Bolton stayed on top until they had Tamir Cohen sent off after 70 minutes.

　　Alessandro Diamanti replied with a low shot before Junior Stanislas hit the bar for the Hammers in injury time.

　　But Davies also hit the woodwork for Bolton in what was a frantic finish and, ultimately, the visitors got their reward for a determined display.

　　The victory was the first in the Premier League for Wanderers boss Owen Coyle, who had not enjoyed any success on the road in the top flight with Burnley before taking charge of Bolton in January.

　　

　　606: DEBATE

　　I was one of those who said we would not go down but, having seen this performance, I eat those words.

　　ccanada

　　And it was an even more unlikely success given that, going into the game, West Ham had not conceded a goal in any of their previous four home matches and Bolton had not found the net for more than seven hours on their travels.

　　Those statistics counted for little when Davies opened the scoring after 10 minutes, heading expertly into the bottom corner after Tomkins misjudged Lee's cross.

　　Things got even worse for the Hammers, and Tomkins in particular, five minutes later when he tried to shepherd the ball out of play but allowed Davies to cross for Cohen, who teed up on-loan Wilshere to score Bolton's second goal, his first in the Premier League.

　　And, while Diamanti went close to replying with two free-kicks and it took a last-gasp challenge from Sam Ricketts to deny Carlton Cole, Bolton would have been 3-0 up at the interval had Johan Elmander not skied his shot when the impressive Davies found him in space in front of goal before the break.

　　The Hammers did at least improve at the back in the second half, but were desperately short of ideas at the other end until Cohen saw red for his second booking, following a trip on Scott Parker.

　　Even then, Bolton looked like holding out until Diamanti's expert finish late in normal time - but they were almost denied a deserved victory when substitute Stanislas smashed his shot against the woodwork with Jussi Jasskelainen beaten.

　　Instead, Wanderers can celebrate their second-successive victory, which sees them leapfrog West Ham and move into 13th place, five points clear of third-bottom Hull.

　　The Hammers are more perilously placed, only two points above the danger zone, and will need a much-improved defensive performance if they are to get anything from their next two matches - trips to Chelsea and Arsenal.