Ex-Toon Midfielder Flaps As Bolton Set For Relegation!

SKY TV pundits Charlie Nicholas, Paul Merson and Phil Thompson all said back at Christmas that as long as Bolton had Anelka the French striker would fire the Trotters to safety.

Anelka was sold to Chelsea and Wanderers have lost five straight league games since beating Reading at the Madejski Stadium on February 2 - a run that has seen them drop into the relegation zone, two points from safety.

They have scored only twice in that sequence.

Since Anelka played his last game for Wanderers before moving to Chelsea, a 1-0 win over Derby on January 2, their only league win came against the Royals.

In the nine games that have followed the Frenchman's departure, Bolton have found the net only five times, but Megson has dismissed the link between his sale and Bolton's slump in form.

Meson: "Everybody's now saying that if we'd have kept him then we'd have done this or that.

"But when I arrived I think Nic had scored five or six goals and we were bottom of the table by one point from Derby, so it doesn't follow that if he'd stayed then we'd have done differently.

"We had no choice, Nic wanted to go and join Chelsea, which we fully understood.

"This club has never scored lots of goals, but I do accept that we don't score enough goals at the moment to get ourselves out of the trouble that we're in.

"It's not something that we hope changes - it's got to change."

1984/86 G.L.Megson 24/4 2
Gary was tough ginger-haired midfielder signed from Nottingham Forest by Jack Charlton. Never a crowd favourite. Tended to run around like a headless chicken. Signed for Sheff Wed when Charlton left.