Happy Owen, sad Sam

Owen Coyle praised the spirit of his players after 10-man Bolton snatched a late winner at home to Blackburn on Sunday.

A man down after the sending off of Mark Davies, Bolton took the lead through Fabrice Muamba.

Mame Diouf levelled for the visitors with three minutes remaining, but Stuart Holden found the winner moments later to leave Coyle delighted at his team’s resilience.

“We went down to 10 men and obviously Blackburn came forward a bit more,” Coyle said.

“That actually helped us because it allowed us space, with the way Blackburn set up – and I totally understand why – to stop us playing and paying us a big compliment.”

“I know I’ve got spirit in that dressing room and it was so evident again there, to take the blow of the equaliser and then come back and score such a wonderful goal.”

“It’s a valuable three points.”

Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce was incensed after his team came away from the Reebok Stadium with nothing, despite their man advantage.

“We have thrown away the chance of more points,” Allardyce said.

“Mame got us back in the game and we didn’t learn our lesson from Bolton putting balls down the middle, and immediately the ball goes down the middle from the re-start.”

“We all know what Kevin Davies is good at and lo and behold none of our defenders pick up the loose ball. It’s a very good finish from Holden but it’s diabolical defending.”

“I thought we were better when we had 11 versus 11 because they were doing nothing to threaten us. The disappointing thing is throwing the points away. At the very least we should have had a draw.”