It's lovely being ugly again, says Bolton's Nolan after Spurs draw

Bolton are in their element again.

The Bully Boy tag is packed on to the team bus each week, along with the kit skips, the post-match pasta and the obligatory Boom Box. No one likes them and they don't care.

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The world of football has been waiting a long time to wave its sarcastic farewells to all those long balls pumped remorselessly towards the heads of Kevin Davies, Grzegorz Rasiak or El Hadji Diouf.

But two wins on the spin, against Middlesbrough and West Ham, followed by this impressive draw against a team who have won just twice since lifting the Carling Cup, have taken Bolton out of the relegation zone.

They want the job done before they travel to Stamford Bridge on the last day of the season and who can blame them? No one gets a result at Chelsea, everyone knows that. Sunderland are next up on Saturday evening.

It will be tense and it certainly will not be pretty, but Bolton are busting a gut for manager Gary Megson.

Nobody better personifies their spirit than captain Kevin Nolan, an original member of Sam Allardyce's brat pack who finished eighth, ninth and 10th in the Premier League.

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"I quite like the fact that everyone wants us to go down," Nolan said. "It makes it so much easier for us to stick two fingers up at the end of the season when we do stay up. When we were promoted, we were ugly, we were nasty and we were the team you saw at Tottenham. We were battling to stay in the Premier League.

"We were a top eight side and no one can ever take that away from us.

"It has gone a bit pear-shaped this season but it makes me laugh when people say we are horrible and should go down. I don't understand what people want - do they expect us to go to Tottenham, open up and let them beat us 4-0?"

Steady on. No team in professional football would have been beaten 4-0 by Tottenham on Saturday. They played out their fourth successive 1-1 draw in front of 36,000 cheesed-off supporters.

Luka Modric, Croatia's creator supreme, was in the stands looking at the club who are prepared to pay £15.8million for him, turning quizzically to sporting director Damien Comolli one minute and his agent the next.

Is this really the future? Afraid so.

A goal by Bolton striker Stelios Giannakopolous, scoring with his first touch after coming on as a 46th-minute substitute, at least reminded Spurs of their responsibilities.

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Steed Malbranque struck the equaliser but Spurs settled at that.

They cannot afford to next season, not when manager Juande Ramos will be expected to make an impact on the top four. Modric is made for Tottenham.

He will be the darling of the crowd but will need assistance and is unlikely to get it from Dimitar Berbatov, on his way out this summer after Ramos confirmed he will be sold to the highest bidder.

Jermaine Jenas will be feeling the heat when Modric arrives but said: "To bring in players of that calibre shows where the club are heading."

It is not all fantasy football. First, let's see what he makes of Bolton.

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR (4-4-2): Cerny 6; Hutton 6 (Huddlestone 46min, 6), Woodgate 7, Dawson 6 (Bent 53, 6), Gilberto 6; Lennon 6, Zokora 6, Jenas 6, Malbranque 7 (O'Hara 77); Keane 6, Berbatov 6. Booked: Zokora.

BOLTON WANDERERS (4-5-1): Al Habsi 6; Steinsson 6, A O'Brien 6, Cahill 8, Samuel 6; J O'Brien 6 (Guthrie 20, 6), Campo 6 (Giannakopolous 46, 6), Nolan 6, McCann 7, Taylor 6; Rasiak (Diouf 46, 5). Booked: Campo, Nolan, Samuel. Man of the match: Gary Cahill. Referee: Mark Clattenburg.