When was the last time following Bolton was like this? Coming out of a frosty transfer window, Bolton are one of the few basement-dwellers with any sort of momentum. This feels like a brand new team, a brand new atmosphere and a sunnier situation, at a time when traditionally supporting Bolton is at it's worst.

If Owen Coyle ends up being Bolton's biggest January capture, then it will still have been an excellent transfer window for Bolton.

If Bolton stay up, he'll probably cost Phil Gartside close to the £3million that was reported when the saga began, but I'm sure that by the end of the season that will seem like a bargain.

Dear Tony Cascarino (and everyone else who thinks Owen Coyle would be mad to want to go to Bolton), you are delusional, and from this point on you will not be required to tell me how football works. Please turn in your press credentials and your ghostwriter, and leave me alone.

Like it or not, Bolton Wanderers are an established Premier League club, having been promoted in 2001 and with four Top 8 finishes since then. As good as Burnley have been this season, they are in the top division for the first time since Taxi Driver and Rocky came out.

After two troubled years, Phil Gartside has bitten the bullet and Gary Megson is clearing out his office. In every report, Megson's relationship with the Bolton fans is cited as the main reason he has lost his job, but little consideration is given to Megson's performance, his behaviour and the role of the mainstream media in covering this breakdown.

You have to understand where all this is coming from.

You might not have heard about this, but when Mick McCarthy wanted to get a result against Burnley, he threw away the chance to get something at Old Trafford against a wounded and wobbly Man Utd team and made sure that his players were well rested. Gary Megson decided to go with the same approach (only without the forward planning and with more dumb luck involved), and he still couldn't coax a convincing ninety minutes out of his team.

Whatever Gary Megson says now is almost beside the point. The tension that has been simmering in the stands of the Reebok for months now has long since spilled onto the pitch and has been affecting the team performances at home, but Megson has always managed to keep a lid on it and make it appear as if the team is still behind him. Now, for the first time, the mask might be slipping.

If you need a number to tell you just what a bad result that was at Molineaux, here it is: 5. That is the number of times Mick McCarthy has ever won a Premier League match.

It is getting hard to argue that Bolton don't deserve to be 19th. Are Bolton any better than Wolves, who beat Bolton to get Kevin Doyle this summer? Are they any better than Pompey, West Ham or Hull?

There have been worse performances this season, but I'm not sure that there has been a more disappointing performance in a long time. It's hard to see how Gary Megson, and hopefully Phil Gartside, can justify this position they have backed the club into.

While I'm watching another dismal England friendly, I can't help but think back to Bolton's high watermark from the last two years, because it was almost exactly two years ago that Gary Megson led Bolton into Munich and escaped with a 2-2 draw.

This team is shredding my nerves. Just last week, I was feeling pretty good despite consecutive 4-0 maulings at the hands of Chelsea, because hidden in the wreckage was a solid 45 minutes. Unfortunately all that has evaporated with this capitulation. It was a spineless performance.