Nolan's City drive-in misery (From The Bolton News)

Nolan's City drive-in misery

COMMUTING to Bolton from his Merseyside home has been more of a chore than ever for Kevin Nolan this week.

Like everyone else who was on the receiving end, the derby drubbing at Manchester City has been a recurring nightmare.

Embarrassment, humiliation and disgust are just a sample of the emotions the young midfielder has been tormented by since the 6-2 hammering and there has been no escaping the torture at work with Sam Allardyce analysing the events of that shameful second half show and working out how to put it right.

But Nolan, who put Wanderers ahead with his second goal in successive games before the wheels came off, believes the events of the past week, as painful as they have been, could be the turning point of the season.

"We were in Sunday and in early on Monday," he revealed, "and had long intense sessions talking about what went wrong, what he wasn't happy about and what we weren't happy about.

"It's gone on and on, I don't think we could stop talking about it really. It had to be put to bed before we could look forward to Birmingham.

"Hopefully we can look forward now and try to improve. I'd like to think we can carry on from where we left off in the first half at City when we thought we'd done well.

"I don't think anyone watching the game could believe what they were seeing in the second half. We were so sloppy; all of us as a team were bad defensively and, when you are up against players like Nicola Anelka, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Robbie Fowler, you can't afford to defend so childishly."

Allardyce has called the shots, of course, but he has also let his players have their say - most notably in the dressing room immediately after the game when he was encouraged, for once, to see his players at each others' throats.

"A lot of the lads had a lot of things to say so the gaffer took a step back and let us have a little go," Nolan confirmed. "He let us get our frustrations out.

"But the lads know now that we've got to rally together and stick together as a team and work our way out of it.

"There were a number of things that went wrong that wouldn't normally go wrong. It was the basics, everything, stupid mistakes. Manchester City ran through us as if we weren't there in the end.

"That's not Bolton Wanderers since we've been in the Premiership and we intend to show in the next 29 games that, as well as having quality players, we are prepared to work. We don't want any more one-offs like that.

"Hopefully it's a good wake-up call for us and we can use it to our advantage and earn our respect again.

"Make no mistake, we took a real beating and we deserved a real telling off. We can't keep giving sloppy goals away."

Like Allardyce, Nolan believes Wanderers have performed well enough in previous games to be in a much better position. But he accepts there is an urgent need for improvement.

He added: "Even with that 6-2 drubbing, we should have won against Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers and Charlton. It's even more disappointing now looking back and knowing we should have been sitting near the top of the league.

"Even today I look back and wonder what happened at City. I've got a long drive into work and a long drive home and I've got a long time to think.

"Hopefully, if I'm selected tomorrow, I can get another goal and we can get three points instead of the ones we've been getting at the Reebok."