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Megson's big moment
GARY Megson admits the Aston Villa defeat proved a watershed in Wanderers' bid to stay in the Premier League.
Bolton slumped to a humiliating 4-0 loss at Villa Park last month prompting many supporters to fear the worst.
But the Whites bounced back in style to win three of their last five matches in an unbeaten end to the season.
And the Reebok manager believes it was the Villa clash which was the turning point in their safety push.
"It was a watershed," said Megson, following his side's heroic point against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
"We were so abject at Villa it had to be seen to be believed. There were one or two players who didn't hit the standards I expect in terms of effort.
"But from that point on, Kevin Nolan came back and one or two players got an opportunity, like Grzegorz Rasiak. I know he's not everyone's favourite but we got four points from the two games he played - and that's more than we did away from home with Nicolas Anelka.
"We had a lot of honesty and effort and it enabled us to have the end of season we had."
Such was the superiority of Wanderers' goal difference over Reading, only a calamitous last day of the campaign would have seen them fall through the relegation trap door.
But Megson refused to admit Bolton were safe until their survival was a mathematical certainty.
He added: "It would have been daft to say we had cracked it after Sunderland and then seen us on the end of a 6-0 defeat and Reading win 6-0.
"I didn't expect that to happen but I did expect us to come down here and do what we did today.
"We worked our socks off, we were well-organised and we had a way of playing that we stuck to for 70 minutes until the weather started to take its toll.
"We knew they would have the upper hand in terms of possession and territory, but we also knew we could cause them problems from set pieces, as we do everyone, and it was apt that we scored that way."
9:21pm Sunday 11th May 2008
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