THE events of the past week could, strangely enough, turn out to be a blessing in disguise for Bolton Wanderers.

I know Gary Megson was hurt by the abuse he got at Blackburn, but he apologised for his outburst which seemed to be directed at the Bolton fans in general and not just at the vocal minority.

I went to see Gary on Saturday before the Tottenham game and told him I’d got lots of emails from fans who, even though they disagreed with his tactics, didn’t want to be associated with slagging him off.

The fans pay their money and, as such are fully entitled to their opinions, but I heard the Tottenham players in the tunnel before the game talking about getting the crowd on Bolton’s back – which shows that other teams are trying to take advantage of the situation.

Thankfully, that didn’t happen. We got the right result and the way we got it showed the character of the team and the players.

Kevin Nolan’s departure for Newcastle was sad because he was such a great servant to Bolton Wanderers, but Kevin Davies took the captain’s armband and showed magnificent leadership qualities. He’s going to be a great captain and Saturday was a fitting day for him to get the winner.

His performance summed up what the team and the club is about.

I think the whole business has brought everybody together – and that is our strength.

This team are not quitters, they’re fighters.

They coped with all the problems, rolled their sleeves up and got a great result.

Just look at the money Tottenham have spent and they look to be in bigger trouble than us.

I thought it was a smashing performance from the lads and one of the outstanding aspects was that full debut from young Mark Davies, who gave us some legs in midfield which is just what we needed.

I felt for young Chris Basham, who was left out, because he didn’t let anybody down when he was in the team. But he’ll get another chance – I’m sure Gary will have told him that.

I’m not trying to gloss over things. This is genuinely how I feel.

I am in touch with a lot of supporters, I get a lot of feedback from them and I pass it on – the good and the bad – and on Saturday Gary thanked me for that.

I got stick from the fans when I first came to Bolton and I had to win them over and in my opinion Gary will win them over too, provided they get behind the team and don’t get on their backs during games.

There’s more to life than football, though, and that was underlined at the weekend with the sad passing of Carole Dean – the wife of Andrew Dean who is my boss and special friend here at the Reebok.

Andrew was the man who got me back to the club and I report to him every day. He won’t thank me for saying it, but he is one of the unsung heroes at the club.

But he’s part of the Bolton Wanderers family and we will all be there to rally round at this difficult time for him and his children.