GAVIN McCann, the down-to-earth Lancastrian who has never been comfortable in the glare of the spotlight, has given Wanderers a fighting chance of retaining their place in the glitz and the glamour of the Premiership.

The reluctant hero, who is more at home having a jar with his mates than rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous, fired Gary Megson's Whites out of the bottom three on what, come May 11, might well prove to have been a pivotal afternoon in the battle for survival.

His Riverside Stadium matchwinner was hardly the most spectacular of strikes - he could hardly have missed from such close range - but his first league goal of the season has given hope where a fortnight ago there was none.

Fourteen days after suffering the indignity of a 4-0 thrashing on his return to his former club, Aston Villa, McCann inspired a performance that earned Wanderers back-to-back wins for the first time in more than a year and piled the pressure on rivals Reading and Birmingham City.

Significantly, coupled with the victory over West Ham United a week earlier, it offered further proof that, for all their problems and for all their doubters, Megson's men do have the stomach for a fight.

They might not have a Nicolas Anelka and they are ending the season with key players either injured or suspended, but they are drawing inspiration from the most unlikely of sources. Few would have envisaged, when Wanderers were struggling desperately to register a point, never mind a win, that it would be the likes of McCann, Ali Al-Habsi and Jlloyd Samuel who would step up to the plate.

But the big Omani keeper's brilliance in the first 10 minutes, when Boro were rampant, laid the foundation for a victory in which the two former Villa men played crucial roles.

Samuel, roasted by Jeremie Aliadiere in the first quarter, recovered brilliantly to cancel out the former Arsenal attacker, and turn the tide inexorably in Bolton's favour, just when they looked like heading for another pasting.

With Reading having lost the lunchtime kick-off at Arsenal and Fulham going down at home to Liverpool, defeat might not have been fatal.

But, if they had continued in the same shambolic manner in which they played the first 20 minutes, no one would have given them a prayer.

Grzegorz Rasiak was proving a poor understudy for the suspended and injured Kevin Davies but, mercifully, they reached half-time without conceding and came out for the second half like a team possessed.

Inspired by 2,000 travelling fans who backed their team brilliantly, they battered Boro into submission with a whirlwind start to the second half.

Rasiak was unlucky to hit the bar with a glancing header before going off for stitches in a nasty cut over his eye and Danny Guthrie, substitute for another wounded warrior Tamir Cohen, saw a nifty goal-bound chip beat Ross Turnbull only to be hacked off the line by Luke Young.

All they needed was the breakthrough and it came on the hour when, after a couple of close calls and near misses, McCann knocked in the rebound after Turnbull could only parry Gary Cahill's header from Matt Taylor's corner.

McCann, who scored twice in the UEFA Cup run, had only averaged a goal a season in his 11 years of first-team football, but his 12th could turn out to be far and away the most important.

Cahill - another recruit from Villa Park and one of four walking wounded who needed patching up during the game - hailed the Blackpool-born midfielder as the standard bearer for a victory that took Wanderers on to 32 points.

"Gav set the standard, he set the tempo of how we wanted to get about the game and he kept running, and running and running," said the impressive young centre-back. "He was brilliant."

Samuel, who shared a dressing room with McCann for four seasons at Villa, reckoned it was only a matter of time before he got the recognition he deserved.

"Like me, Gav's come into the team and been given a run of games which is good for him," Samuel said.

"You know what you're going to get from Gav. He's wholehearted and he's shown that he can come up with the odd goal - important goals as well."

Just how valuable remains to be seen.

Wanderers still have a tough run-in and may need to win two of their remaining three games to save their skins.

There is still a long way to go before they can start breathing easily again and, as Megson cautioned, if they play as they did in the first half at Boro, they will not survive. They were as poor in that first quarter as they were when they lost 5-1 on the same ground last season. Boro's wide men, Aliadiere and Stewart Downing ran riot, and but for Al-Habsi making reaction saves from David Wheater, Tuncay and Afonso Alves, the game would have been over as a contest inside nine minutes.

Megson was on the touchline frantically trying to shake his players out of their stupour, mystified as to why they could produce such a half-hearted performance in such an important game after grabbing that lifeline a week earlier.

They responded to a degree, but it was not until half-time that the manager was able to ram home the point that, with Reading having already lost and Fulham a goal down, this could be their day.

"I was really concerned, really angry, because I expected a much better start from us than that," Megson said, reflecting on the dramatic turnaround.

"It took us 20 minutes just to get into the game and we were fortunate to be going in nil-nil at half time. But I knew we were facing the most vital 45 minutes of the season and that, with the goings on at the Emirates and knowing Liverpool were beating Fulham, we wouldn't get a better chance to get out of the cart.

"We got away with it, to be honest, but the second half stats were 100 per cent better than the first and so much better than Middlesbrough's.

"We're not, by any stretch, playing champagne football but I defy anybody who is in our position, to do that at this stage of the season."

Maybe the tide has turned Wanderers' way though.

In the build-up to the game, Megson and his players suggested it was time they got a favour or two from Lady Luck and that the odd refereeing decision might go their way. And it did.

Just six minutes before McCann hit the winner, he survived penalty appeals when he handled Stewart Downing's deflected cross.

A few more of the same at Tottenham on Saturday and at home to Sunderland the following week and the result at Chelsea on the final day might just be academic.

Many thanks for those who spotted today's earlier deliberate mistake with the incorrect scoreline. This was human error by the person who uploaded the copy and was not down to Gordon Sharrock - Internet Editor Chris Sudlow