KEVIN Davies has started to repay Sam Allardyce for having the faith in his ability to hack it in the Premiership.

Cast off by Southampton - soul-destroying for a player once traded for £7.5 million - Davies is on his way back after more than two seasons of confidence-sapping problems.

He is not entirely happy with life after having his thunder stolen by Dwight Yorke's dramatic last-gasp equaliser but a superbly-struck goal on his home debut and an impressively hard-working performance underlined his determination to get his career back on track.

And at least he silenced the Blackburn boo-boys who once ridiculed him as an expensive, over-rated flop.

"I'm off the mark now and it's good to score against Blackburn, my old team," Davies said, too focused on proving points to himself to labour the satisfaction aspect.

"Speaking to friends and family before the game I said I just wanted to score a goal to get me going. I've done that now and although the feeling after the game was one of disappointment at losing two points, I've got the confidence of going into the next game and feeling I can score again."

By his own admission, self-confidence is was something Davies was desperately lacking after his once-promising career - he was just 22 when he made that megabucks move from Southampton to Blackburn - but Allardyce is famed for his willingness to scour soccer's scrapheaps and breathe new life into lost souls and once again his judgment appears to be spot on.

"It was a wonderful performance and one which will boost his confidence and give him a lot of pleasure," Allardyce said. "Kevin should have been cutting the headlines out of the papers having turned his own club over and proving that he can still play ... but unfortunately for him and for us the headlines are about the same old story for Bolton Wanderers."

When he signed Mario Jardel from Sporting Lisbon, Allardyce threw out a challenge to his strikers to score the goals that would make it difficult for the prolific Brazilian to break into the side, even when fit. Davies has responded well, getting himself back to match fitness and showing with the 25th minute strike that put Wanderers 2-0 up that he has not forgotten the way to goal.

"We get judged on goals but as well as that we have all the stats now on how far you run and how many strong runs you make," he said, referring to the computerised match analysis systems that monitor every step a player takes. "You can't get away with anything any more. Everything's broken down and fed back to you and that's important to the team - but I've got the goal as well.

"It's something to build on but I've got to keep working hard to keep my place in the team because there are five or six players fighting for the places up front."