Bill Edgar's tactical analysis

It was a wretched enough encounter, but as Alan Curbishley started to pick over the bones of this draw and lead an inquest into the concession of a stoppage-time goal, someone asked about injuries. Bad move. Ten minutes later, it was as if the West Ham United squad had been cast in a repeat of Casualty and the manager was rehearsing for his role as Charlie Fairhead, the linchpin of Holby City Hospital. “It is all hands to the pump for Saturday [away to Derby County],” the manager said. “This draw was self-inflicted.”

Yet when Curbishley opens his 50th birthday presents on Thursday, he may be hoping that instead of boxer shorts and socks, his wife has bought him a spreadsheet to keep a record of the remarkable list of injuries. It was 13 at the last count, when Hayden Mullins limped off yesterday, but best to double check. Handy, too, would be a list of players out of contract, as at this rate they may not get to the January transfer window.

Curbishley hurled his water bottle in disgust at the end, a reflection of his team’s intermittent daydreaming and carelessness. “We wasted a lot of energy in needless things when we should have been professional and killed the game off,” he said.

George McCartney’s crisp strike was out of synch with the dross on show otherwise. The left back did a pirouette to scissor-kick in Lee Bowyer’s cross. It gave West Ham control, but they never had a second clear opportunity, despite Nolberto Solano and Carlton Cole going close.

West Ham conceded possession as quickly as it was gained and Bolton Wanderers were able to grow. Daniel Guthrie struck a post, Gary Speed narrowly missed, Kevin Davies put a free header over and then Kevin Nolan prodded home from Lubomir Michalik’s flick in the third minute of stoppage time.

Nolan described Gary Megson as a breath of fresh air, clearly a reflection of his opinion of Sammy Lee, his predecessor as Bolton manager. It may have felt like a victory for the visiting side, but it is now eight matches without a league win and Nicky Hunt has a suspected dislocated shoulder. “We have had two choices: raise the white flag or you go on,” Megson said.

Regularly vaunted for being intimidating, aggressive and uncompromising, Bolton have been anything but since the departure of Sam Allardyce as manager in the week before the teams last met in May. Megson reverted to Allardyce’s starting team yesterday, but things were not quite as retro on the pitch. “The players are used to a style and you can’t put square pegs in round holes,” Megson said. “We can’t just take a confidence pill and be confident.”

How they rated

West Ham 1 McCartney 20

4-4-2 R Green 6 L Neill 5 D Gabbidon 6 M Upson 6 G McCartney 6 N Solano 7 L Bowyer Y 6 H Mullins 5 M Etherington 6 L Boa Morte 6 C Cole 6 Substitutes: J Spector 5 (for Mullins, 50min), H Camara (for Cole, 72), J Paintsil Y (for Bowyer, 85) Not used: R Wright, K Reid Next: Derby County (a)

Bolton 1 Nolan 90

4-1-3-2 J Jaaskelainen 5 N Hunt Y 5 A O’Brien 5 A Meïté 5 R Gardner 5 I Campo 5 D Guthrie 6 K Nolan 5 G Speed 6 K Davies 5 E-H Diouf 5 Substitutes: L Michalik 5 (for Meïté, 46), J Samuel (for Speed, 78), G McCann (for Hunt, 82) Not used: A Al Habsi, S Giannakopoulos Next: Middlesbrough (h)

Referee P Walton

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