Kevin Davies has scored some important goals but he will never forget the right-foot strike past Oliver Kahn that earned Bolton Wanderers a point away to Bayern Munich in the Uefa Cup on Thursday. Nobody had given Bolton, next to bottom in the Barclays Premier League, a chance against the Bundesliga leaders, but a 2-2 draw against a world-class team was just the result they needed before their game against Middlesbrough tomorrow.

“I don’t think I’ve scored a bigger goal in my career,” Davies said. “It’s my first goal in Europe as well, so to score it against Bayern makes it even better. I would swap it for a win on Sunday, though, but it would be nice if I could have both.”

Bolton supporters did not know whether to laugh or cry when Gary Megson replaced Sammy Lee as manager two weeks ago. Megson received a hostile reception when he watched the club’s previous Uefa Cup tie from the stands before taking over as manager the next day, but at the Allianz Arena on Thursday 4,000 Bolton fans sang his praises while chanting: “Are you watching Allardyce?”

“Nobody can say what went wrong under Sammy Lee,” Davies said. “A new manager has come in and for me he’s got the same attributes as Big Sam [Allardyce]. He breeds confidence, he’s very good at managing the players, he’s great around the dressing-room and he’s just what we need.”

Although Megson has made Bolton hard to beat again, he is still waiting to watch his team win for the first time. A victory over Middlesbrough would lift his team above their opponents, who are seventeenth, and make Megson even more popular with the supporters, who were convinced that he was the wrong man for the job.

“I think we have turned the corner,” Davies said. “To go to Bayern and get a draw against a top team with so many quality players was a fantastic result and hopefully we can carry that into the league.”