Having left his calling card on the shins of many of the country’s top defenders, Kevin Davies is not the most popular player in the Premier League, but his enormous value to Bolton Wanderers was underlined yesterday when he scored twice to kill off Tottenham’s challenge. The winning goal came three minutes from the end after Bolton had surrendered a two-goal lead and was a source of enormous relief to Bolton’s beleaguered manager Gary Megson.

Megson’s side had also conceded such an advantage against Blackburn Rovers on Wednesday, which resulted in a spat between the manager and supporters, with name-calling on both sides. Having painted his club’s supporters in a negative light, Megson yesterday apologised after the match, clearly a relieved man that his newly appointed captain had come to his rescue.

It was a dramatic day which had started on a mundane note. With Jermain Defoe withdrawn because of a foot injury, Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp reverted to a five-man midfield with a debut for his signing from Wigan Athletic, Wilson Palacios. Roman Pavlyuchenko played as the lone striker. Bolton had in midfield Mark Davies, a £1m signing from Wolves, who they hope will be a replacement for captain Kevin Nolan, sold against his manager’s wishes to Newcastle United. With Megson also employing a lone striker, Ariza Makukula, the omens for an entertaining game were poor, but Bolton bossed the visitors in the first half and deservedly went into the interval in front.

That it came from a free-kick didn’t come as a big surprise, at least to everybody but Tottenham. They should have been warned as early as the eighth minute when Kevin Davies got a clear header from a free-kick and the aerial threat was again highlighted when the same player flicked on Jussi Jaaskelainen’s long punt only for Makukula to spurn the opportunity.

On 31 minutes Spurs were suitably punished when Palacios fouled Ricardo Gardner on the left edge of the Tottenham penalty area. Mark Davies’s wicked delivery whipped in between Vedran Corluka and Jonathan Woodgate and found the bald head of Sebastien Puygrenier, who powerfully dispatched the ball past Carlo Cudicini.

Apart from a couple of efforts from David Bentley, Tottenham had been limp and Redknapp was not slow to spot the offenders. Didier Zokora and Luka Modric were hauled off at the interval, replaced by Jermaine Jenas and Darren Bent.

With Bent now partnering Pavlyuchenko up front, and the ball starting to stick for the first time in the Bolton half, Spurs posed far more of a threat. But they conceded a second goal on 64 minutes after again failing to deal with the ball in the air.

Jlloyd Samuel’s cross to the edge of the area from just inside the Totteham half looked harmless, but Gary Cahill outjumped the Spurs defence and flicked on for Kevin Davies, who had plenty of space on the right side. Despite Benoit Assou-Ekotto’s lunge, he had time to control the ball and from an acute angle sweep the ball past Cudicini high into the Spurs net.

The celebrations of the Bolton fans were tempered slightly by the knowledge of what had happened against Blackburn last week and a period of intense introspection looked on the cards again as Spurs scored twice in the space of two minutes to draw level.

The goalscorer on both occasions was Bent, last heard of being compared unfavourably over his finishing ability with Mrs Harry Redknapp by her husband. The provider on both occasions was Pascal Chimbonda, on as a substitute midway through the second half for Corluka. For the first he galloped to the byline and put in a low cross which Bent converted from six yards out. For the second, on 75 minutes, his cross was headed out by Gretar Steinsson only as far as Palacios and after the Honduran’s shot was parried by Jaaskelainen, Bent swept home the loose ball.

Tottenham appeared to have done enough to earn a point but Kevin Davies had other ideas when he headed in from close range from a Matt Taylor corner.

Star man: Kevin Davies (Bolton)

Yellow cards: Tottenham: Dawson.

Referee: P Dowd.

Attendance: 21,575.

Bolton: Jaaskelainen 5, Steinsson 6, Cahill 7, Puygrenier 6 (O’Brien 69min), Samuel 6, Taylor 7, K Davies 8, M Davies 8, Muamba 5, Gardner 6, Makukula 5 (Smolarek 68min).

Tottenham: Cudicini 6, Assou-Ekotto 6, Woodgate 5, Dawson 6, Corluka 5 (Chimbonda 67min), Lennon 6, Modric 4 (Bent, h-t 8), Zokora 5 (Jenas h-t, 5), Palacios 5, Bentley 5, Pavlyuchenko 5.