Man of the Match: Mark Davies

This one was a tough one. You can't even use just one word to describe the team's performance today. Brilliant, immense, heroic, and magnificent all come to mind and all must be used in conjunction with one another when talking about the 3-1 win over Liverpool at the Reebok.

Man of the match for this game was a difficult call. It could have easily been anyone in the team with the more obvious choices being Adam Bogdan, Gretar Steinsson, Fabrice Muamba, Nigel Reo-Coker, Chris Eagles, Mark Davies, and David Ngog.

We had to go with Sparky. Hit the jump to find out why.

It was Mark Davies' opening goal that set the pace for the game. A wonderful little backheel flick courtesy of David Ngog found Sparky in the center but it was his brilliant run into the center of the Liverpool defense that gave him the space to shoot the ball across the face of goal and across Pepe Reina into the side netting at the far post. The goal was a massive lift to Bolton and one that not many of the fans saw coming, if we're perfectly honest.

Sure, it wasn't the game winner but it certainly set the tone and showed Liverpool and the rest of the football world that Bolton Wanderers would simply not lie down. Mavies was all over the field, controlling the center of the park, going all in on the attack, and heading back to strongly defend. He completed 83.74% of his passes during the match and made six interceptions, five of which were in the defensive half.

You could easily argue the case for Gretar Steinsson who was solid at right back and scored the final nail in the coffin or Chris Eagles who created Nigel Reo-Coker's game-winning goal as well. Reo-Coker was fantastic all over the field too while Muamba made key passes and defensive decisions in the midfield. Adam Bogdan made seven big saves and the one he allowed in was a one-on-one situation that he could not do much more about. Ngog was an absolute workhorse who never gave up. He deserved a goal for his troubles and had he got one, it would be his name in the title instead of Mark Davies'.