Owen Coyle backs Bolton to avoid drop after moving off bottom

Bolton manager Owen Coyle backed his side to steer clear of relegation after a performance in which they were "at their best" to defeat Everton 2-1.

Coyle's men had trailed to a freak goal from Tim Howard before David Ngog and Gary Cahill fired them to victory.

Coyle said: "It was a big win but a merited win. We knew that we had to be at our best and we were.

"I have always said we can avoid relegation. We have players who would get into most Premier League sides."

He hailed the belief his side showed in pushing on after the blow of conceding a goal in such unusual circumstances, coming back to seal all three points which moved them off the foot of the table above Wigan and Blackburn.

They are just a point behind fourth-bottom QPR.

Reflecting on the fightback at Everton, Coyle added: "With the wind and conditions, Tim Howard scored with a freakish goal. Adam Bogdan was magnificent and was in a good position. The lad certainly wasn't at fault.

"At that point, I felt the luck was going to go against us. I thought the bad luck we had in 2011 had followed us into 2012.

"But we still believe in what we are doing. We had created good chances before their goal - and we had the belief, character and resilience to come back.

"After the equaliser, we didn't sit back. A lot of teams in our position would have been happy with a point at Goodison. We pushed on and capitalised."

It was timely result for Bolton who will need all their new-found belief this month as their forthcoming league fixtures see them travel to Manchester United before home games against Liverpool and Arsenal.