Chief Allardyce acclaims Bolton's battling 'heroes'
Mitch Phillips, Reuters, London
Bolton Wanderers manager Sam Allardyce heaped praise on his "heroic" players on Wednesday after they beat Manchester United at Old Trafford for the second season running.
Kevin Nolan, a scorer in last October's 2-1 premier league success, did the damage again with the game's only goal 14 minutes from time as United's unconvincing start to the season continued.
"It's like last year but even better, two years on the trot is unheard of for a club like ours," Allardyce told Sky Sports television.
"Sometimes you can always do something a little bit special and I think we've done that over the last two seasons now.
"We are delighted, the players should be very proud. Towards the end the onslaught by United was tremendous but there was some heroic defending and finally the saves by the goalkeeper. "It was a fantastic three points."
United manager Alex Ferguson said the result showed "what the premier league is all about".
"In a period when we had been looking sound defensively we made a slight error and lost the game," he said.
"After that we absolutely pounded them and were unlucky not to score."
Fulham were also celebrating after their fightback from 2-0 down to beat Tottenham Hotspur 3-2 at Loftus Road, with Sylvain Legwinski hitting the winner deep into injury time.
Liverpool also threw away a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 at home with promoted Birmingham City -- the Anfield side's third successive 2-2 draw.
Leeds United endured something of a battering at Newcastle United, but won 2-0 with an early goal by Mark Viduka and a late one by Alan Smith.
In Germany, Champions League finalist Bayer Leverkusen won 3-1 at Hansa Rostock on Wednesday for their first Bundesliga victory of the season.
Leverkusen moves three spots up to 11th but are still five points off the pace. Bayern Munich joined promoted VfL Bochum at the top of the table by beating city rivals TSV 1860 3-1 on Tuesday.
Bochum extended its amazing start on Tuesday by holding defending champion Borussia Dortmund to a goalless draw.
The two leaders have 10 points from four matches and the same goal difference.
In France, Nice's dream start to the French first division season continued when the Riviera team beat Olympique Marseille 2-0 in a Mediterranean derby on Wednesday.
The victory keeps promoted Nice top of the division on 13 points.
By contrast, Paris St Germain went through a nightmare, losing for the first time of the season in Lille by 2-1 in an ill- tempered game which saw four players sent off.
AJ Auxerre, the other French club involved in the Champions League next week, beat Bastia 1-0 thanks to a goal by new recruit Benjamin Mwaruwari.
In Spain, Barcelona were dumped out of the King's Cup by third division Novelda on Wednesday, a hat-trick from Antonio Madrigal clinching a 3-2 victory for the underdogs in a dramatic first- round clash.
Barcelona were one of six top flight sides to go out as the first round of the King's Cup.
Racing Santander lost 3-2 at Real Union de Irun, Espanyol were beaten 1-0 at Alicante, Real Sociedad suffered a 3-1 mauling at Real Zaragoza and Rayo Vallecano lost 2-1 to Cultural Leonesa in extra-time.