On overall reflection the Wanderers fully deserved to gain the three points and looked to have recovered extremely well from last weekend's disappointing thumping up at Newcastle United.

The same cannot be said for West Ham who will rue the fact that they rotated certain key members of their squad for this game including top scorer Marlon Harewood and recent seven million signing Dean Ashton.

Wanderers took the game by the scruff of the neck from the off and once Stelios Giannakopoulos had given them an early lead there was only ever one team really in control of the contest.

Bolton passed the ball around very well at times and where good value for money throughout but there often seemed to be an air of nervousness about their London opponents who could not cope well with what was being thrown at them in the course of the opening half.

The main culprits for the Hammers seemed to be the central defensive pairing of Elliott Ward and Danny Gabbidon with the on-loan Lionel Scaloni also facing the wrath of the Bolton forwards.

Giannakopoulos reacted the quickest to force home the opening goal on eleven minutes after Ricardo Vaz-Te's faint header had come back off the post following an excellent long pass from the left hand side by Jay-Jay Okocha.

Wanderers main target man Kevin Davies was winning the majority of the headers against Ward and Gabbidon and was complemented out on the flanks by the impressive Giannakopoulos and teenager Vaz-Te, both of whom looked to run at their markers and put them under pressure at every opportunity.

Midway through the half it came as no surprise that goalscorer Giannakopoulos grabbed his and Bolton's second of the game when getting the final touch on Kevin Nolan's shot from the edge of the area.

The resulting celebration between the two mentioned players was a friendly bit of banter as to who actually got the final touch on the ball before it hit the back of the net.

That aside, there seemed to be no way forward for the visiting Hammers team who missed the presence of their influential captain Nigel Reo-Coker in the heart of the midfield and although veteran Teddy Sheringham looked to be the main creative source there was little service given to him and fellow strike partner Bobby Zamora.

Bolton looked to compel the Hammers agony as Ricardo Gardner and Gary Speed fired over the crossbar of goalkeeper Hislop but Nigerian Okocha did manage to sting the fingertips of the ex-Portsmouth man with two powerful long range efforts shortly before the interval.

On the stroke of half time the game was all but sewn up as Speed got his name on the scoresheet with an excellent acrobatic effort after the West Ham defence had failed to clear a header back across the goalmouth.

After the break the recently crowned Barclays Player of the Month Nolan saw his snapshot blocked and Davies poked the resulting loose ball wide but it was clear to see that Wanderers wanted more goals to see the game off in style and on fifty four minutes Giannakopoulos was unlucky not to have gained his first hat trick in English football when firing just past the post.

West Ham boss Alan Pardew made necessary changes in personell at the break and this seemed to settle the Londoners down somewhat as the experienced Christian Dailly and one time Wanderers target Yossi Benayoun entered the play.

However, their attacking play still left a lot to be desired as midfielder Hayden Mullins fired a hopeful shot well over and the anguish for the away side continued as no one was able to get onto the end of a Zamora cross which flashed across the face of the goal.

It was of no surprise then that the hard working Sheringham, despite his advancing years, should be the man to give his side the smallest of hope by pulling a goal back with ten minutes remaining following a shot from substitute Benayoun.

Bolton substitute Pedersen struck the fourth in the final minutes with a superb shot following some good work down the left by fellow forward Vaz-Te. The Dane controlled the pass and fired in a delightful shot with the same foot which left Hislop totally stranded.

This result will do Wanderers chances of European qualification no harm at all and could give them a massive psychological advantage going into their FA Cup replay with the Hammers this coming week.

Bolton Wanderers: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Joey O'Brien (Nicky Hunt), Tal Ben-Haim, Radhi Jaidi, Ricardo Gardner, Kevin Nolan, Jay-Jay Okocha (Hidetoshi Nakata), Gary Speed, Stelios Giannakopoulos (Henrik Pedersen), Kevin Davies, Ricardo Vaz-Te

Subs Not Used: Ian Walker, Jared Borgetti

West Ham United: Shaka Hislop, Lionel Scaloni, Elliott Ward (Christian Dailly), Danny Gabbidon, Paul Konchesky, Shaun Newton (Yossi Benayoun), Anton Ferdinand, Hayden Mullins, Matthew Etherington, Teddy Sheringham, Bobby Zamora

Subs Not Used: Stephen Bywater, Marlon Harewood, Dean Ashton

Referee:

Mike Dean

Attendance:

24,461

Booked:

Lionel Scaloni (West Ham)

Teddy Sheringham (West Ham)

Paul Konchesky (West Ham)

Christian Dailly (West Ham)

Ricardo Vaz-Te (Bolton)

Anton Ferdinand (West Ham)

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