West Ham 1 Bolton 1:Returning to the scene of a traumatic experience can be a crucial part of rehabilitation. Bolton Wanderers' horrid post-Allardyce era began with a 3-1 thumping at Upton Park in May, an indicator of the painful metamorphosis they would undergo with Sammy Lee in charge, but the familiar way they earned a point on the same ground yesterday suggests genuine reasons for optimism.

Here were the old Bolton: fibrous, unyielding and a menace from set-pieces. They trailed to George McCartney's spectacular early goal in a wretched contest, but Kevin Nolan's injury-time equaliser had been coming for much of the second half.

It was Nolan's first goal since February, a further indication Bolton are going back to the basics in which they find such comfort. Aesthetics can wait.

"Of the 14 players who played today, 11 were signed by Sam Allardyce," said their manager, Gary Megson. "They were brought in to play a certain style.

"It's no criticism of Sammy Lee - we're just trying to get round pegs in round holes. We have got a few issues to sort out and I think that playing in that manner suits us at the moment."

In many ways Bolton's most admirable achievement was to resist the onset of fatalism after they hit a post and the bar and had two efforts cleared off the line.

"When you've been in football for so long and you see that," said Megson, "you think it's not going to be your day."

They were rewarded when Lubomir Michalik flicked on a cross and Nolan, eight yards out, stabbed a wonderfully dexterous half-volley wide of Robert Green.

"You've got two choices - the white flag goes up or you keep going, and they certainly kept going. They couldn't have done any more today. They ran themselves into the ground," said Megson.

"We can pass it better, we can finish better, but we probably can't show any more honesty or commitment than we have done."

Their faith and commitment had been tested by the most freakish of occurrences in the 19th minute, the first goal of McCartney's club career in his 198th match. Bolton failed to get the ball away after Matthew Upson's shot had been cleared off the line by Kevin Davies and, when the ball looped up off Upson's shoulder, McCartney smashed in a flying right-foot volley at the near post.

Moments later McCartney cleared off the line when El-Hadji Diouf's shot dropped over Green, and then the impressive Danny Guthrie whistled a 20-yard half-volley off the outside of the near post after a splendid set-up from Davies.

Davies was at his best - three parts irritating bruiser and one part underrated technician - but he blotted his copybook with a bad miss in the 72nd minute. Having pulled away from Danny Gabbidon, he headed lamentably onto the bar from eight yards.

Carlton Cole, at times isolated in West Ham's tentative 4-2-3-1 formation, forced a superb save from Jussi Jaaskelainen on the counterattack but Bolton's force was becoming irresistible. Diouf had a header cleared off the line but, moments later, Nolan intervened decisively.

"We've been done," lamented the West Ham manager, Alan Curbishley. "Once you get to the 94th minute you should see the game out. In the last 10 minutes I thought we were 1-0 down the way we were playing - we were breaking to get in the box and crossing balls in when we didn't need to . . . But I'd give Bolton a lot of credit because from the moment we scored they upped it a bit and we never really looked like we'd get that second goal."