Tottenham Hotspur 2 Bolton Wanderers 0:THE TOTTENHAM Hotspur revival is under way. This club still sit at the foot of the Premier League, with a daunting trip to Arsenal and a visit from the leaders, Liverpool, to come this week, but rarely can the team propping up the division feel so refreshed.

Harry Redknapp's mere presence has provided an immediate fillip and Spurs are suddenly propelled by belief rather than vain hope. Their recovery has begun.

The new manager will have drawn his own conclusions from this performance, but there was surely more on offer here to encourage than to unnerve.

Heurelho Gomes and his defence may still be prone to the jitters, the goalkeeper draining confidence as he flaps at centres to induce panic all around. But there was a slickness and bite to the home side yesterday that hinted at a return to the form of which this team is clearly capable.

Passes were fizzed, with Bolton by-passed en route, and players often becalmed this season appeared to spark.

None more so than Luka Modric. Clive Allen selected this side but Redknapp, perhaps spying an opportunity, suggested in the aftermath that it had been his decision to liberate the Croat by playing him in a roaming role off Roman Pavlyuchenko.

"I feel that's his position, behind the front man," he said. "It freed him up. He reminds me of Eyal Berkovic, who I had at West Ham and Portsmouth, and it's a problem fitting him into a 4-4-2, but if you give him the ball he'll do special things. He was terrific."

The €20.8-million playmaker had seemed too slight for this league in his early appearances but grew in stature here. It was his snap shot on the turn that was palmed away by Jussi Jaaskelainen some 15 minutes from time, the Finn duly penalised for tripping Darren Bent as the striker latched on to the rebound. The penalty, slid into the corner by Bent, prompted an outpouring of relief that an eight-game winless run, this club's worst start to a season, had finally been ended.

The flurry of late chances might have buried Bolton yet deeper.

Spurs had not even led before in a league game this term but confidence was coursing back in over the latter stages.

"I was thinking: 'How can this lot be bottom of the league?'" asked Redknapp. "The way they were zipping the ball around. When I went back to Portsmouth (in December 2005) I wondered how the hell we'd keep them up."

He has clearly spied the means to climb the table this time around and the performances of the likes of Tom Huddlestone, Jermaine Jenas and even David Bentley, whose form had been so soporific, were cause for optimism.

By the end, the focus was even switching from the home to the away dug-out. Bolton had been poor even before Gavin McCann's dismissal for two yellow cards, the second for a lunge at Huddlestone that left the midfielder yelping on the turf.

Gary Megson's side huffed and puffed thereafter but did not make enough of Gomes's vulnerability in the air with frustration welling amid the travelling support.

There had been little of his side's trademark snarl in attempting to close Bentley down at the opening goal, as the winger veered his cross in from deep under no challenge for Pavlyuchenko, also unmarked, to head his first league goal down and beyond the exposed Jaaskelainen.

The visitors threatened only during the period either side of the interval, Ledley King blocking Johan Elmander's attempt on the goalline, before McCann's departure eroded their intent for good.

The penalty was soft, an indication that even luck may have turned under Redknapp, but the script dictated this was never likely to prove anything but a home win.

The hosts have eased into their season at last.