ALAN Stubbs added to the growing support for Wanderers' Premiership survival prospects when he praised his former club for proving the doubters wrong.

"You only need to look at their results," the former Burnden star pointed out. "You don't look relegation material when you win at Manchester United, beat the likes of Liverpool and draw at Leeds.

"They were fantastic results. They look comfortable and they've started the season really well, shutting up quite a few of their critics who called them relegation favourites.

"That's all credit to Sam, Browny and all the players."

Stubbs, who captained Wanderers when they first tasted life in the Premiership in 1995-96 before leaving for Celtic in a £3.5 million transfer, hit an unstoppable shot to put Everton level just before half-time - his first goal since joining the club he has supported all his life.

But there was no hint of mixed emotions.

"It's always strange coming back to your old club," he admitted, "and scoring a goal. Sometimes it works out that way. Fortunately for me it did on Saturday - it's just unfortunate it wasn't for a win."

Stubbs cherishes his six seasons as a Wanderer and has always expressed his gratitude for those who gave him the opportunity to build himself a successful career.

But he has never regretted the decision to leave which, at the time, brought criticism from certain sections of the Wanderers' crowd.

"I had some great times here," he recalled, "some success as well. We had a great team, some good cup runs and it was sad I had to leave.

"But I had to move in a direction that would enhance my career. I have no regrets because I had such a great time while I was here."

The big centre-back, admired throughout the football world for winning his fight against cancer while he was at Celtic, was not as unhappy with the result as Walter Smith, who described it as "two points thrown away"

"Our manager's not happy about us only getting a point," he confirmed, "and rightly so I suppose because we should have wrapped the game up with some of the chances we had after we made it 2-1.

"But we knew there was going to be a time when we'd come under a bit of pressure and, although we looked like coping, Bolton had quite a few corners and there's always a chance something will happen.

"Fortunately for Bolton and unfortunately for us, one dropped to Michael (Ricketts) and he's flicked it in."

Smith described the first half as "fairly even" adding: "I don't think anybody could have argued with the 1-1.

"We had the best spell of the two teams 20 minutes after half time when we played very well and managed to get ourselves into the lead.

"But all credit to Bolton. They came back after that, probably because they were aware that before the game we lost players through injury who would have given us an advantage height wise (Abel Xavier and Duncan Ferguson).

"We struggled to deal with their set-plays for the last 10-15 minutes or so when they were throwing everything in. But it was still disappointing to lose the points."