IT could have been a baptism of fire but Kevin Nolan has come through his first week of Premiership action with a reputation to match his physique ... big, powerful and still growing.

The young Wanderer - he only turned 19 in June - will never forget his first experience of the top flight while two of the most combative midfield players in England will always remember and, in future, respect the new kid on the block.

On Saturday, Nolan left Dennis Wise shellshocked with his double strike in the sensational 5-0 romp at Leicester then, three days later, he ruffled Paul Ince's feather's with the challenge that paved the way for the Reebok victory that blew Middlesbrough away and sent Bolton fans into orbit.

Not surprisingly, the youngster is hungry for more.

"If you want to be the best, you've got to prove yourself against the best and they have been the best," he said, with respect to his esteemed rivals.

"Dennis Wise has had a great career and Incey's been at the top for 10 years. It's great just to have played against them but to have played well is a dream. That's how you make a name for yourself

"I just hope I can keep that going now and build on the good start."

Nolan has been a revelation in a team that has taken the Premiership by storm but he might still have been waiting for the call if Gerath Farrelly and Djibril Diawara had not been injured.

"I don't know whether I'd have been in the team but I know I'd have been gutted if I wasn't," he says with the forceful determination that has become a feature of his play.

"But, given the chance against Leicester, I wasn't going to waste it

"My first game in the Premier League ... I took the gaffer's advice and enjoyed every minute of it.

"Before the game, he told us to do the things we'd been asked to do and to enjoy it. And we did. You couldn't argue with the 5-0 ... it could have been eight, nine, even 10. We really did play them off the park!"

Now he believes Wanderers have laid the foundation for Premiership survival - something few people outside the Reebok had bargained for when they secured promotion at Cardiff in May.

Positively and confidently he says: "Having done what we did on the first day of the season and followed up with the win against Middlesbrough, which we deserved, I see no reason why we can't continue to produce results like that.

"We believe we can do it but we've got to get all the supporters believing we can.

"Everybody's written us off, saying we're going to be the whipping boys. But we are the ones doing the whipping.

"I think it was the day after the play-off final that I read in the press that we were favourites to go straight back down ... it wasn't nice to read it but we've turned that into a positive. People have written us off so there's no pressure on us.

"We've won our first two games with the players who played last season and given a really good account of ourselves. Middlesbrough only had the one chance the other night - just after we scored - when Gudni Bergsson got in a good block.

"If we can limit teams to one chance a game we won't go far wrong ... although we'd prefer to make it no chances!"

Buoyed by his dream start to the season, Nolan is determined to make it count "We know there are teams in the Premiership who, on paper, are better than us," he acknowledges. "But over the last two games we've proved we are a lot better than people gave us credit for.

"I don't care what people have said about us, we're in the Premier League and I'm going to work my socks off to make sure we stay there."