BOLTON Wanderers will take their survival fight to Wimbledon on Saturday, convinced they can still beat the drop.

Their hopes of staying in the Premiership suffered a serious setback when they went down 1-0 at home to Championship challengers Arsenal at the Reebok last night.

But, to a man, they remain confident they can find an escape route in their seven remaining games.

"It's going to be tough," South African defender Mark Fish accepted as Wanderers were left anchored next to bottom of the table, still three points short of the safety target and with a goal difference considerably worse than Everton's.

"We knew it was always going to be tough but we must set ourselves the task of getting as many points as we can from the last seven games.

"Arsenal deserve to be Champions and they are well on their way. But we are capable enough and we are confident enough. We have a good enough team to survive.

"I'm sure we can stay up."

Record signing Dean Holdsworth, still looking to improve on the single goal he has scored since his £3.5 million transfer from Wimbledon in October, believes the victories over Sheffield Wednesday and Leicester in the two previous games, allied to their fighting but luckless performance against Arsenal, have given Wanderers a chance.

Now he is aiming to drag his old club into the relegation frame at Selhurst Park on Saturday.

"Six points out of nine is a start," he said positively. "Now we've got to start all over again.

"We are still in a precarious position and everyone's disappointed because we worked our socks off against Arsenal. But we've definitely got something to build on.

"I'm still convinced it will go right down to the last game of the season." Wanderers came out of last night's battle with Arsene Wenger's Gunners - now quoted at 7-2 for the double by William Hill bookmakers - convinced they were cheated of a 64th minute penalty when Nathan Blake was fouled on the edge of the penalty box by defender Martin Keown.

Referee Keith Burge sent Keown off but awarded a free kick outside the box instead of a spot kick which would have given the impressive Alan Thompson a golden opportunity to cancel out Christopher Wreh's 47th minute winner, which left the Londoners just three points behind Manchester United, with two games in hand.

Blake, who accused his fellow Welshman of "bottling it", joined the chorus of defiance on a night when relegation rivals Barnsley went down 2-1 at Blackburn to a goal three minutes from time and Wimbledon were held 0-0 at home by Newcastle - a result which leaves both clubs sweating.

"Things can change quickly," the Wanderers' top scorer said hopefully.

"It's been a setback but Keith Branagan made the point in the dressing room that he doesn't want to feel disappointed and down for the rest of the week. He wants to be perked up and ready for Saturday.

"And John Sheridan summed it up when he said that, if we play like that, we'll beat most teams. But the danger is that we go to Wimbledon and expect it to happen instead of making it happen...and get beat."

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