WELCOME back Kevin Davies, we’ve missed you!

It has been a rough season for the skipper but the way he bullied Villa on Tuesday night shows you how important he can still be to Bolton Wanderers, and how much he’s taken this relegation battle to heart.

Make no mistake about it, they were scared of him when he came off the bench. They were petrified.

They are missing Richard Dunne, an experienced head who would have enjoyed that kind of tussle, but the defenders on the night just couldn’t cope.

We haven’t always seen Big Kev in that kind of form this season and it has been a tough time for him.

Maybe he has had to adapt his game a bit, going for fewer flick-ons and more stuff to his feet, or maybe it was just one of those patches of form that everyone goes through at one point or another.

Even when the knives were out for him, I said in this column that he had a big part to play. And that will definitely be the case in the last four games of this season.

He is a leader and leaders step up when they are needed. I wouldn’t expect anything else from him.

It was also good for David Ngog to get a goal because he has been working so hard without getting a great deal of support – something I’m sure Kev will empathise with.

I think he’s been given some unfair stick at times but he has changed his game so much to suit the system we are playing, people are maybe putting a bit too much expectation on him to cover all that ground and get the goals.

The big question now is can they play together from the start, and will Owen try it against Sunderland?

My hunch is no, but there may be occasions in the next four games when we need to change the game in the same way. It’s horses for courses at this stage of the season.

TUNCAY is solid proof that loan gambles don’t always come off.

We struck gold with Daniel Sturridge and Jack Wilshere but I guess you’d have to admit that this season’s crop haven’t quite matched up.

After watching Tuncay play for Stoke and Middlesbrough, it’s clear we just haven’t seen anything of him. He’s been a big, big disappointment.

So if he’s back in Germany with tonsillitis, it wouldn’t be entirely surprising if we didn’t see him back again at the Reebok this season.

When he came to the club I thought he’d play a part – maybe not start every week, but grab a few goals and contribute.

That hasn’t been the case, and sadly that’s the risk you take when you bring players in from other clubs on loan.

It’s a little unfair to compare them all to Sturridge and Wilshere because they were special cases, and, to be fair to Ryo Miyaichi, the young lad made a decent impact first off but has lost his edge a bit in recent games.

The whole process can be hit and miss and there are no guarantees. But I suppose that’s the same when you lay cold, hard cash on the table too.

IT’S reassuring to know that heading into the final four games, the back four is looking as solid as it has all season.

You can give all the headlines you want to the strikers and the front men for scoring the goals at Villa Park the other night, but, had it not been for some brilliant defending in the first half, we could have been four down by the interval.

Tim Ream and David Wheater look good as a partnership right now and the full-backs are stopping a lot more coming down the wide areas than they were earlier in the season.

Sam Ricketts and Gretar Steinsson are two of the lads out of contract at the end of the season and you’d have to think they have done their case for a new deal no harm at all.

These performances will be remembered in the summer, because when things aren’t going your way you learn a lot about your players. Owen will know a lot more about them this season, that’s for sure.

APPARENTLY there were two big games being played on Tuesday night, but only one of them made it on to the TV at the McGinlay household.

I caught up with the highlights of Chelsea’s incredible win against Barcelona after I’d watched us beat Villa, and it was great to see those travelling fans in raptures at the final whistle after there had been such doom and gloom at the weekend.

It’s always been the case that fans are different away from home. Maybe it is because you are not expected to get results, or that they have paid their money and done the travelling so they approach it with a different mindset, I don’t know.

But at home it can be tense, as it was against Swansea. Expectations are higher and there are more people who have invested their hard earned cash on season tickets. That can sometimes work in your favour, and sometimes it doesn’t.

It definitely hasn’t for Alex McLeish at Villa this season. He seems to have been on to a loser from the moment he walked through the doors from Birmingham.

OWEN called it a “freak” season but I’m confident he’ll come out of the other side a better manager.

It has been a strange time for Wanderers – there have been highs, lows and a lot of mediocre stuff in between on the pitch, and so much to contend with off the pitch as well.

But I think we can see some light at the other end of the tunnel now, and, provided the lads can keep their foot on the gas, I’m sure we will be stronger for the experience. He’s a young manager and, as he always says, he’s learning in the job. Owen was hailed a breath of fresh air less than 12 months ago and you don’t become a bad boss overnight.

Some of the stuff he’s been through you would not wish on your worst enemy but once you have, you are equipped to handle them again in the future.