Kevin Davies believes Wanderers were unfairly labelled as a ‘long ball’ side during Sam Allardyce’s tenure.

Davies, who scored 84 goals during a memorable 10-year spell with the Whites, was part of the side that achieved European qualification under Allardyce.

The striker says the squad laughed off such claims at the time but insists they were capable of much more than they often got credit for.

Speaking on Kammy & Ben’s Proper Football Podcast, he said: "It was something we accepted. It always came out when we'd beaten Liverpool or Arsenal. The managers would use it as an excuse because their teams had got beat up, really.

"We had a tough side to us. The team talk against Liverpool, or particularly Arsenal, mid-winter, we'd fancy it because we'd see their body language. They weren't quite up for it.

"We'd have to try and rough them up a little bit because they were better players than us and we needed to find a way to win.

"But if you look back at some of the goals and some of the performances we had against top teams, we played some good stuff.

"We had good players and I think we just kind of laughed it off that it was labelled at us when we were doing so well.”

Davies shared a dressing room with the likes of Jay Jay Okocha, Nicolas Anelka, Ivan Campo and Fernandio Hierro at Wanderers.

The 46-year-old is proud to have played his part and says Big Sam’s motivation was key to what they achieved.

"Knocking on the door of the Champions League for Bolton, we had some great players,” he added. “It was a great period for the club and I'm proud to have been part of that.

"We had the flair of the foreign players, a core of the English players and we had a great manager at the helm.

"Some of the stuff that they did, the way they motivated us - they gave us every opportunity that we could succeed and that came from Sam. He was very motivated.

“If we had a bad performance, didn't win a game or let him down, it reflected on him because he wanted to get to the top, which I guess he did with England but not in terms of managing a top team. It all came from him really. He led everything."