RE-BORN striker Kevin Davies is aiming to provide further evidence of his rejuvenation under Sam Allardyce as he prepares to return to the scene of his worst nightmare tomorrow.
Davies will spearhead the Bolton attack when Wanderers head to Ewood for a showdown with their North West neighbours Blackburn Rovers.
And although the barrel-chested forward will never lose the stigma of being one of football's most expensive flops, he has at least started to make positive strides in the battle to repair his damaged reputation under the careful guidance of the Premiership's miracle worker.
Few managers would have touched Davies with a barge pole when he was shown the door by Southampton in the summer.
The 26-year-old had suffered a dramatic fall from grace just five years after people had been tipping him to become the next Alan Shearer.
When Roy Hodgson stumped up a club record £7.25 million fee for his services in the summer of 1998, the former Rovers boss hoped he would fill the void left by Shearer, who had trodden a similar path from Southampton to Blackburn six years earlier.
However, the move was doomed to failure almost from day one.
Davies had been carrying an injury in the months leading up to his switch to Rovers and he never appeared to regain his full fitness at any point during an ill-fated first season with the former Premier League champions.
As fans started to question his weight, Davies found it hard to live-up to his club-record price-tag and a measly return of just two goals in 30 appearances coincided with Rovers sliding out of the Premiership.
With his confidence in tatters, Davies returned to Southampton in a cut-price deal at the beginning of the following season.
Dave Jones, Glenn Hoddle, Stuart Gray and Gordon Strachan all tried and failed to restore the player to his former status before the Saints finally accepted defeat and consigned him to football's scrapheap last summer.
It was then that Allardyce, that famous rescuer of lost causes, decided to offer the player sanctuary at The Reebok.
Initially, Davies arrived on trial but he made enough of an impression during pre-season to prompt Allardyce to offer him a contract and the Wanderers boss has since been rewarded with five goals, one of which came against Rovers when the side's shared a 2-2 draw in August.
So how sweet would it feel for Davies if he was to score again against his old club tomorrow at a ground which holds so many painful memories for him?
"It would be nice to score against them but I haven't really thought too much about it, to be honest," said Davies.
"I've not thought too much about Blackburn at all.
"It's a very important game for us because we need to bounce back but if we play the way we did in the second half against Manchester United from the start tomorrow then we should get something out of it."
Allardyce's uncanny ability to get the most from limited resources has served Bolton well once again this season.
At one point, Wanderers had soared into the top half of the table after a run which saw them keep five successive clean sheets.
Allardyce won the Premiership's manager of the month award for November and the mercurial Jay-Jay Okocha, one of the boss's bargain signings, scooped the player award.
And it wasn't just their results which were impressive, either, as Wanderers' free-flowing style of football also earned them some new admirers, too.
But, although they continue to attract rave reviews, the wins have dried up during the last month.
Two points from their last four games mean they enter the second half of the season still anxiously looking over their shoulders.
"We should have more points than we do," admitted Davies.
"In some games we've let ourselves down and let points slip through our fingers.
"We've talked about it and we know that if we'd got results against Leicester and Fulham then we could be sixth in the league.
"The gaffer just wants us to get back to basics and start winning games again."
A win at Ewood would certainly come as a welcome tonic.
Rovers nicked a point in the corresponding fixture at the Reebok earlier in the season thanks to an injury-time equaliser from Dwight Yorke.
That's one of six games Wanderers have drawn at home this term and Davies is eager for revenge against his former pay-masters.
"We owe them one. That was early in the season and a lot has happened since then but we are looking forward to going there and hopefully we can come back with a win.
"The league is really tight which is why it's important to keep picking points up so we can get back into the top half."
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