BOLTON captain Kevin Davies slammed West Ham s England centre half Matthew Upson after Saturday s game, claiming the defender was trying to get him booked. Those who sat and watched the match at the Reebok on Saturday will find such an outburst completely

BOLTON captain Kevin Davies slammed West Ham's England centre half Matthew Upson after Saturday's game, claiming the defender was trying to get him booked.

Those who sat and watched the match at the Reebok on Saturday will find such an outburst completely extraordinary after the striker kept up a constant niggly war against Upson, nudging, pushing, checking and just generally getting into his face throughout the game.

Yet referee Steve Tanner saw it as the Bolton man who was being sinned against and though Upson was rightly booked for a bad tackle which looked like some sort of revenge, he was constantly penalised for incidents that many thought should have gone the other way.

"I think he was trying to get me booked with the ref which was disappointing," said goalscorer Davies after the game.

"He knew he was going to be in for a battle today and there were a few challenges the ref gave for fouls which weren't."

Davies escaped any sort of punishment for his antics on the field, including a malicious looking check on the West Ham centre half that earned him nothing but a talking to from the referee.

It was that which led to that retaliatory tackle from Upson and though you can no way condone such a foul, it is easy to see the frustration for the England man.

"It's a battle and I just thought every time I went in for a challenge, he was on to the referee which is disappointing," continued Davies.

"But I take it as a compliment that he wasn't very happy playing against me."

He was certainly right there, although this was not supposed to be a battle, it was supposed to be a game of football.

The normally cool defender was booked for the first time this season - an extraordinary statistic for a central defender in the Premier League, but it was little wonder considering the provocation.

Davies is certainly effective and Saturday's strike made it 10 for the season, but would you want him in the Hammers team? Probably not.