BOLTON midfielder Kevin Nolan, already a senior hand at the age of 22, today insisted that the squad is strong enough to be a Premiership power.

Wanderers are battling to regroup after a 2-0 defeat at Fulham which, he said, left the dressing room devastated.

They face a tough game at managerless Southampton tomorrow with manager Sam Allardyce still racing against the August 31 deadline to reinforce his squad.

Efforts to bring in Sylvain Wiltord and Manu Petit appear to have failed although Allardyce has not written off Petit or even Youri Djorkaeff completely.

Nolan, who is starting his fourth Premiership campaign, said: 'I'd be comfortable with the squad we've got now if the gaffer didn't bring in anyone else.

'We had a small squad last year and have got some very talented individuals here. It's going to take us a while to get into the season.

'The first four or five games will be hard because we've got to get used to a few new faces who have come in.

'Last week we started well against Charlton and everyone was expecting great things after what happened last season. Perhaps we got a bit carried away but we've got to get back to basics.'

Nolan saluted the performance of Finnish international keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen at Craven Cottage and hopes he gets better support from his colleagues at St Mary's Stadium tomorrow.

Jaaskelainen made a stunning save from Maurice Volz, and Nolan added: 'I watched the shot and thought it was going into the top corner. But the big fella got across and made a fantastic save.

'He's a top class keeper, one of the best in the Premiership.

'But saves like that should be winning you matches. I felt sorry for him because he had a great game with some fantastic saves and came off with a 2-0 defeat.

'It was no excuse that players had been away on international duty. We're professionals, we are paid to do a job and we didn't do it properly.'

'You had to give Fulham credit because they played really well but if we'd been on top of our game we could have done a lot better.

'We can sit and moan, groan and sulk about it but we didn't deserve anything. Now we've got to put it to bed and get a good result at Southampton.'

Manager Sam Allardyce will have to decide whether or not to give former Real Madrid star Fernando Hierro his first Premiership start, even though it could be at the expense of his fellow Spaniard and friend Ivan Campo who was taken off at Fulham.

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