Cool Okocha confident Bolton will avoid drop

Jay-Jay Okocha is convinced Bolton have enough ability to avoid relegation from the Premiership for a second successive season. The Nigerian midfielder showed a cool head on Monday with a stoppage-time winner from the penalty spot against Tottenham. It was Bolton's second successive victory and, with 11 points from the last six matches, survival in the top flight is a realistic option.

Okocha said: "We seem to have found our form at just the right time. If we keep going, then I believe we will survive."

Okocha, who confirmed he will play in the African Nations' Cup against Malawi this weekend, kept his nerve to put away the only goal of the game after Gary Doherty had brought down Youri Djorkaeff.

"Maybe this will turn out to be one of the most important goals I have ever scored," Okocha said. "I think I was in the perfect mood for taking a penalty. I was very calm. I felt I had to take the responsibility."

The goal was cruel on the Spurs goalkeeper Kasey Keller, who had performed superbly. The American, however, still believes his side can clinch a place in Europe, providing they raise the tempo. "It is always difficult to come away with nothing but even more so when it is with the last kick of the game, and a penalty at that," he said.

"Frustrating is the key word for us right now. We just can't seem to replicate first-half performances and we can't put the finger on why we can't take our game to the next level.

"We are disappointed, but we have seven games left to put it right. Europe is not over by a long way, but it is getting more and more difficult."

Bolton's midfielder Stig Tofting has been given an escape route from the Reebok Stadium – should he want it – by the Danish club AGF Aarhus.

Tofting has returned to Copenhagen, prompting speculation he had been released by the Bolton manager Sam Allardyce, but he has simply been granted compassionate leave as his wife has just given birth to a boy, a decision Tofting described as a "fantastic gesture".

Allardyce, though, has said he is prepared to release the player if another club comes in for him, and AGF are keen to have a closer look.

"We haven't discussed what we will do, but he can train with us if he wants to," an AGF director, Frank Heskjaer, said. However, one sticking point could be the 33-year-old player's appeal against a four-month jail sentence for assaulting a restaurant manager.

Tofting said it was Allardyce's idea to send him home to spend time with his family before the appeal hearing. "Sam Allardyce told me it would be a good idea to go home to my wife and kids before the trial starts in April," the Danish international said.

"He also made it clear that three or four other players stood before me in the pecking order, so I thought it was a good idea.

"Allardyce thought I should go home and get a hold on things so that I would be ready for the trial. I agreed as I have only seen my new-born kid for three days. I won't be crying out loud because that's the game, but I think it's a fantastic gesture from the manager."