Slowly but surely Albion are edging closer to their aim of becoming an established Premier League team.

Make no mistake, there’s an awful long way to go, but the early signs are good for Roy Hodgson’s side.

They’re finding a knack of winning the crucial games – the games that are going to shape their season.

Defeats against the big boys may already be on their results list, but against the teams that are expected to be around them come the end of the season, Albion’s record is good.

Wins against Norwich, Wolves, Villa and now Bolton have lifted the Baggies to tenth place and five points above the drop zone.

After Tottenham on Saturday, they face QPR, Wigan and Blackburn full of confidence after this weekend’s win.

Goals from Jerome Thomas and Shane Long were enough for the win after Ivan Klasnic had equalised from the spot.

To be fair to Bolton, they made a game of it for 45 minutes, but Albion out-classed and out-battled them in the second period to take the points.

Hodgson’s thoughts after the game summed up the dominant display from Albion at a packed-out Hawthorns.

“I’m so delighted with the performance,” he said,

“I’ll go one step further – even if we hadn’t of won this game and played like that, I would have gone home happy because it was a very good performance both defensively and offensively, physically, team organisation, team spirit.

“I can’t fault anybody, but if only, and it’s a big big if, we could do that for 26 more games, I’d be a very happy man here.”

Much of the praise for the win should go to Long and Zoltan Gera who were too hot to handle throughout.

Long ran Gary Cahill and David Wheater ragged while Gera showed flashes of brilliance in a free-flowing display of attacking football.