GEORGE McCartney should have been the happiest man in the East End after scoring only the second goal of his career in West Ham's 1-1 draw with Bolton Wanderers at Upton Park.

Instead, the Northern Ireland defender was left disappointed after Kevin Nolan popped up in the 93rd minute to secure a deserved point for Gary Megson's battling Trotters.

And afterwards, McCartney admitted that the gloss of lashing home a memorable volley had been rubbed off by Nolan's last-gasp intervention.

"In the changing room the lads feel as if they have lost the game but football is a funny old game at times," admitted the full-back, who flung himself into the air to lash the ball past Jussi Jaaskelainen with his unheralded right foot.

"The ball was cleared with a header and I kept my eye on it and hoped for the best and luckily enough it ended up in the net.

"I don't hit too many that sweetly. It's my first Premier League goal so that's nice. It was a good goal but unfortunately not enough to win the game.

"Everybody is very disappointed."

Hammers manager Alan Curbishley was equally deflated, accusing his side of failing to show the "professionalism" needed to kill the game off.

"I think we lost two points. Whatever way you get to the 94th minute you should see the game out," said the Irons boss, who lamented Matty Etherington's decision to cross the ball twice into the Bolton penalty area deep in stoppage-time.

"In the last 10 minutes I found myself looking at us and felt we were a goal down.

"We were breaking forward and crossing balls into the box when there was no need for it.

"Perhaps we needed a little bit of professionalism and one or two of them to get their foot on it and kill the game off.

"With 90 seconds to go we've crossed the ball twice and got four or five men in the box when we should have run it into the corner.

"If it had been Bolton I think El Hadji Diouf would have run it into the corner, attracted a foul and that would have been it.

"So we're very disappointed."

McCartney agreed with his manager's suggestion that his team-mates should have taken better care of the ball in the closing stages.

"We had the ball up in the corner and tried to cross it into the box a couple of times when maybe we should have just kept it there, and in the end we were punished for it," he added.

While Curbishley was clearly angry with his players' inability to hold on to their lead, he still found time to praise Megson's side.

"I give Bolton a lot of credit because from the moment we scored they upped it and got themselves back in it and we never looked like getting that second goal we needed," he added.

"In the end we've been done, but in the 94th minute you've got to hold on.

"If we had come away with the extra two points we'd have found ourselves in the top half and the Carling Cup quarter-finals."

Bolton boss Megson, who has yet to taste victory since replacing Sammy Lee last month, was pleased with his side's never-say-die attitude.

"I think the way we kept going and created quite a few chances late into the game means this was a fair result," he said.