Manchester United 3-0 Bolton Wanderers

A Bolton result at Old Trafford would have been an optimistic hope. The stats were never in our favor and United had a point to prove. The Bolton fans would have been pleased with a good performance from the Men in White more than anything. A strong performance and results going in our favor anyway. The scoreline was 3-0 at full time but a gutsy Bolton first half and strong performance for much of the second half was the real story for Trotters fans.

Zatyiah Knight once again put in some lazy defending for Bolton as he was entirely at fault for Manchester United's penalty in the first half. While covering Danny Welbeck, he essentially jogged back and when the ball beat him, the only thing he could really do was pull Welbeck down from behind. Knight was lucky to have not been sent off, walking away with only a yellow card. Wayne Rooney stood over the penalty spot and that was when Adam Bogdan decided to put on his big boy bright orange keeper kit and pull out a fantastic diving stop to deny the United forward.

Bolton's defensive heroics weren't to last though as United managed to score three times. The first came from Paul Scholes after a cross (that Danny Welbeck whiffed on) found its way to the ginger who put it home on the stroke of halftime. The second featured more lazy defending by Knight when a good through ball from Rooney found Welbeck while the 6'6 defender had gone into hiding. The third and final goal was from Michael Carrick who glided into the bottom corner of the net from distance.

Adam Bogdan kept Bolton in it with his five saves that included the penalty stop. That figure doesn't count all of the times that Bogdan came out of goal to gather a number of Antonio Valencia crosses from the left side. Gretar Steinsson came closest to scoring for Bolton in the 68th minute when he sent a glancing header to the far post, having Anders Lindegaard completely beaten. Luckily for United, Rafel was there on the line to block the shot.

Results in other matches weren't the best possible thing but they also weren't the worst as Wolves pulled out a point at White Hart Lane and Blackburn managed a 3-1 win at Ewood Park against Everton. As things stand, Bolton are in 19th place on 16 points with QPR now in the drop zone on 17 points and Blackburn ahead of them in 17th place on goal differential. Wolves are in 16th place on 18 points. Relative safety is still just one point away. At the moment, QPR have a game in hand but will play Newcastle away tomorrow while Wigan take on Manchester City at the DW Stadium on Monday.