It was a tad harsh on the Wanderers who had showed lots of spirit and character to come from 3-1 down and bring themselves back into the game thanks to goals in the second half from Jay-Jay Okocha and Radhi Jaidi.

The opening minutes saw the visitors start the brighter of the two sides as Stelios Giannakopoulos put Bolton in front in the third minute with his twelvth goal of the season when firing a powerful shot past Mark Schwarzer in the Boro goal.

Any celebrations didn't last too long for the Trotters though as Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink levelled matters from the spot just three minutes later after young full back Joey O'Brien had handballed in the area.

Goalkeeper Schwarzer then pulled off two top class saves to deny Bolton from taking the lead once more. Firstly, the Australian international moved well to keep out Gary Speed's low free kick and then later followed this up by tipping away Jay-Jay Okocha's goalbound drive.

On 24 minutes Mark Viduka missed a good chance for Boro when firing straight at the legs of Wanderers keeper Jaaskelainen after full back Stuart Parnaby had delivered a testing ball into the danger area.

The former Leeds United and Celtic striker made amends for the miss just a few minutes later when putting Boro back into the acendensy after some marvellous build up play by strike partner Hasselbaink and midfielder Fabio Rochemback.

By this point Boro where gaining a foothold on the game both in terms of their possessional play and chances created but the Wanderers found themselves by no means out of the contest.

Nine minutes before the break veteran defender Ugo Ehiogu had to be alert to head the ball over his own crossbar after Bolton's in-form midfielder Okocha had fired an awkward shot into the ground.

Boro could so easily have been three goals in front at the interval but Viduka's shot from the edge of the box was parried well by Jaaskelainen whilst youngster James Morrison could not keep his shot from distance on target.

The hosts did manage to force home a third goal though as Hasselbaink netted his second of the afternoon with the final forty five minutes just over a minute old.

Viduka laid the ball off with his chest thus presenting the former Chelsea favourite Hasselbaink with a chance to lift the ball over Bolton keeper Jaaskelainen who had strayed out of position.

The strike pair had been working well in tandem all afternoon and the Boro midfield was too cluttered to allow the likes of Kevin Nolan and company to play their natural game.

Bolton to their credit kept going and their efforts where rewarded two minutes before the hour mark as the hard working Okocha converted a penalty at the second time of asking.

A minute later Howard Webb cautioned goalkeeper Jaaskelainen for clumisly handling the ball just outside the box. Ironically the Big Finn was sent off during the last meeting at the Riverside for a foul on Hasselbaink in the closing moments.

Both sides continued to look lively and a Bolton equaliser was now very much in the offing following Okocha's goal. Boro too could have also registered more goals in the tie as top scorer Yakubu was brought on in place of goal hero Hasselbaink.

Nine minutes from the end the Wanderers looked to have snatched a share of the points as defender Radhi Jaidi rose well to convert a left wing cross by Ricardo Gardner but the game swayed the way of the Boro in injury time as Parnaby reacted first to a cross from substitute Yakubu.

Bolton must now play the top three in the next few weeks with Manchester United and Chelsea both due at the Reebok Stadium in April

Bolton Wanderers: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Joey O'Brien, Tal Ben-Haim, Radhi Jaidi, Ricardo Gardner, Kevin Nolan (Hidetoshi Nakata), Jay-Jay Okocha, Gary Speed (Abdoulaye Faye), Stelios Giannakopoulos, Kevin Davies, Henrik Pedersen (Jared Borgetti)

Subs Not Used: Ian Walker, El-Hadji Diouf

Middlesbrough: Mark Schwarzer, Andrew Davies, Ugo Ehiogu, Franck Queudrue, Stuart Parnaby, James Morrison (Lee Cattermole), George Boateng, Fabio Rochemback (Stewart Downing), Emmanuel Pogatetz, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (Yakubu Ayegbeni), Mark Viduka

Subs Not Used: Brad Jones, Gaizka Mendieta

Referee:

Howard Webb

Attendance:

25,971

Booked:

Stelios Giannakopoulos (Bolton)

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (Middlesbrough)

Jussi Jaaskelainen (Bolton)

Emmanuel Pogatetz (Middlesbrough)

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