Rooney netted his first ever Premiership hat trick and a further goal from the returning Cristiano Ronaldo ensured that United went back to the top of the league table having been briefly overtaken by Chelsea for a few hours earlier in the day.

The visitors started the game at an electrifying pace and Wanderers keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen had to be alert early on to stop French full back Patrice Evra from claiming his first goal in United colours.

Abdoulaye Faye then came to Bolton's rescue as he headed an awkward shot from Louis Saha off the line. The former Fulham man had made his way into the danger zone but Faye showed good defensive ability to stop the striker from opening the scoring.

The first goal of the game wasn't too long in waiting though as United made the breakthrough in the tenth minute after Rooney had ghosted in between the unsuspecting Abdoulaye Meite and Nicky Hunt to fire the ball past Jaaskelainen.

Jaaskelainen was on hand to rescue Bolton again moments later as he saved at the feet of Ryan Giggs after initially spilling the first shot from United winger Ronaldo.

Just after the quarter hour mark the Mancunians increased their lead when Rooney curled in a shot from the edge of the area which snook into Jaaskelainen's bottom left corner.

Gary Neville had outbattled Wanderers left back Tal Ben-Haim down the right and the ball fell kindly to the England forward who was given time to produce the shot on goal.

On 24 minutes Bolton managed to get their first clear cut shot on goal when veteran Gary Speed fired in a low free kick which sailed inches wide of Edwin Van Der Sar's post.

Six minutes later Saha saw his deflected effort from range clip the woodwork but Bolton nearly had an unlikely goalscorer in their midst at the other end of the field as defender Ben-Haim fired in a powerful shot from the edge of the area.

Nicolas Anelka fired a half chance over the top for Bolton as the half came to a close whilst Ryan Giggs showed great technique for United with a shot which forced Jaaskelainen into making another excellent save.

Bolton came into the game much more in the second half and where beginning to show the type of qualities which had seen them previously unbeaten at the Reebok all season.

Anelka saw his curling free kick dip just over Van Der Sar's crossbar and Diouf was also pushing and probing in an attempt to get the Trotters back into the contest.

However United had a glorious chance to kill the game off with just under a quarter of an hour to play when Saha made his way into the box after linking up well with Rooney.

Once again though Jaaskelainen got down bravely to save the ball with his feet and deny United the chance of a third goal which was to eventually come in the final ten minutes

Faye slipped on the turf to allow Saha a clear run down the right wing and the French ace subsequently slipped the ball through to Ronaldo who had the easy task of putting the ball into the empty net

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Rooney sealed the win in the final minute after collecting a pass from substitute Darren Fletcher to give United their second win in succession at the Reebok Stadium

Wanderers must now pick themselves up for the next game which is at home against Wigan Athletic a week from now

Bolton Wanderers: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Nicky Hunt (Henrik Pedersen), Abdoulaye Meite, Abdoulaye Faye, Tal Ben-Haim, Stelios Giannakopoulos (Idan Tal), Ivan Campo, Gary Speed, Kevin Davies (Johann Smith), Nicolas Anelka, El-Hadji Diouf

Subs Not Used: Ricardo Vaz-Te, Ian Walker

Manchester United: Edwin Van Der Sar, Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra (Gabriel Heinze), Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Scholes, Michael Carrick, Ryan Giggs (Darren Fletcher), Wayne Rooney, Louis Saha (John O'Shea)

Subs Not Used: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Tomasz Kuszczak

Referee:

Rob Styles

Attendance:

27,229

Booked:

Kevin Davies (Bolton)

Paul Scholes (United)

John O'Shea (United)

Tal Ben-Haim (Bolton)

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