The hosts had looked to build on morale boosting draws against West Ham United and Bayern Munich and in the first ten minutes of the game the signs had looked good for Gary Megson's side.

Unfortunately the spark soon went out of the game if indeed it was in the game to begin with, and both sides cancelled one another out with Bolton marginally the better side having created more chances and held possession better.

Wanderers where without two of the most influential players with Nicolas Anelka still out injured and El-Hadji Diouf sitting out the game owing to a one match suspension, so Megson had to shuffle the side for what was his fourth game in charge since making the contraversial move from Leicester City last month.

On eight minutes Bolton warmed up the crowd at the freezing cold Reebok when Munich hero Kevin Davies showed great determination down the left to set up midfielder Gavin McCann but the ex-Aston Villa and Sunderland man screwed his shot wide without troubling Boro keeper Mark Schwarzer.

One stand out positive from today's game was the continued emergence of on-loan midfielder Danny Guthrie who must have covered every blade of grass to help the Wanderers cause.

Bolton where down to ten men just fifteen minutes in when McCann was required to go off the field to get surgery on a head wound picked up when clashing with his opponent George Boateng.

During that time Bolton thought they had taken the lead through a Gary Speed free kick but the ball had actually hit the stantion behind the goal before hitting the net meaning celebrations amongst home sections of the crowd where premature.

McCann was missing from the field for a good few minutes but the Wanderers did well to cope with what little Boro had to throw at them and where in no way decimated by the numerical advantage that the hosts had.

Middlesbrough had been forced into a premature change on the half hour when the injured left back Andrew Taylor was replaced by Emmanuel Pogatetz who himself was returning from injury.

Pogatetz, due to his robust style and confrontation with Kevin Davies from a couple of seasons ago, encurred the wrath of the Wanderers crowd but rolled up his sleeves nonetheless for what was a dogged yet unspectacular showing from the Teesiders who now sit just above Bolton in the Premier League table.

On the stroke of half time Davies nearly nets his second goal of the season and second in a week for Bolton when latching onto a lay off from Kevin Nolan but despite having power behind the shot, the forward could not test Schwarzer.

The second half saw Middlesbrough show a little bit more in the way of going forward but even so the travelling North East contingent will not have been happy at the performance of their side.

Five minutes after the restart young midfielder Lee Cattermole had the first real Boro effort on goal all afternoon but it did little to trouble Wanderers keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen who saw the ball safely wide.

On the hour the Wanderers should have found themselves a goal to the good but Ivan Campo prodded the ball wide after some good interplay by lone striker Davies.

McCann fired over for Bolton soonafter as both sides desperately looked for the elusive opening goal and Jaaskelainen was forced into his first save of the game on 71 minutes when beating away a shot from French forward Jeremie Aliadiere.

Boro's England winger Stewart Downing saw his free kick safely gathered by Bolton's Jaaskelainen and Schwarzer in the opposing goal had little to do when coming up against an Ivan Campo header and another McCann effort from distance.

All in all it wasn't a game to remember and now both sides go into the international break wondering what might have been for altogether different reasons.

Bolton return to action in two weeks to face local rivals Manchester United at the Reebok Stadium and then this will be followed by a home tie against Greek side Aris Thessaloniki in the UEFA Cup some days later.

BOLTON WANDERERS: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Ricardo Gardner, Andy O'Brien, Abdoulaye Meite, Gerald Cid, Danny Guthrie, Gavin McCann, Ivan Campo, Kevin Nolan (Stelios Giannakopoulos), Gary Speed (Andranik Teimourian), Kevin Davies

SUBS NOT USED: Daniel Braaten, Lubomir Michalik, Ali Al-Habsi (GK)

MIDDLESBROUGH: Mark Schwarzer, Luke Young, Chris Riggott, David Wheater, Andrew Taylor (Emmanuel Pogatetz), Gary O'Neil, George Boateng, Lee Cattermole, Stewart Downing, Sanli Tuncay (Benjamin Hutchinson), Jeremie Aliadiere

SUBS NOT USED: Lee Dong-Gook,  Mohammed Shawky, Ross Turnbull (GK)

ATTENDANCE:

17,624

REFEREE:

Lee Probert

BOOKED:

Nolan (Bolton)

Wheater (Boro)

Young (Boro)

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

• Think you know your sport? Click here to try the Sportnetwork Prize Quizzes