Last weekend's defeat at Blackburn Rovers was somewhat unlucky for Bolton when you consider the effort that the side put in, but there was no complaints this lunchtime as Liverpool celebrated their first win at the Reebok since 2002.

Throughout the game the Merseysiders passed the ball around better, kept possession better and generally used their superiority in fitness to keep Bolton nervously looking over their shoulder at the Premier League's bottom three.

Bolton's performance left more questions than answers, they are a shadow of the side from the last few seasons and that is not just solely down to the departure of Sam Allardyce as manager.

The first half saw a few Bolton chances but once Liverpool had taken the lead in bizarre fashion in the tenth minute the general feel was it was going to be another long afternoon.

A sign of Liverpool's intentions came within the opening minute when Fernando Torres outfoxed the usually reliable Andy O'Brien for a taste of what was to come.

Torres and winger Ryan Babel used their pace to good effect throughout the afternoon and in the case of the Dutch midfielder he gave Wanderers defender Gretar Steinsson a torrid time down the flanks.

Bolton had the first chance in the fourth minute through a free kick from the ex-Liverpool record signing and current Wanderers crowd favourite El-Hadji Diouf but despite the bounce of the ball confusing everyone including the goalkeeper Jose Reina, the crossbar came to the Reds rescue.

Four minutes later Diouf was unlucky again, this time after a ball from the left was headed back across goal by Joey O'Brien and just past the Senegal star.

On ten minutes Liverpool took the lead in the most bizarre of circumstances. England regular Steven Gerrard fired in a tame shot by his standard which appeared to be going wide only for Bolton stopper Jussi Jaaskelainen to try and save the ball.

The shot spun up off the Wanderers keeper, off his back and trickled over the goalline and from then on it appeared the Wanderers luck would once again be out.

Jaaskelainen went some way to making amends from his earlier mistake on the eighteenth minute when producing a fine save from Babel after the youngster had outwitted his marker Steinsson.

Babel was having a lot of joy down the left hand flank and this effort was to be one of a few for the one time graduate of the Ajax Academy.

Bolton still had one or two irons in the fire but they knew that it would take something special to bring them back into the game and tame Liverpool.

One such attempt came on 26 minutes when skipper Kevin Nolan delivered a beautiful left wing cross into the area for striker Kevin Davies to head goalwards but goalkeeper Reina did well to make the save.

Dangerman Torres was put through in a one on one situation by Xabi Alonso on the half hour but Jaaskelainen raced off his line to deny the former Atletico Madrid ace.

It was a similar story seven minutes later, this time Gerrard fed Babel and Jaaskelainen, with the aid of defender Gary Cahill, denied Liverpool a second goal.

Both players clattered into each other in order to prevent a goal and momentarily needed attention with Jaaskelainen seemingly coming off worst but both players got up and carried on unscathed.

The same could not be said for Steinsson though as his miserable afternoon was complete five minutes before half time when he had to leave the field after picking up a knock.

On-loan striker Grzegorz Rasiak came into play in a switch which saw the Pole go up front, Matthew Taylor drop back into midfield and Joey O'Brien replace Steinsson in defence.

Rasiak wasted no time in making his mark on the game when tangling with Alonso and he was immediately cautioned for going in with high feet on the brother of Bolton midfielder Mikel Alonso.

The two sets of players surrounded the big target man and referee Phil Dowd in order to put across their case for a free kick but Staffordshire official Dowd did well to restore order.

After half time things went from bad to worse for Bolton, Nolan was replaced by Tamir Cohen and Liverpool continued to press early in the second half.

An acrobatic effort by Sami Hyypia was a sign of more goals and on the hour the second goal came thanks largely to some rather generous Wanderers defending.

Dirk Kuyt, playing in a deeper role for the visitors, was given time and space to shoot and his effort off the post was diverted into the path of Babel by Bolton's Cahill.

Babel, who had caused Bolton a lot of problems all afternoon, fired in a shot from the tightest of angle's low down at Jaaskelainen's right post to more or less sow the game up.

Bolton could not get the possession and where wary of putting in the challenges needed to bring themselves back into the game and even when they did have a rare attempt at goal it went horribly wrong as was demonstrated with Kevin Davies feeble effort later in the second half.

Liverpool made the game safe with just fifteen minutes to play when left back Fabio Aurelio scored his first goal for the club with an unstoppable volley past Jaaskelainen from the edge of the area.

The Brazilian had shown good control and technique to fire the ball into the back of the net and in fairness to Jaaskelainen there was very little he could do to prevent it.

With ten minutes to go a diving header by substitute Cohen from a Matt Taylor corner gave Bolton something to shout about but all in all it was a game to forget as far as the Trotters where concerned.

Next up for Bolton is a two legged tie against Sporting Lisbon in the UEFA Cup and this will be followed by local away trips to Wigan Athletic and Manchester United, the latter subject to results in the FA Cup next weekend.

BOLTON WANDERERS: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Gretar Steinsson (Grzegorz Rasiak), Gary Cahill, Andy O'Brien, Ricardo Gardner, Joey O'Brien, Ivan Campo, Kevin Nolan (Tamir Cohen), El-Hadji Diouf, Kevin Davies, Matthew Taylor

SUBS NOT USED: Abdoulaye Meite, Stelios Giannakopoulos, Ali Al-Habsi (GK)

LIVERPOOL: Jose Reina, Jamie Carragher, Martin Skrtel, Sami Hyypia, Fabio Aurelio, Dirk Kuyt (Alvaro Arbeloa), Steven Gerrard, Javier Mascherano, Xabi Alonso, Ryan Babel, Fernando Torres (John Arne Riise)

SUBS NOT USED: Yossi Benayoun, Peter Crouch, David Martin (GK)

ATTENDANCE:

24,004

REFEREE:

Phil Dowd

BOOKED:

Hyppia (Liverpool)

Rasiak (Bolton)

Davies (Bolton)

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