Bolton's first-half blitz spoils Stoke celebrations at return to top flight

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Bolton 3 Stoke 1

For the opening 33 minutes, last season's Championship runners-up were living up to Gary Megson's pre-match assertion that the side he was coaching for free while out of work this time last year would be 'as organised and difficult to beat' as most teams in the Premier League.

Using his head: Kevin Davies puts Bolton two up.

But after falling behind to a spectacular strike from Gretar Steinsson, Stoke panicked and gifted Bolton two more goals in the final four minutes of the first half.

Kevin Davies was allowed to get between three defenders to beat Thomas Sorensen with a backward header from Gary Cahill's 41st-minute free-kick. And Stoke's entire rearguard were guilty of ball-watching as £11million record signing Johan Elmander nipped in to convert an unchallenged header from Joey O'Brien's free-kick.

There was never going to be any way back for Stoke as Bolton clicked into cruise control in the second-half. But they at least had the last word by way of an injury-time consolation goal from substitute Ricardo Fuller.

Stoke boss Tony Pulis said: 'We had done smashing for the first 25 minutes until we got hit with a goal out of nothing.

'But then we dropped our heads a bit and were punished for some naive defending from set plays.

'You can't afford to switch off and give opposition that amount of time and space and it was hard to believe we were 3-0 down going into the dressing-room after having such a large majority of the game.'

Delighted Megson admitted he would be 'hard-pressed' not to be pleased with his players. But he remained adamant Stoke would still prove a hard nut to crack this season. 'The first goal was always going to be important today and I'm not sure whether Gretar meant to score,' he said.

'If he hit it on purpose it was a fantastic goal. If not it was nice for a bit of luck to go our way because it was what we needed. We've made a huge number of changes on and off the field during the close season so it was very pleasing things went so well today.'