Bruce rocked by Wigan's woeful defending as Megson's Bolton hit the goal trail

After seeing Titus Bramble gift Manchester City a goal within 30 seconds of his first game in charge, Bruce looked on in horror at the Reebok as his side produced a defensive performance of suicidal proportions to slip further into the bottom three of the Barclays Premier League.

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One point from 10 games tells its own story, and a despondent Bruce admitted he will be helpless to save his new club from relegation while the players remain intent on self-destruction.

The game was only three minutes old when Paul Scharner headed into his own goal, the prelude to a string of defensive blunders that helped Bolton to boost their own hopes of survival.

Only Nicolas Anelka's failure from the penalty spot spared them an even heavier defeat.

"You can't play in this league and make individual errors like that," said Bruce.

"You've got to give yourselves a chance. We made an unbelieveable one last week and we've done the same again today.

"As a manager you can't account for those errors — we have to eradicate them. If we're going to stay in this league, we've got to change it around very quickly."

That it was Scharner who started the rot will not have helped Bruce's mood, considering his comments about the new manager's long-ball tactics last week.

Only the Austrian knows what was going through his mind when, under little presure, he headed El Hadji Diouf's cross past Chris Kirkland.

Fortunately for Scharner, Wigan did not have a monopoly on comical defending.

When Antonio Valencia crossed low from the right after 14 minutes, Abdoulaye Meite decided it would be a good idea to back heel the ball straight into the path of Denny Landzaat who gratefully placed his shot past Jussi Jaaskelainen for the equaliser.

Anelka, who appeared to play the opening quarter with his head in the clouds, tried to put the ball there as well when he spooned his penalty over the bar after Andreas Granqvist handled Danny Guthrie's shot in the area — the first of several mistakes by the Swede.

It was an awful attempt by the usually reliable Anelka but, as Megson pointed out, only increased the chances of the Frenchman finding the target later on.

"Nothing fazes him," said the Bolton boss.

"To a normal type of player it would be vital but Nicolas knows he will score if the chances keep coming along."

And so it proved, but not before he had helped restore the lead eight minutes before half-time.

Jason Koumas lost possession and the impressive Nicky Hunt slid a pass into the box where Granqvist's unconvincing challenge on Anelka only succeeded in diverting the ball to Kevin Nolan to score from close-range.

It was only the second time Bolton had scored more than once in a League game all season.

The contest turned on a spell early in the second half when Wigan forced seven corners but failed to beat Jaaskelainen, who saved brilliantly from Marcus Bent and then saw Emile Heskey head over from a similar position.

And they were once again punished for sloppy defending when Diouf floated in a free kick after 70th minutes, Kevin Davies ghosting in between Granqvist and Bramble to turn the ball past Kirkland.

"Just when we were getting back into the game and needed to score, we've just not picked up from a set-piece and it's in the back of the net," Bruce lamented. "Game over."

Anelka then got to atone for his earlier miss when Ivan Campo's sublime pass released Davies down the right late on.

He played the ball in and Nolan let it run for Anelka who was waiting to pounce at the far post.

"I don't know if 4-1 flattered us but we missed a penalty and numerous other chances," said Megson, who made nine changes to the side that beat Red Star Belgrade on Thursday and certainly reaped the benefit of leaving Anelka, Davies and Nolan at home.

On the brink of qualifying for the last 32 of the UEFA Cup and up to 14th place in the table, Megson could be forgiven for hitting back at the critics who greeted his arrival as Sammy Lee's replacement with such derision.

But he is not one to get carried away, even with the 'Ginger Mourinho' chorus ringing in his ears.

"It's nice because it wasn't like that six weeks ago," he said.

"But the fans are reacting to what the players are doing, not me. It's not a popularity contest."