Megson bows to a genius but aims to survive

Bolton succumbed to their fifth successive League defeat with Ronaldo's first-half double and are two points adrift of safety with eight games to play, starting against Manchester City on Saturday.

With their own match-winner Nicolas Anelka a fading memory, Bolton must trust their salvation to plenty of good, honest toil — or putting a shift in, as manager Megson would have it.

He said: "There is cause for optimism if we reproduce our second-half performance in our remaining games. We had more shots than in most away games we've played. We have to do it every time."

By the second half, Bolton's hopes were as good as sunk "by probably the best player in the world," as Megson conceded of the Portuguese maestro.

He said: "We have been done by two set-pieces. The first one we were sloppy, the second was genius.

"Our lads were talking about that free-kick in the dressing-room. We've seen him do that twice now and after discussing it the upshot is that we still don't know how he does it. A fantastic strike."

Abdoulaye Meite, back in the side for the injured Gary Cahill, was involved in both United goals. His error allowed Carlos Tevez and Ronaldo to combine for the first and he fouled Ronaldo for the second.

Megson was buoyed by Danny Guthrie's lively midfield performance as well as a masterclass in goal from Ali Al Habsi, who has stepped up seamlessly for injured first choice Jussi Jaaskelainen.

He said: "When everybody else was doom and gloom about Jussi, we all knew what Ali has been doing in training every day. He's a terrific lad who's never let us down."

Doom and gloom still hovers, however. As Bolton face the threat of relegation, it begs the question of where they would be had they managed to hold on to Anelka — or at least signed a replacement.

It was Anelka who scored the winning goal against United at the Reebok in November, one of the France striker's 11 goals before his £15million move to Chelsea.

The bulk of the cash was made available for Megson to try to find a decent striker but Javier Saviola elected to stay at Real Madrid and Johan Elmander was too expensive at a ludicrous £22m.

Bolton have only once scored more than one goal in their 16 games since — 2-0 at Reading, their last League win on February 2 — and they failed to score in nine of those matches.

Despite the manner in which they handed Ronaldo his chances, defending has not been the problem as Bolton have rallied with Megson's arrival then slumped over the last weeks.

Megson said: "When I came here we had five points from 10 games. We know what we have to do, roll our sleeves up and run and work hard. All the things you have to do at the other end of the table as well."