EPL: Bolton vs. Liverpool

For most Barclay's Premier League sides this season, a trip to Bolton has been just what the doctor ordered. Bolton has been mired in the bottom 3 for a good portion of the season and has been especially dismal at the Reebok. On top of that, they had just completed the sale of one of their best players in Gary Cahill. Unfortunately for Liverpool, they couldn't take advantage of these circumstances, as Wanderers pretty much outplayed them from the opening whistle.

The biggest problem the Reds had that day was a Swiss cheese defense. The Bolton attack just had their way with the Liverpool back line and Pepe Reina pretty much had no chance. In just the 4th minute of the match, Mark Davies made the sleeping Liverpool defenders look like traffic cones as he weaved his way in and hammered home the first goal of the match to make it 1-0.

Liverpool didn't respond either as Bolton continued to dictate the terms of the match. The Reds pretty much looked dazed. Jordan Henderson finally succeeded in working the Bolton 'keeper on 18 minutes, but they couldn't snatch any momentum at all. Finally in the 29th minute Nigel Reo-Coker found even more holes in the Liverpool defense and scored again for Bolton making it 2-0 to Wanderers.

After that Liverpool finally woke up a little bit, at least on offense. Craig Bellamy, who has been Liverpool's brightest spot in recent matches, forced another save out of Adam Bogdan in the 35th minute, In the very next minute long absent Andy Carroll sent in a nice ball to Bellamy which he just managed to squeeze by Bogdan into the net to make it 2-1 going into half time.

That's about all the Reds fans had to cheer about though as Bolton continued to hold proceedings in the second half. In minute 50 Gretar Steinsson scored a third for Bolton off of a corner to make it 3-1.

It didn't quite kill the game off. but it came close. Liverpool had a smattering of chances in the second half. Daniel Agger came closest in the 71st minute by cracking a shot off of the cross bar. Andy Carroll continued his dismal offensive output by missing at least two chances, and Bolton held on for the 3-1 win on what was arguably one of their finest hours of the season.

For Liverpool, it was obviously one of their worst.

GRETAR STEINSSON & CHRIS EAGLES CELEBRATE (PremierLeague.com)