Bolton 2 Sunderland 0
Scorers: Diouf (42m), Murphy (83m og)
Reebok Stadium
Attendance: 25,053
Barclays Premier League
Saturday May 3, 2008

The Lads' poor record away from home this season came to an end, as two goals from Bolton saw us lose our final away game of the campaign.

Roy Keane made just one change from the side that beat Middlesbrough last weekend - Jonny Evans replaced Carlos Edwards, with the ensuing reshuffle seeing Dean Whitehead return to central midfield, and Nyron Nosworthy at his old position of right back.

Sunderland were never at the races as Bolton, who needed a win to all but secure their top flight spot for next season, attacked us at every opportunity. We were given early scares from free kicks in the first and second minutes, while our rare moments on the ball came to an end because of bad passing.

Danny Higginbotham headed a cross clear that was destined for El Hadji Diouf on 16 minutes, before more crosses from the Trotters either went straight at Craig Gordon, or just too far away from their intended target.

Bolton relied a lot on long balls, with one of them forcing Gordon to race out of his box to head the ball well into the stand as our back line looked static. Meanwhile, our best chance of the first half came on the half hour mark, when Kenwyne Jones headed straight at Ali Al Habsi following a cross from Liam Miller.

The hosts took the lead shortly before half time when Diouf, playing his last home game for Bolton, received Kevin Nolan's cross before firing across goal and into the roof of the net.

We didn't rebound well in the second half, and on the hour mark Roy Keane hauled off three players, with Roy O'Donovan, Daryl Murphy and Grant Leadbitter replacing Michael Chopra, Nyron Nosworthy and Liam Miller. That didn't work wonders, as our best effort of the second half also fell to Jones, this time with the striker hitting an airshot on 70 minutes as the ball was just deflected away from him.

Bolton sealed the win with eight minutes to go, and the supposed hero of last week became the villain, when Daryl Murphy headed Matthew Taylor's cross past Gordon and into his own net.

In the end, the Lads simply didn't turn up, and as a result the defeat at the Reebok was deserved. Thank God we didn't need this result to secure our safety!

Sunderland: Gordon, Nosworthy (sub 61, Murphy), Evans, Higginbotham, Collins, Miller (sub 61, Leadbitter), Whitehead, K Richardson, Reid, Chopra (sub 62, O'Donovan), Jones. Subs: Fulop, Yorke.

Bolton: Al Habsi, Samuel, Cahill, A O'Brien, Steinsson, Taylor, Guthrie, Nolan, McCann, Davies, Diouf. Subs: Walker, Stelios, Meite, Cohen, Rasiak.