MORE gloom and doom for Leeds. If he watched this game, you do wonder whether their potential saviour, the billionaire Sheikh Al Khalifa Mubarak, would put in his reputed £65m. Since the debt is £78m and relegation from the Premiership now more of a probability than a possibility, there is room for doubt.

Yesterday, it is true, Leeds lacked the lively presence in attack of Alan Smith. He was sent home by England this month having thrown a bottle back into the crowd, though the police have now decided not to proceed. Yesterday, he was suspended anyway. But Jody Morris, charged with rape, started the game.

Bolton hardly had to be very good to win. Certainly nothing near as good as one had seen them recently at Tottenham, where their gifted Nigerian, Jay-Jay Okocha, dominated the game, hitting the bar three times. At Elland Road, he hardly seemed to be extending himself any more than did his team in an increasingly pedestrian second half. All Leeds could say to console themselves was that more than 36,000 loyal fans showed up. Many, inevitably, were leaving before the end.

Bolton played a flexible formation with only Kevin Davies up front, though he was frequently and quickly reinforced, not least by the talented and confident Greek midfielder, Stelios Giannakopoulos. It was enough to penetrate Leeds’s shaky and brittle defenders.

And yet Leeds might have gone ahead as early as the 11th minute. Their lively and versatile striker, Lamine Sakho — usually a midfielder — chased a long ball up the left with the Bolton defence at sea. Out of his goal rushed the Finnish keeper, Juski Jaaskelainen, as a kind of subsidiary right-back, to challenge Sakho. Sakho went past him, but the angle was too difficult, he could only play the ball across the goal and it was cleared.

So, in the 17th and 18th minutes, Bolton scored their goals. First, when Ricardo Gardner crossed from the left, Michael Duberry’s header went straight to Davies, who promptly beat Paul Robinson.

The second goal was engineered by Davies when, with surprising facility, he made his way in from the right, to give Giannakopoulos an easy opportunity.

Bolton’s delighted manager, Sam Allardyce, said afterwards: “I said before today’s game that beating Leeds United would be more important than beating Manchester United on January 7. Beating a team below you takes the pressure off yourselves and your players. Two very quick goals knocked the stuffing out of Leeds United.

“We made life difficult first and foremost for Leeds just to see what they had to offer. Then we started probing. I think we got to the finishing stage very well, but our quality of ball was eluding us. When it got better, we got those two very quick goals.”

He was particularly happy with his “back five”, thrown together in the absence of regular defenders, with a couple of full-backs, Bruno N’Gotty and Simon Charlton, in the central positions.

Having found the range and scored their goals, Bolton continued to attack. In far too much space, Giannakopoulos came down the left and gave the Dane Per Frandsen the chance of a shot, which Robinson dived to save.

By Allardyce’s own admission, Bolton in the second half were largely concerned with shutting up shop, which, he admitted, might have been boring, but was exactly what he wanted.

Now and again, there was the illusion of a Leeds goal. Thus, on 51 minutes, after an error by Frandsen, Ian Harte put the ball into the box and Jaaskelainen had to dive boldly at the feet of Mark Viduka. Frandsen himself on 64 minutes had a long drive turned round the post by Robinson and, five minutes after that, a long cross by the promising young Leeds right flanker, James Milner, who deserves to be playing in a better team, was met by the head of Viduka, Jaaskelainen blocking with some difficulty.

Nicky Barmby came on as a Leeds substitute and did have a header saved. Right at the end, Ivan Campo could have set up a goal with a better through pass, and almost made contact on the left with a long cross from Davies.

Eddie Gray, temporarily the manager, once such a star at Elland Road, was predictably “disappointed”. He said: “There’s definitely a lack of confidence. We’re just making it too easy for teams to play”.

Leeds United: Robinson, Camara, Duberry, Radebe, Harte, Milner, Morris (Barmby 76min), Batty (Chapuis h-t), Johnson (Olembe 76min), Viduka, Sakho

Bolton Wanderers: Jaaskelainen, Hunt, N’Gotty, Charlton, Gardner, Campo, Nolan, Frandsen, Okocha, Giannakopoulos, Davies

Scorers: Bolton Wanderers: Davies 17, Giannakopoulos 18

Referee: G Poll

Attendance: 36,558

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