The banner in the away end read “United & England”, but Sir Alex Ferguson’s team proved no greater than the national side, and Bolton deserved to profit. This was a performance that could have belonged to the Sam Allardyce era: organised, resilient, testy, but with outbreaks of craft. In one of these Nicolas Anelka scored on his return from injury. But United were complicit and, just like England, paid for a rookie player’s mistake.

Gerard Pique succumbed to a lapse in judgment that can affect the inexperienced. Anelka scored when Pique missed the ball while attempting to head clear and the Spaniard was substituted early in the second half so that Wes Brown could move alongside Rio Ferdinand. The switch had to be done by remote control. Ferguson was telephoning orders to his dugout after being sent to the stand.

Anelka did little else bar score, but his firepower is precious to Bolton, who have relied on him for seven of their 12 league goals. Ferguson, said to covet the Frenchman, yearned for a finisher, with Wayne Rooney injured, Louis Saha there in body but not spirit and Cristiano Ronaldo, his top scorer, omitted after two gruelling appearances for Portugal.

Carlos Tevez who had a chance to equalise late, missed embarrassingly. Patrice Evra played an exceptional ball that flashed across the six-yard box, but Tevez, spitting distance from the back of the net, turned his body too much in his effort to angle the ball home and directed it past the far post.

Not until Anderson came on when Pique was withdrawn there was penetration in United’s passing or fluency in their midfield play, but champions should not have to rely on a teenager to transform them. Bolton often had the better shape, which was testimony to Gary Megson and to the man essential to his game-plan, Ivan Campo.

Campo is such a cult hero there is a local indie band named after him. Sammy Lee dropped the Spaniard, but he has a place in Megson’s team and brings to it a calmness and positional sense invaluable for tests such as these. Bolton had a free kick 40 yards out after 11 minutes, and though United’s box was crowded, Campo was able to pick out Kevin Davies with a chip struck with the gentle smoothness of a lob wedge on to the green. Davies used his bulk to pin Evra back, Pique went to intervene and missed; Anelka scored.

Campo was Megson’s anchor in a midfield designed for containment and counter-attack. Davies and El Hadji Diouf were the wide men, but though both are notionally forwards, they spent much of the afternoon as auxiliary full-backs, providing double cover for Nicky Hunt and Ricardo Gardner to help limit Ryan Giggs and Nani. Tevez was a threat, but Saha found it hard against the muscle of Abdoulaye Meite, and the passing of Michael Carrick and Owen Hargreaves was not good enough. When United’s moves broke down, having Davies and Diouf gave Bolton get-out balls and helped convert defence to attack.

United were snatching at their own opportunites. Saha was guilty when he sliced into the stand rather than trying to set up Giggs, and Hargreaves was embarrassed by his miskick when Tevez teed him up. Their best attack was an early one, Tevez turning Andy O’Brien to send Nani into space, but Giggs was just unable to get on the end of Nani’s cross.

What prompted Ferguson’s banishment was a passage in which Bolton’s determination to be resolute took a violent course. Tevez met the ball with his back to Meite and took a painful boot to his Achilles. Campo was late on Saha and Diouf on Nani, but the worst miscreant was Davies, who left his foot in on Evra, who jumped up as if to strike his opponent before controlling his anger. Seeing Evra could be provoked, Davies continued to offend, diving in after the ball had gone to earn a booking and smashing into Evra when they contested a cross.

Ferguson and Carlos Queiroz raced into the technical area to protest. When Ferguson continued to complain as referee Mark Clattenburg went off at half-time, he was told to watch the second half from the stand.

Anderson’s impact was immediate. Having retained possession his lovely switch of play to Evra opened up Bolton. It took perfect timing in the tackle by Campo to dispossess Tevez and avoid conceding a penalty when Evra looked to set up the Argentinian with a cutback. Tevez’s miss was horrible. Saha might have done better with a glancing header, Hargreaves hit a free kick that Jussi Jaaskelainen touched over, and still United couldn’t score.

Hardly a single regular at the Reebok Stadium wanted Megson as manager, but he is winning them over. His team is out of the relegation zone and ready to host Aris in midweek in the Uefa Cup. The final whistle brought noisy jubliation. Home fans loved the equation. Bolton & Manchester United yesterday.

Star man: Ivan Campo (Bolton)

Player ratings: Bolton: Jaaskelainen 7, Hunt 7, O’Brien 7, Meite 7, Gardner 6, Campo 8, Davies 6 (Speed 70min), Nolan 6 (McCann 83min), Guthrie 7 (Wilhelmsson 74min), Diouf 7, Anelka 7

Manchester Utd: Van der Sar 6, Brown 6 (O’Shea 88min), Ferdinand 6, Pique 4 (Anderson 59min, 7), Evra 7, Hargreaves 7, Carrick 5, Nani 5, Tevez 5, Giggs 5, Saha 5