A shambles, Sir Alex Ferguson called it. He was talking about the first half, which he claimed Bolton Wanderers, with the referee's help, turned into a kicking match, but from Manchester United’s point of view he might have been talking about the whole afternoon - an undignified affair summed up by the sight of Ferguson banished to the stands and Edwin van der Sar anxiously wrestling the ball from Lofty the Lion, the Bolton mascot, as the clock ticked down.

There were some mitigating factors. Without Nemanja Vidic, their defence had a soft centre that was always likely to be exposed at some point by a Bolton side who, under Gary Megson, threaten to be as uncompromising as they were when Sam Allardyce was the manager at the Reebok Stadium. Without Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney, United lacked their usual attacking flair; both of their league defeats so far this season have come when their two outstanding young forwards have been missing through either injury or suspension.

United should still have had enough in their armoury to win – their manager certainly felt so – but they were knocked out of their stride by a team who, according to Ferguson, were “over-physical” in their approach. Ferguson confronted Mark Clattenburg in the tunnel at half-time to tell him as much, throwing in a few choice words as he jabbed his finger at the referee, and was sent to watch the second period from the stands, which will become a familiar vantage point if, as expected, he receives a three-match touchline ban from the FA. Brave man, Clattenburg, but Ferguson saw the referee’s reaction as cowardice. “Some referees don’t like the truth,” the United manager said.

So what was the truth? Ferguson talked of “two or three really dodgy tackles” and asked whether Bolton had “targeted” Patrice Evra, who was subjected to two heavy challenges by Kevin Davies. Megson scoffed at that suggestion, saying “we couldn’t do that if we tried”.

Take the Davies-Evra spat out of the equation – and the United player was not entirely innocent, even if he was more sinned against than sinner – and there was little to merit the reference from Carlos Queiroz, the United assistant manager, to “football of intimidation.” Ferguson and Queiroz, though, feel that their players are subjected to too many wild challenges and that, sooner or later, someone is going to get hurt.

That someone could feasibly have been Evra on Saturday and he sounded incredulous as he reflected on his battle with Davies. “I received more tackles in that one game than I’ve had in my entire life,” the France full back said. “It was the same last year when he [Davies] kicked me as well. I said to him then: ‘Why do you do a tackle like that?’ And he said: ‘Because I don’t like you.’ I didn’t understand it. I just play my game. I don’t know what the problem is. I don’t even know him. It was bizarre.”

In one sense, it was, but United would be wrong to dismiss this as a rare occasion of beauty being overcome by the beast. They were poor throughout and, though they improved after the introduction of Anderson in the second half, they would have been flattered by a point had Carlos Tévez not miscued when picked out by Evra in the six-yard area with 18 minutes remaining. With Louis Saha lacklustre, it was another France striker, Nicolas Anelka, who won the day, turning sharply to shoot past Van der Sar in the eleventh minute after Gerard Piqué, Vidic’s young stand-in, misjudged the flight of Iván Campo’s free kick.

Thereafter Bolton had their backs against the wall, but, as Megson pointed out, Jussi Jaaskelainen, his goal-keeper, had “only one real save to make”. That speaks volumes for the way in which Megson has galvanised Bolton since taking over a month ago.