GOALS FROM Gerrard, Babel and Aurelio were enough to give Liverpool the points at the Reebok Stadium. Substitute Tamir Cohen's late strike was scant consolation for the Whites who are now perilously close to the drop zone after wins for Reading and Birmingham yesterday.

Liverpool after only one win in seven visits to the Reebok pior to today's encounter, were determined from the off not to be bullied out of this game with the extremely physical Kevin Davies being flattened twice in the first few minutes whilst Matt Taylor and Ricardo Gardner also felt the full force of Mascherano and Hyypia.

The first half was a largely entertaining affair with both sides playing good attacking football. Liverpool were always going to be a threat going forward with the likes of Gerrard, Torres and Kuyt.

Bolton almost got in front as early as 4 minutes though when Diouf's cross evaded everybody and bounced up off the floor to hit Reina's crossbar.Liverpool's reply was almost instant when Torres and Kuyt's neat interplay almost found Babel, but the cross was too high for the Liverpool winger.

Bolton were looking good and certainly matched Liverpool in the opening exchanges until a rare mistake by Jussi Jaaskelainen gifted Liverpool the first goal. Gerrard's hopeful shot didn't have any real power and was even heading just wide until the normally unflappable Finn inexplicably allowed the ball to bounce and hit him on his shoulder and then spin back towards goal and then in.Gerrard claimed it but surely the dubious goals panel will rule an own goal because the shot was going wide.

Babel looked the most dangerous for Liverpool going forward and in fact was a constant thorn in the side of Steinsson for the early part of the first half with his tormenting runs - this wasn't helped by Steinsson picking up a knock which saw him having to be replaced by Rasiak after only 40 minutes.

Babel turned Steinsson inside out just a few minutes after the opening goal and cut inside to unleash a powerful shot but Jussi showed that the goal hadn't affected his confidence and punched the ball to safety.

Bolton had an excellent chance midway through the first half with Kevin Nolan making great use of Taylor's decoy run by cutting inside to provide an inch-perfect cross for Kevin Davies who connected well with his head, but Pepe Reina made a world-class one-handed save by diving low to his left to keep the ball out - and preserver Liverpool's lead.

Jussi came to Bolton's rescue again when Alonso's through-ballfound Torres but the keeper just about made it befire the Liverpool forward. Hyypia was cautioned for a foul on Diouf deep into the Liverpool half and the resulting free kick found Cahill unmarked but the centre half mis-cued his header.

Gerrard's brilliant through ball with the outside of his right foot put danger man Babel in a one on one with Jussi but Cahill made a superb recovering challenge and Babel's shot was deflected for a corner. Jussi and Cahill collided with each other during the tackle but both recovered soon afterwards with no ill-effects.

Cohen replaced Kevin Nolan at half time with the skipper suffering from a back problem. Liverpool came out in the second half determined to push ahead and did just that after only 15 minutes.Kuyt found himself unmarked in the Bolton penalty box and his shot on the turn came back off the post. Gary Cahill's poor clearance found Babel who took his time and fired a powerful shot which left Jussi with no chance. He duly celebrated in style with a double somersault!

Games against Liverpool are always going to be difficult but Gary Megson will be disappointed with the manner of Liverpool's opening 2 goals, however Liverpool's third was unstoppable.The ball was only half-cleared and fell to the Brazilian Fabio Aurelio who teed up his shot from 25 yards and cracked a ferocious left-footed volley past Jussi who could do little to prevent the goal wich was for Aurelio's first for the club. At this point, Liverpool threatened to run riot but to Bolton's credit, their head's never dropped and still continued to look from something from the game.

Bolton were rewarded for their attacking efforts with 12 minutes remaining when Matt Taylor's corner was swung in from the left and Tamir Cohen out-jumped everyone to head past Reina to give the Bolton fans something to cheer about. As it turned out it was just a consolation as Liverpool managed to see out the remaining 10 minutes or so with Bolton not coming close to reducing the deficit. Babel even afforded the mercy of a miss-kick in injury time with an open goal.

The two injuries will do Bolton no favours at all with the race to avoid the drop. Steinsson is cup-tied for the Sporting Lisbon game so should have time to recover, however Nolan will be in a race against time to be fit and will probably have to play through the pain barrier.

Teams:

BOLTON WANDERERS:

Jaaskelainen, Nolan (c), Gardner, Davies, Steinsson, Campo, Diouf, J O'Brien, A O'Brien, Taylor, Cahill

Subs: Al Habsi, Meite, Stelios, Cohen, Rasiak

Liverpool:

Reina, Hyypia, Gerrard (c), Torres, Aurelio, Xabi Alonso, Kuyt, Babel, Mascherano, Carragher, Skrtel

Subs: Martin, Riise, Benayoun, Crouch, Arbeloa