Liverpool 2 Bolton 0
Liverpool followed up last week's League Cup success with a welcome return to winning ways in the Premiership today, defeating strugglers Bolton 2-0 at Anfield.
The breakthrough occurred seconds before half time after El Hadji Diouf nodded home a Michael Owen cross - from an offside position, according to fuming Bolton players who surrounded referee Graham Barber as the teams went off for the break.
On 67 minutes, Diouf returned the compliment with a cross that Owen slotted home from close range.
The win leap-frogs Liverpool over Charlton and into sixth in the Premiership, still a disappointingly lowly position for a team leading the title race earlier in the season.
However the pressure is off Liverpool slightly after last weekend's 2-0 League Cup final triumph against Manchester United guaranteed the side at least UEFA Cup football next season.
The impact on Bolton could be more significant.
The perennial Premiership relegation-battlers remain fourth from bottom, on equal points with West Ham below them, but have now crucially used up the game in hand they had over the Londoners.
The match was the only Premiership fixture on what is otherwise FA Cup quarter-final weekend.
A messy opening saw Liverpool - roundly criticised this season for their caution - starting with just Owen up front.
Bolton themselves had Spanish striker Salva Ballesta ploughing a similarly lonely furrow, backed up by Jamaican Ricardo Gardner and Frenchman Bernard Mendy.
Youri Djorkaeff was one of the few players to make an early impression, the French World Cup winner popping up in a string of dangerous positions on either wing.
Gardner had a shot blocked and Mendy got past John Arne Riise and saw his low cross knocked away.
But Liverpool's patience paid off, and they ended the first half leading through a header from Diouf - who the fuming Bolton players clearly thought was offside.
Owen got hold of a Riise pass almost on the goal line and chipped to the far post for Diouf to nod in, but Bolton players protested furiously as the teams went off at the break.
Bolton battled furiously in the second half, but Owen's predatory skills paid off as he knocked in his 20th goal of the season - and fourth in four games.