Bolton 2 Sunderland 0:  Kevin Nolan maintained his bid for a place in England's World Cup squad with his 11th goal of the season as Bolton condemned the Premiership's bottom side to their 24th league defeat at the Reebok Stadium.

In the process the 23-year-old club captain is steering Bolton towards Europe for a second successive campaign. He put the game out of Sunderland’s reach by grabbing the second goal of the game six minutes from time.

Kevin Davies had opened the scoring in the 47th minute and from then on the visitors faced an uphill battle.

While Bolton continue to grow, Sunderland are heading for the Coca-Cola Championship and a ridiculously low points total.

Davies found the target in midweek during the FA Cup defeat by West Ham and he caused Sunderland problems from the outset.

Bolton made the breakthrough with Davies’ fifth goal of the season at the start of the second half when he got on the end of a corner from Stelios to head the ball beyond Davis.

It was poor defending by Sunderland with Danny Collins failing to pick up Davies, who was also on target in midweek.

However the visitors rallied and two minutes later Miller tested Jussi Jaaskelainen with a shot from the edge of the area.

Sunderland caretaker boss Kevin Ball decided to make a switch in the 57th minute with former Waterford United and Republic of Ireland under-21 striker Daryl Murphy replacing Smith.

Bolton almost added a second two minutes later when Okocha’s marvellous inswinging cross evaded the visiting defence.

Veteran midfielder Speed raced into the box to get on the end of it but his effort went narrowly wide of the post.

With only one goal in it, Sunderland were still in with a chance of getting something from the game. However Nolan made it 2-0 in the 84th minute when he clipped the ball home at the far post after Davis had parried Speed's effort.

PA