Kuyt 37

Liverpool edged back to within one point of fourth-place in the EPL with a curate’s egg of a performance against strugglers Bolton.

Their first-half display was woefully reminiscent of so many in recent months.

However, having gone in one-up at half-time, they improved considerably in the second period and were, eventually, fully worth their two-goal victory.

Things might have turned out differently if Chung-Yong Lee had scored the wonder goal he was inches away from.

Lee picked the ball up on the halfway line and swept past three defenders and goalkeeper Pepe Reina, but his left-foot shot was cleared off the line by Liverpool’s Greek centre-back Sotirios Kyrgiakos.

And eight minutes before the break, Liverpool were ahead when Emiliano Insua’s far-post cross was headed back into the danger area by Alberto Aquilani for Dirk Kuyt to mishit the ball into the corner of the net from six yards.

David Ngog contrived to shave the crossbar from six yards on 52 minutes after Bolton keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen had saved from Steven Gerrard.

But his blushes were spared with twenty minutes left when Insua’s off-target drive from the edge of the box cannoned in off Kevin Davies and through Gretar Steinsson’s legs.