Bolton W 3 Everton 2:GARY MEGSON completed two years as Bolton's manager yesterday, and for most of that time he has been about as popular as flatulence in a lift, but recent performances suggest he is doing a good job. His spiky team had been unlucky against Tottenham and Manchester United – results which had left them in a false position in the table, fourth bottom on Saturday night. They belong halfway, which is where they are headed.

Everton have more cause for concern, shipping another three goals after that midweek 5-0 mauling by Benfica. David Moyes needs a triage nurse almost as much as a reliable centre-half, with 10 senior players unavailable, injured. Their League Cup tie away to Tottenham tomorrow does not bode well.

Football folk may have been focusing 27 miles to the west, but the loyalists who braved a wet and windy Reebok Stadium were rewarded with a roller-coaster scrap in which Bolton went 2-0 up and Everton fought back to 2-2 before the issue was settled in the 86th minute by Croatia’s Ivan Klasnic. The hero? Klasnic is the real deal in that respect, playing on after two kidney transplants in the past four years.

Everton were strengthened by the inclusion of Lucas Neill, who made his belated debut at right-back, and by the return of Louis Saha to lead the attack, but they could easily have been two down in the first five minutes, during which time Tamir Cohen and Kevin Davies spurned chances.

They were reprieved only until the 16th minute, when Sam Ricketts’s low centre from the right, missed by Ricardo Gardner, was clipped in by South Korea’s Lee Chung-yong, with John Heitinga and Sylvain Distin conspicuous by their absence. Ten minutes later Gary Cahill nodded Matt Taylor’s free-kick past Tim Howard from near the penalty spot. Two-nil behind, Moyes must have had flashbacks from Lisbon, but Saha revived their spirits before half-time with a screamer from 25 yards, and in the second half they hit back hard.

Marouane Fellaini equalised with another real net-bulger, after his clever sleight of foot had deceived Gary Cahill, and at 2-2 it was anybody’s game. Everton might have gone ahead a quarter of an hour from the end, when Dan Gosling broke through, but Fabrice Muamba tracked him and dispossessed him in the act of shooting at close range.

With Jo and Jack Rodwell well placed to his left, Gosling should have done better, but Muamba’s was the tackle of the match, setting the scene for Klasnic’s decisive strike. A long clearance from Jussi Jaaskelainen caused pandemonium in the Everton penalty area, where the Croat emerged as the wizard, driving the ball home left-footed from 15 yards.

Megson afterwards said: “I thought we should have beaten Tottenham and we deserved a point against United. Today you saw our good and bad side. The good was going 2-0 up, the bad was losing the 2-0 lead.”