Manchester City 2 Bolton Wanderers 0: Effective wheeling and dealing during next month's transfer free-for-all is increasingly appearing the be-all and end-all for both these clubs, the need to improve underlined by Saturday's muddy affair. Bolton, abject in defeat and with temporary transfers the height of ambition, have lurched back into crisis.
Victory for City, relatively flushed with their manager's pockets likely to be lined with £7 million, edged them further towards the progress of mid-table.
Sylvain Distin's return added pace and power to a traditionally susceptible rearguard, although the Keegan's shopping list will surely include another centre-half."There'll be players looking to come here and Kevin's the biggest attraction," said Manchester City captain Steve Howey, whose close-range header after Berkovic's corner had been flicked on by Kevin Horlock earned City a lead their scrappy start scarcely deserved.
"He's done it before," said Howey. "There were a lot of players who did not even know where Newcastle was - the likes of David Ginola and Faustino Asprilla - never mind anything about the club but Kevin convinced them to come."
In truth, there was precious little to gauge from this result other than that City do possess a smattering of genuine quality which, given time to play by opponents as shoddy as they were soggy, was enough to stop the rot after successive defeats.
Nicolas Anelka's exquisite turn and slipped pass for Berkovic to finish beyond Jussi Jaaskelainen confirmed as much.
The lead went unchallenged until Jermaine Johnson and Jay-Jay Okocha forced Peter Schmeichel into a smart double save late on.
"We didn't create a single chance in the first half and, instead of getting better, it got bloody worse," grumbled Bolton manager Sam Allardyce.
Any new Bolton arrivals will have be more adept than Ivan Campo who looked anything but a loanee from Real Madrid.
Guardian Service
MAN CITY: Schmeichel; Dunne, Howey, Distin, Jihai, Berkovic, Foe, Horlock, Tiatto, Goater (Benarbia 81), Anelka. Subs Not Used: Nash, Huckerby, Wright-Phillips, Wiekens. Goals: Howey 25, Berkovic 56.
BOLTON: Jaaskelainen; Barness, Campo, Warhurst, Charlton, Okocha, Tofting (Ricketts 60), Nolan (Livesey 75), Gardner, Pedersen (Johnson 68), Djorkaeff. Subs Not Used: Poole, Southall. Booked: Gardner, Nolan.
Referee: J Winter (Cleveland)
