Cristiano Ronaldo played the captain's role to the full with another matchwinning display to hand Manchester United the advantage in the Barclays Premier League title race.
The 23-year-old opened the scoring with a mis-struck shot then ended the contest with another of his stunning long-range free-kicks.
Victory took United three points clear of Arsenal and was just the cushion needed ahead of the weekend's clashes of the top four.
Carlos Tevez threatened to score only for Ricardo Gardner to whip the ball off his toe, but from the resulting corner Ronaldo struck after only nine minutes on the clock.
First the winger rose to head back Nani's corner, Tevez missed an overhead kick but Bolton only half-cleared and Ronaldo was swiftly there to strike a shot into the ground and home from 12 yards out.
Nani blazed over after a jinking run, but in the 18th minute Bolton put together a thrilling move that nearly earned them an equaliser.
The inspiration was Danny Guthrie, the midfielder on loan from Liverpool and Bolton's best player of the night, surging out of midfield and then down the right where he sent over a searching cross.
excellent stop
Kevin Davies' movement had seen him shake off Gerard Pique and he slid in at the far post only to see Tomasz Kuszczak make an excellent stop.
The costliness of that miss was hammered home as Ronaldo made it 33 goals for the season, and 24 in the league, after being fouled by Abdoulaye Meite.
It was another of those tremendous Ronaldo free-kicks that appear to defy the laws of physics - rising, dipping and swerving from 30 yards out over a six-man wall to leave Ali Al Habsi clutching thin air.
It also meant he overtook George Best's 32-goal tally - the previous best for a United winger in a season.
Gretar Steinsson tried to get Bolton back into it but failed with a long-range drive, before Tevez curled a left-footed shot into Al Habsi's arms after a superb dribble.
United nearly made it three in first-half injury-time as first Darren Fletcher's low drive was blocked and then John O'Shea blasted wide.
Immediately after the break Steinsson, moved to centre-back, played Bolton into further trouble by chopping down Tevez on the edge of the box.
Old Trafford awaited Ronaldo, but he was the decoy and instead Nani took the free-kick and only a sprawling dive by Al Habsi kept the ball out.
performed heroics
But then followed Bolton's spell of pressure and United had cause to thank their keeper.
First Davies' threatened but shot low and straight at Kuszczak, then El-Hadji Diouf did have the ball in the net with a quickly-taken free-kick but referee Alan Wiley ruled it out on the grounds he had not whistled for him to strike it.
Bolton did not complain too much, but when Diouf put the re-taken kick in the same spot Kuszczak was waiting for it.
The Polish keeper then performed heroics to tip over after Nicky Hunt caught a volley perfectly from 30 yards out and the ball looked destined for the top corner.
Gavin McCann was next to find Kuszczak impregnable as the keeper turned aside his low strike.
United responded to end the revival and the Ronaldo hat-trick looked odds on when he ran at the Bolton defence, performed a couple of step-overs and sent in a fierce shot but Al Habsi was able to parry his effort.
Louis Saha should have sealed matters after a neat side-step but he failed to find the target.
