Everton put in a performance reminiscent of the Walter Smith era as they whimpered to a pitiful 2-0 defeat at the hands of Bolton at the Reebok.
Without the injured striker Louis Saha, David Moyes gave Yakubu, Vaughan Victor Anichebe the nod over Jermaine Beckford to spearhead the attack on his lonesome, and from the off Everton looked doomed to fail with the hosts taking the lead in the opening ten minutes when the impressive Gary Cahill found himself in acres of space to head beyond Tim Howard with the help of a deflection from Johnny Heitinga.
From then on, Everton only carved out one real chance – a sublime, wanting ball from Leighton Baines went to waste when Tim Cahill failed to make any contact.
Bolton doubled their advantage on 67 minutes when a loose clearance from Sylvain Distin was nodded on by substitute Chung-Yong Lee into the path of January loanee Daniel Sturridge who smacked home an unstoppable, instinctive volley that flew past Howard into the bottom left to put the game beyond any doubt.