A lot has been said in the press since Saturday afternoon about how good United's performance was. Some say it was their best in years. I don't think even the most diehard Bolton fan can rightfully deny that.
It's not a nice thing to admit, but United weren't just good on Saturday, they were, in the words of Martin O'Neill, "astonishingly brilliant". I will take any bet right now that no team will come to the Reebok in the remainder of the season and destroy us the way United did on Saturday afternoon.
Having said that though, United's job was made much easier by Abdoulaye Faye's performance. I thought Faye was abysmal. He seemed incapable of even the most basic tasks, like passing, controlling. Wayne Rooney must have sensed something about Faye from the off, because he had a field day against our big Senegalese defender.
Faye's performance aside, I don't think that we played too badly, to be honest. United were so good that it really didn't matter how we played - they would still have won comfortably even if every Bolton player had played to the top of their game.
Jussi Jaaskelainen was fantastic - without him, the score would have been a lot worse. He made several top notch saves, his denial of Louis Saha in the second half probably the pick of the bunch. Abdoulaye Meite was average, but not poor, likewise Nicky Hunt. I thought Tal Ben Haim had a good game, making some good tackles throughout.
Of the midfield, Ivan Campo and Gary Speed both worked hard at what they do, but they never really stood a chance. It was good to see both of them go relatively close with chances as we fought to try and get a way back into the match.
Stelios, on the other hand, was quite poor for me. Not quite matching Faye's standards, but he certainly left little impression on the game.
Up front, Kevin Davies and El Hadji Diouf were both kept relatively quiet, a testament to United's defence, which normally takes a battering from Davies. Nicolas Anelka had a fine game though, and if anyone in our team deserved a goal it was him.
My major moan stems from an incident towards the end of the first half. We got three corners in quick succession, all of which created free headers for someone in our team. Against the likes of United, if you're going to waste a free header, you have got to take the chance if it presents itself again. And to miss a third time? A goal at that point might have turned the game on its head, given us the belief to go all out after the break for an equaliser.
So, our long awaited home victory over United will now stretch to 29 years. When you consider that the likes of Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Rio Ferdinand will all be around for a good few years yet, you can't help but feel that it might be quite a bit longer than 29 years before that victory finally comes.
On to next week though. We're down, but we're certainly not out. It's been accepted across the country that United's performance was brilliant, and that no club, with the possible exceptions of Arsenal or Chelsea, would have been able to stop them. So there's no reason for heads to drop. We have a good opportunity to rescue some pride with a local derby against Wigan. After their success over us last season, it's high time we got a victory.
Come on you Whites!