Fowler seems to like playing against the Trotters as he has now hit ten goals against them during his career and the win will no doubt lift some of the recent gloom which has surrounded the City of Manchester Stadium.
Ironically the last league win for the Citezens came against Wanderers who lost out 6-2 in Manchester last October and this afternoon the hoodoo against their big City rivals continued as Wanderers failed to get any rythm in their play.
Both Steve Howey and Jon Otsemobor where given their Bolton debuts but failed to impress on a day when Fowler, McManaman and co stole the show. Bruno N'Gotty and Nicky Hunt where suprisingly dropped from the starting eleven and influential midfielder Jay-Jay Okocha was also named amongst the substitutes following his African Nations Cup exploits.
Bolton had the first real chance of the game on six minutes when Youri Djorkaeff forced a good save from England goalkeeper David James who had to be at full stretch to deny the Frenchman the opening goal following an acrobatic shot.
Simon Charlton then came within a whisker of opening his Bolton account on 20 minutes when he hit the crossbar after former City player Steve Howey headed a Youri Djorkaeff corner into the mix.
A couple of minutes later Kevin Nolan gave the home side the lead when he volleyed in the opening goal past James following a neat pass from the right hand side of the field. Henrik Pedersen could have then doubled the scoreline but the boyhood Manchester City supporter fired accross the face of the goalmouth.
That was as good as it got for Wanderers from there on in as the goal seemed to spur Kevin Keegan's City into action and they duly responded when Jon Macken saw his 18-yard drive tipped over for a corner by Jussi Jaaskelainen in the Bolton goal.
Robbie Fowler then continued his fine record against the Trotters when he powerfully headed in the equaliser for City following a corner from Michael Tarnat.
On the half hour mark City took the lead, a long ball found it's way through to Fowler and despite appearing to be offside the former Liverpool man controlled the ball on his chest showing great technique to send a powerful volley past Jaaskelainen to make it 2-1.
City made use of their attacking options with McManaman, Sinclair, Wright-Phillips and Sibierski all getting forward when available and Wanderers just did not seem at the races as their minds seemed to be on next weeks forthcoming League Cup Final against Middlesbrough.
Sinclair could have made it 3-1 shortly before half time but Jaaskelainen came racing off his line to deny the former England player who had passed a late fitness test following a recent injury.
Following the half time interval Bolton's woes continued. Steve McManaman found himself in space on the left hand side of the area and his driven cross was deflected past Jaaskelainen by the Wanderers defender Simon Charlton.
The Bolton manager Sam Allardyce then decided to make changes to the side, firstly by introducing captain Jay-Jay Okocha and forward Javi Moreno in place of Per Frandsen and Youri Djorkaeff and then by bringing on Nicky Hunt in place of the debutant Jon Otsemobor and the Trotters seemed to settle down slightly however the front two of Pedersen and Kevin Davies could not do enough to test David James in the City goal in what was one of the poorest Wanderers performances for some time.
Keegan's men could have won it shortly before the end, firstly Fowler spurned the chance of a hattrick when he failed to take full advantage of a mistake by Howey and then youngster Stephen Elliott, only just on as a substitute had a chance to make an immediate impact just before full time was blown by referee Steve Dunn.