The Black Cats crashed to a seventh successive league defeat and face almost certain relegation to the Nationwide League after another horror show for their disillusioned supporters.
New boss Mick McCarthy promised no instant cure and so it proved as Bolton cruised to a first away victory since November as they opened up a ten-point gap between themselves and sorry Sunderland.
McCarthy was without suspended Gavin McCann and the injured Jason McAteer, Kevin Kilbane and Jody Craddock and his cause was not helped when full-back Stephen Wright failed to appear for the second half.
Skipper Michael Gray switched to right back and was left totally embarrassed by the pace and skill of Jay Jay Okocha who unleashed a fierce cross-cum-shot in the 50th minute that goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen could only push into the net.
Four minutes later Sorensen made a tremendous save from Per Frandsen only for Joachim Bjorklund to be caught ball-watching as he allowed Henrik Pedersen to steal in on the blindside and shoot into the empty net.
Sean Thornton missed Sunderlands only real chance of an even first half but the double whammy knocked the stuffing out of the home side who battled to the end with substitute Kevin Kyle guilty of a glaring miss in the 82nd minute.
Sorensen denied Frandsen from increasing the lead with a stunning save and at the other end Julio Arca fired straight at Jussi Jaaskelainen with the goal at his mercy.
McCarthy stressed his side will battle to the end. "I like a scrap, I like a confrontation and as long as there is life we will give it a go," he said.
"There will be no negative thoughts but we need to win games. There was one or two ways it could have gone. We could have won the game on a wave of optimism or we could have got the reality check.
"We were dead and buried a week ago but perhaps there was a new sense of optimism we can stay up.
"The fans are down at the moment and the players are emotionally drained but it was never going to be easy after just three days and it’s not going to be easy over nine games."