FA Premiership/Middlesbrough 4 Bolton Wanderers 3: Happy Mother's Day. This was not the most tranquil way to mark the occasion, and certainly not the most sophisticated or cosy, but at least there were plenty of gifts. The Bolton Wanderers manager, Sam Allardyce, did his bit by sporting a flower in his lapel, but his players' attitude was too often thoughtless. By the end it was an afternoon flecked with blood.

Immediately before the winner from Middlesbrough's Stuart Parnaby, scored two minutes into injury-time, Parnaby's team-mate Emanuel Pogatetz, an emotional Austrian, was cut on the eye by a stray elbow from Bolton's Kevin Davies that was to require five stitches. It looked accidental, but not from Pogatetz's perspective and, had he not been restrained by Stewart Downing, he would have steamed into Davies in a manner that would have brought a red card.

Downing's intervention was followed by that of the fourth official, Uriah Rennie, with the Boro manager Steve McClaren also advancing down the touchline in concern at his player's behaviour. Referee Howard Webb booked Pogatetz for his tantrum and must have been glad there was not long left. However, when Mark Viduka fed the substitute Yakubu Aiyegbeni, the Nigerian's low cross to the far post was met meatily by the onrushing Parnaby. The Riverside erupted.

So, too, did Pogatetz. Running towards Davies, he made gestures with his arm that could not be considered conciliatory. When the final whistle blew seconds later, he suggested forcibly that he would see Davies in the tunnel.

It was a tempestuous end to a frenzied afternoon. "Pogatetz lost his cool, that was the problem," Allardyce said. "It was a complete accident and Kevin Davies has nothing to defend, he did nothing wrong."

Allardyce mentioned "scarring" but that was not a reference to Pogatetz. This was the seventh consecutive away game that Bolton have failed to win and, with Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea three of their next four opponents, Allardyce feared it might be a decisive defeat in terms of European qualification. With defending like this the Champions League will be a distant dream for Bolton.

"Sometimes the way you lose a game can have a lasting effect," Allardyce said. "Mentally it can be a little bit scarring."

Bolton lost this having gone 1-0 up in the third minute through Stelios Giannakopoulos - the Greek bundling through weak challenges from Andrew Davies and Franck Queudrue - then falling 3-1 behind by the 47th minute. On 81 minutes Radhi Jaidi made it 3-3 and, as Allardyce said, had it stayed that way it would have felt like a Bolton win.

That would not have been an exaggeration, the way Bolton played. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink equalised the Giannakopoulos goal with a penalty five minutes later after Joey O'Brien had handled the ball.

The match was already swinging like a fairground attraction and Mark Schwarzer made athletic saves from Gary Speed and Jay-Jay Okocha. But Speed was then involved in a verbal spat with Giannakopoulos, and Kevin Nolan lambasted Davies for his lack of backtracking. It is called creative tension at Bolton.

Viduka beat Jussi Jaaskelainen on the half-hour with a toe-poke after Hasselbaink's chest down from Fabio Rochemback's chip. Jaidi's absence of effort to close down Viduka was notable.

But non-defending was the theme of the day. It continued when Hasselbaink ran on to a routine punt forward after the interval and supplied a neat, angled lob over Jaaskelainen.

It remained a remarkably indisciplined affair and there was no surprise about Ugo Ehiogu's clumsiness in grabbing the Bolton substitute Jared Borgetti. Another penalty resulted and, though Schwarzer saved it, Okocha rammed in the rebound.

Bolton kept probing and, when Speed won a corner, Giannakopoulos played it short to Ricardo Gardner whose centre was met five yards out by Jaidi.

It was 3-3 but nowhere near over. Emanuel Pogatetz - Temuri Ketsbaia with hair - made sure of that. Some mothers do 'ave 'em.