Speaking after 1-0 defeat to Manchester United, Gary Megson admitted that he thought Wanderers were going to hold on for a fully deserved point up until Dimitar Berbatov's last-gasp winner.

As with the late defeat at the Emirates Stadium last weekend, the Wanderers boss was forced to rue a momentary defensive lapse which allowed the Bulgarian striker to head the only goal of the game in the dying minutes of the contest.

For long periods Wanderers were more than a match for their table topping opponents and limited Manchester United to few chances, an element of Bolton's performance that Megson was pleased with.

He said: "There is a feeling a déjà vu to a certain extent because the result is the same, but the manner of the result is not. Last week we tried to sit back and catch Arsenal on the break - they are probably one of the top four clubs in this country and one of the biggest in Europe.

"Today we probably played the top club in this country and in Europe, and we didn't sit back. We got forced back, but we didn't set out to try and nick it, we set out to push on to United. At times we did that, but we couldn't do it on a consistent enough basis to get any pressure on them.

"Again it looked like we were going to get something from the game, however poor defending at the end has cost us. It's cruel for any team when you get to that point and the score is 0-0, especially against the European Champions, but it happens and we have got to dust ourselves off and we have to take the positives from the game.

"We have done a lot of things well and our work rate and our closing down was very good, and at times we played some decent stuff and took the game to them.

"I really did think that we were going to get a point from that game because United in possession were playing a lot of good stuff, but they weren't causing us a lot of problems."

The Wanderers boss also praised new signing Ariza Makukula, who was handed a debut against a Manchester United team who now haven't conceded a Premier League goal in their last ten matches.

For that reason alone it was going to be a tough afternoon for the Portuguese striker, but Megson was pleased with his work rate and the way he put himself about.

"He did okay," explained Megson. "He's come across from Benfica and has been thrown straight into it. He's a big lad and he has won a lot of balls in the air, but we didn't get enough of the second ball at times.

"It was hard for him because Vidic is getting better and better and Evans is coming on leaps and bounds, but we wanted to give a debut to him."