When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer stepped out of the Old Trafford tunnel last night, he received a hero's welcome from the Manchester United faithful.

Such a reaction was down to nights like the one 12 year ago when United made the short trip to Bolton Wanderers.

Sir Alex Ferguson's men went into the clash having lost back-to-back encounters with Liverpool and Middlesbrough. As a reaction, Ferguson recalled David Beckham, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ryan Giggs to his starting lineup, but it would be Norwegian striker Solskjaer that would prove to be the major difference between the two sides at the Reebok Stadium.

With what was United's first meaningful attack of the match in the 15th minute, Solskjaer broke the deadlock. The creator was Giggs, who crossed from the left flank for his teammate, who converted his chance from eight yards out.

The visitors continued to carve out opportunities, but it wasn't until six minutes before the break that Solskjaer doubled his team's advantage. On this occasion he moved towards the near post to head Beckham's corner beyond the reach of Jussi Jaaskelainen.

Both sides created chances after the restart, with Giggs striking the post, while Michael Ricketts forced Fabien Barthez into making an athletic save up the other end.

It would be Solskjaer that put the outcome beyond any doubt in the 60th minute, though, when he completed his hat-trick, again reacting quickest to bury a Beckham cross.

The scoring was concluded in the 84th minute, by which time Solskjaer had been replaced by debutant Diego Forlan. Giggs, just like Beckham, took his assists tally for the evening to two when his low cross was dispatched into the net from close range by Van Nistelrooy.

The 4-0 victory moved United four points clear at the top of the Premier League table, but they would end up finishing the campaign in third spot.

BOLTON: Jaaskelainen; Southall (Charlton), Bergsson, Whitlow, Gardner; Hansen (Johnson), Nolan, Barness, Farrelly; Bobic (Holdsworth), Ricketts

MAN UNITED: Barthez; P Neville, G Neville, Blanc (O'Shea), Silvestre; Beckham, Keane (Butt), Scholes, Giggs; Solskjaer (Forlan), van Nistelrooy