A home victory over
Aston Villa and a memorable 1–0 victory over
Manchester United at
Old Trafford got Bolton off to another promising start to the season, but their subsequent form was memorable for all the wrong reasons as they only won 2 of their next 21 games, causing most pundits to write them off by the start of 2003. A 4–2 win over
Birmingham City on 1 February finally kickstarted their campaign and the club only lost two more games (away to
Chelsea and
Liverpool) during the rest of the season, leaving them in control of their destiny on the final day. They achieved survival with a 2–1 victory over
Middlesbrough. ==First-team squad==