IT was supposed to be the night of the long knives with all sharp objects pointed most definitely in the way of Terry Venables.

But football does not run according to any scripts, which is a pity because on a cold mid-December night there was an air of pantomime about the events at the Reebok Stadium.

A crowd in full festive voice, a joker in Danny Mills delivering the first shock of the night when he stole in from the right and opened the scoring with his wrong foot.

Another set of comedy characters, known collectively as the Wanderers defence, responsible for Leeds' second shortly after. Add a villain in the usual shape of the referee who did not see that Robbie Fowler was offside.

And before the interval, a few minutes of madness when Ian Harte gave away a penalty.

"He's behind you!" Harte's team-mates should have shouted. The assistant referee that is, who promptly advised the man in black to award a penalty.

But then the punchline as Bolton's number one star Youri Djorkaeff whacked the spot kick against Paul Robinson.

In the second half a slapstick pass from Anthony Barness arrived at the feet of Jason Wilcox who made it three - like Mills, with his wrong foot.

Drama indeed, but not what Wanderers fans pay their good money to see. However, the joke of the night was the fact that Bolton did not even deserve to lose against Leeds - let alone go down by three goals.

Their midfield display, particularly in the first half, completely belies their lowly Premiership position. The problem for Sam Allardyce remains individual errors at the back, and an inability to convert good play into goals.

That was not helped by Michael Ricketts' absence from the squad with a groin injury, but even so the statistics of the match showed that they had dominated both possession and attempts at goal.

And that is no mean feat against Leeds United who, despite their own problems, are a team full of world class players with a former England boss at the helm.

Their results have created a fair amount of amusement throughout the nation, perhaps because their big-spending ways and debatable disciplinary standards have caught up with them.

But recent defeats against Bolton, Fulham, Charlton and Malaga have been greeted with shock, because we know that underneath it all they are better than that.

And the fact is that when Mills attacks down the right flank it is an England international, with five World Cup games under his belt, on the prowl.

Mills is a decent defender and good at getting forward for a full-back, but he is not a goalscorer. He has not scored for Leeds in over a year, so when he received the ball from Harry Kewell there seemed little danger in Gudni Bergsson tracking the run of Eirik Bakke and giving him space.

But Mills tried his luck and all of a sudden a spectacular left foot effort from outside the area was making its journey into the top corner of Jussi Jaaskelainen's goal.

When the game restarted Bolton immediately found themselves with a free kick in an advanced position. Could they do what Leeds did to them last month at Elland Road and immediately make it 1-1?

No. In fact Jay Jay Okocha's dead ball went out for a throw, an effort that was only surpassed by a shot later in the game which hit the corner flag.

Calamity indeed, but by that time Leeds were two goals up after Robbie Fowler's 16th minute goal.

An Ian Harte cross from the left looked harmless, but Ivan Campo and Bruno N'Gotty decided to leave the ball for Jaaskaleinen.

Unfortunately Jaaskelainen left it too, and suddenly a nothing ball hit the post and was in the back of the net via a trademark finish from Leeds' England star.

Campo threw his arms around in disgust, but he, as much as anyone else, had failed to take charge of the situation.

Later he would become involved in further arguments with N'Gotty, Bergsson and Simon Charlton. The Spaniard obviously cares about the club and results, but Bolton need collective responsibility and not handbags.

They also need a bit of luck, and that seemed to come their way in the 22nd minute when the referee's assistant adjudged that Harte had handled in the area.

The bad luck was that penalty maestro Ricketts was not at hand, but skipper Djorkaeff is a pretty good alternative to have. But it was not to be.

Bolton continued to dominate the midfield, with Per Frandsen outstanding in chasing the ball and using it well, but clear chances were few and far between.

But despite Bolton lad Wilcox adding a third to complete the humiliation there is no need to go back to the drawing board for Sam Allardyce before Saturday as Wanderers will play worse than they did last night and come away with three points.

As he said: "All we have to do is cut out the mistakes, there is not that much that we can do to stop them.

"We were the victim of two brilliant goals and one that was bizarre and actually offside. It was just one of those nights."

Terry Venables added: "Things broke for us and that is something we have just not had. We have kept going through the hard times and this is a big result for us.

"With players coming back I feel that we can get things a little more settled."

A gloomy night for Wanderers but all smiles for Leeds and their beleaguered boss who lives to fight another day.