Liverpool were worried about conceding one, to judge from the tone of Rafael Benitez's pre-match comments, yet Igor Biscan's close-range header from Djimi Traoré's corner four minutes from the end might just turn out to be the difference between failure and fourth place.
Liverpool did not really deserve to win this game, but neither did Bolton. Until Biscan made his late intervention, it appeared both sides were joining Charlton in some sort of conspiracy to hand Champions League football to Everton next season.
With Liverpool's neighbours palpably faltering, fourth place is up for grabs, yet for 86 minutes these sides seemed reluctant to press their claims. Bolton brought their usual brand of application and attrition to the proceedings and almost escaped with a clean sheet. Four points from Liverpool this season would have been good business for Bolton, who do not look in any rush to entertain loftier ambitions.
The home side were marginally more urgent, though there seems little point in setting so much store on the Champions League when you can only scrape a win against a team who have never played in Europe.
Benitez has been nothing if not inventive in his attempts to disguise Liverpool's various injury and ineligibility problems - the latest rotation of a threadbare squad saw Scott Carson in goal and John Welsh making a Premiership debut in midfield - but playing Steven Gerrard as a support striker is surely not an option that will be repeated against Juventus on Tuesday.
The Liverpool midfield looked so pallid without him that Bolton were able to dominate long periods of the first half, while Gerrard wasted much of his afternoon and his patience trying to form an understanding with fellow striker Luis Garcia.
Bolton are supposed to be the set-piece kings, and Carson looked distinctly uncomfortable in dealing with an early barrage of corners, culminating in Stelios Giannakopoulos's fierce volley being cleared off the line by Steve Finnan.
The opening goal should have arrived for Liverpool, though, when a deft turn by Garcia took him goalside of an inattentive Bruno N'Gotty, yet instead of taking his time, the striker pointlessly blazed a cross-cum-shot across the face of goal when he must have known there would be no one in support.
For Bolton, after the initial efforts to bully Carson under high crosses had subsided, the closest they came to a goal before half-time was when the otherwise impressive Jamie Carragher forced a scrambling save from his own goalkeeper with a misdirected backheader.
Liverpool opened the second half with a rasping shot from Antonio Nunez that Jussi Jaaskelainen did well to keep out at the foot of a post, and Tal Ben Haim had to clear off the Bolton line from John Arne Riise after an hour. However, a breakthrough seemed as far away as ever until Jay-Jay Okocha produced an unexpected shot on the turn that Carson earned his corn by keeping out.
That appeared to be it for the afternoon's excitement, until Liverpool pressed forward for one last attack and Anthony Le Tallec forced yet another goalline clearance from Ben Haim at the expense of a corner. An expensive one, too, as Biscan popped up in front of goal to beat Jaaskelainen. Conceding so late was perhaps a little harsh on Bolton, but those who live by the sword occasionally get skewered. One-nil.