You seem to forget that Bolton and Stoke are top ten sides and FA Cup semi finalists to boot. Bolton are competing for Europe and have lost two at home all season, exactly what gives us the right to think we should turn up there and beat them?
Because we had a "good tactician" at the helm. Yet his teams those days just surrendered. Even if you lose a good team puts in some sort of effort/decent performance, yet on those occasions mentioned we may as well have stayed on the team coach (except for Perch like, he was needed in the Stoke game.)