FOR a side looking to book themselves on some exotic European excursions next year, Newcastle United have developed a nasty case of travel sickness.

A 1-0 defeat at Bolton's Reebok Stadium extended the Magpies' winless away run to ten Premiership games and once again called into question their ability to claim an-all important fourth place finish this season.

While their last away defeat at Tottenham left a bitter taste in the mouth, yesterday's reverse was no more than Newcastle deserved after a strangely disjointed performance bereft of any poise or precision.

Whereas Andy O'Brien's late error was a suckerpunch at White Hart Lane, Newcastle had plenty of time to equalise following a similarly calamitous fourth-minute error from debutant Steven Taylor.

Taylor, a centre half asked to stand in at right-back, will no doubt be roundly criticised for the misjudgement that allowed Henrik Pedersen to lob a stranded Shay Given.

But the teenager should not carry the can for a defeat that saw many of the Magpies' more established stars struggle to hit top gear.

It said much that it was Taylor who crashed an injury-time drive narrowly wide of Jussi Jaaskelainen's upright as, for the entire 90 minutes, United failed to get the numbers forward that might have asked sterner questions of a Bolton side enjoying their first win for almost two months.

Newcastle might still have four home games to play this season but, unless they can rapidly rediscover their winning touch on the road, it will be what happens in their four remaining away matches that could scupper their chances of a return to the Champions League.

The Magpies might have eased into the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup with a 3-0 win over Real Mallorca on Thursday night, but Sir Bobby Robson still opted to make three changes to the side that started in the Balearics.

Lee Bowyer replaced Darren Ambrose on the right of midfield while Craig Bellamy, with all thought of airport bust-ups firmly behind him, was preferred to Shola Ameobi up front.

But the most significant switch came at right back as, with O'Brien ruled out because of a hamstring injury, Robson opted to hand Taylor his senior debut.

The 18-year-old has made giant strides over the last 12 months, captaining England Under-19s in last winter's World Youth Championships and forcing his way into David Platt's Under-21 side.

Thursday night saw him make his first-team bow with a ten-minute substitute appearance in Mallorca and, on Saturday evening, Taylor was named in the squad for England Under-21s' friendly in Sweden tomorrow night.

Quite a whirlwind week - but still nothing compared to the youngster's tempestuous opening at the Reebok Stadium.

Denied any involvement from the kick-off, Taylor was still to touch the ball when Bolton left-back Simon Charlton aimed a hopeful fourth-minute punt in his general direction.

The teenager opted to let the ball bounce under pressure from Pedersen, but only succeeded in getting himself into a horrible tangle as it looped over his head.

The Danish striker still had plenty to do after gaining possession but, with Given in no-man's land, he duly lobbed home from the acutest of angles to give Bolton a dramatic lead.

United were rocked by the early setback and, initially, both Jonathan Woodgate and Titus Bramble struggled to deal with the fluidity of their opponents' attacking play.

Pedersen, Kevin Davies and Greek international Stelios all took it in turns to play as the lone striker and Newcastle's backline found themselves chasing shadows for much of the opening quarter of an hour.

They didn't help themselves at times, with Olivier Bernard's dreadful seventh-minute backheader forcing Bramble into last-ditch evasive action that appeared to involve the use of his arm.

That went unpunished and, with the relentless pace of the game stretching play from one end of the field to the other, Newcastle gradually emerged as an attacking force Alan Shearer's physical tussle with Emerson Thome went on throughout the afternoon, and the Newcastle skipper used all of his strength to hold off the former Sunderland centre-half before warming Jaaskelainen's gloves with a smart overhead kick.

The lack of any midfield cohesion meant Shearer and Bellamy were forced to plough a lone furrow for most of the game and, tellingly, Newcastle's best opening of the first half came from the latter's willingness to chase a lost cause.

The Wales international harried Thome into a woeful backpass following Bernard's long ball out of defence but, after being left one on one with the advancing keeper, he rolled the ball wastefully past the right-hand post.

He wasn't the only one passing up chances to haul Newcastle back level as, on the half-hour mark, Bramble inexplicably blazed over from six yards after fellow centre-half Woodgate had taken down Laurent Robert's corner before forcing a smart save out of Jaaskelainen.

Robert was a peripheral figure throughout the first half and, with Bowyer even more subdued on the opposite flank, Newcastle found themselves unable to find any rhythm in their passing play.

Indeed things could have been even worse at the interval had Given not saved skidding drives from both Jay-Jay Okocha and Kevin Nolan.

The break gave Bolton the chance to replace Bruno N'Gotty with former United favourite Steve Howey, but it did nothing to stem the frenetic nature of the play.

Shearer and Bramble both flashed drives narrowly wide within five minutes of the restart, while Woodgate forced a backpedalling Jaaskelainen into a fine tipover following Robert's free-kick.

But, at the other end, United were grateful for the profligacy of Ivan Campo as he missed the target from the edge of the box with the goal at his mercy.

Campo became an increasingly influential figure as the game wore on, plugging the gap in front of Bolton's back four and preventing either Jermaine Jenas or Gary Speed from surging beyond Newcastle's front two.

The visitors could have done with someone offering them similar protection as Pedersen and Stelios' darts from the deep were a constant menace.

Stelios' 66th-minute cutback ended in Given making a fine save from full-back Nicky Hunt, and the Irish international continued his scintillating run of form with a wonderful one-handed stop from the Greek midfielder's acrobatic effort two minutes later.

United's attempts to fashion an equaliser became increasingly frantic as full-time approached but, while Taylor strode forward to try to make amends for his early error, there was to be no fairytale finish for the full-back.

On paper his mistake was the difference between the two sides - on the pitch Newcastle have a lot more to worry about than that.

Result: Bolton Wanderers 1 Newcastle United 0.

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