Two-goal captain Gareth Barry and striker Gabriel Agbonlahor rediscovered their scoring touch as Aston Villa ended its mini-slump and dealt another blow to Bolton's survival hopes in a 4-0 victory at Villa Park.
Barry's strikes were his first in open play this campaign as Martin O'Neill's side revived its slim hopes of capturing an UEFA Cup spot after a run of three successive defeats.
Agbonlahor, meanwhile, scored for the first time in 2008 - 13 matches - to condemn the Trotters to their seventh defeat in their last eight matches with substitute Marlon Harewood completing the rout for the hosts.
Villa dominated for long periods with Ashley Young often tormenting the Bolton defence on the left with his pace and crossing ability.
Bolton barely posed a threat but when it did venture forward the Trotters found it hard to break down a Villa defence which kept its first clean sheet since late November, with Wilfred Bouma particularly impressive at left-back.
On this evidence, Bolton look odds-on to lose its top-flight status despite Birmingham's defeat at Wigan leaving the Blues only four points adrift of safety.
Apart from a brief spell at the start of the second half Bolton was second best throughout the 90 minutes and looked devoid of confidence.
Heidar Helguson headed just over from a Matthew Taylor centre and Olof Mellberg almost played Villa into trouble when his attempted headed backpass was cut out by the alert Kevin Davies only for Danny Guthrie to fire high and wide from the resulting pass.
After nine minutes Villa went in front through Barry.
Young was the creator as he skipped past Kevin Davies on the left and then cut into the Bolton box before sending over an inviting cross.
Barry, whose previous five goals this season had all been from the penalty spot, timed his run perfectly to send a powerful header past Ali Al Habsi into the corner of the net.
Villa took command and Stiliyan Petrov picked out a surging run from Agbonlahor towards the Bolton box but Joey O'Brien was alert to the situation with a well-timed challenge.
Ex-Villa midfielder Gavin McCann got in an important challenge as Petrov lined up a shot from 20 yards.
Davies gave Villa a scare when his cross-cum-shot curled on to the top of the crossbar but the hosts were soon back on the offensive and Taylor flung himself full length to block a shot from the dangerous Young.
Reo-Coker found the dangerous Young in space on the right and Al Habsi did well to cut out his low cross with Agbonlahor and John Carew unmarked in the centre.
Taylor tried his luck from 35 yards with a free-kick which took a wicked deflection off Agbonlahor and wrong-footed Scott Carson but flew just wide.
Villa looked out of sorts for a brief spell at the start of the second period but after 55 minutes they doubled their lead through Agbonlahor.
A quickfire move down the left carved open the Bolton defence with Young finding the overlapping Barry and his first-time cross was deflected past Al Habsi by Agbonlahor.
It was the first time Agbonlahor had found the net in 13 matches since scoring against Wigan in late December.
Five minutes later Villa made virtually sure of victory with Barry's second goal.
Young had a shot blocked and the ball ballooned back to Barry whose goal-bound effort took a deflection off Andy O'Brien before beating Al Habsi.
With five minutes left, substitute Harewood, who replaced the injured Carew, completed the scoring with a glancing header from Barry's inswinging free-kick.
English Premier League
Aston Villa 4 (Barry 9, 60, Agbonlahor 56, Harewood 85)
Bolton Wanderers 0