Craig Bellamy kept Newcastle in the Premiership title race with a late winner to end courageous Bolton's hopes of causing an upset.

A game of sheer, unadulterated excitement saw Bolton twice take the lead through Ricardo Gardner and Nicky Southall, Alan Shearer twice haul Newcastle level and then Bellamy strike to win the game for the Magpies.

The three points mean Newcastle continue to hang in there just behind leaders Manchester United - and if they win their game in hand they would be in front of Sir Alex Ferguson's side.

The victory eased Newcastle's misery at Kieron Dyer's latest injury, as does the prospect of £5million signing Jermaine Jenas joining from Nottingham Forest on Monday.

This match was a thriller from the start, and Bellamy blew a brilliant chance to put Newcastle in the lead in the very first minute when he darted onto Nolberto Solano's pass, took the ball past Jussi Jaaskelainen - keeping his feet admirably despite some slight contact from the Bolton keeper - but was driven too wide.

Gary Speed thumped a header over the bar from a corner, then Laurent Robert hit a wickedly swerving effort from distance a yard too high.

Bolton strung together an excellent move to come within inches of scoring. Kevin Nolan's clever backheel opened up space for Fredi Bobic to cross and Michael Ricketts missed the ball by a whisker, and it bobbled just wide of the far post.

In the 20th minute, Bolton stunned St James' Park by going ahead. Gardner robbed Solano as the Peruvian dallied on the ball, sprinted between the two Newcastle centre-backs and hit a shot with the outside of his left foot which went in off the post.

Three minutes later, Newcastle won an indirect free-kick just inside the box when David Elleray penalised Jaaskelainen for holding onto the ball longer than six seconds.

The Finnish keeper claimed Shearer had been preventing him from kicking the ball but to no avail, and to rub salt in the wound it was Shearer who made Bolton pay.

Solano tapped him the ball and the striker fired through the wall low into the corner.

Fired up by that, Bolton had a couple of half-chances before Nicky Southall struck a superb goal to put the visitors in front again.

Newcastle failed to deal with a corner, Nolan crossed again and Distin just managed to poke the ball away from Ricketts.

It ran to Southall who struck a first-time shot of such ferocity that Shay Given could hardly have seen the ball as it arrowed into the top corner.

Jaaskelainen tipped over Bellamy's accurate header from Distin's cross before Bolton so nearly scored again.

Gardner tormented Newcastle on the break before setting up Simon Charlton, who struck a powerful low shot only for Given to pull off an astonishing save.

Shortly before the break Newcastle equalised once more, and it was that man Shearer again.

Solano placed neat pass inside full-back Charlton and Aaron Hughes did exceptionally well to pull over a cross that Shearer met on the run to thump a header past Jaaskelainen for his 10th goal in 11 games.

After that first half, it seemed inconceivable the second period would be goalless, but both defences must have had a half-time talking-to about tightening up.

Shearer snatched at a good chance for his hat-trick when Solano's corner reached him through a crowd of bodies, and his shot drifted wide.

Then when Bellamy bent over a good cross, the Newcastle striker just could not get the height to meet it.

A piece of Gardner magic left Hughes and Nikos Dabizas chasing shadows, and if Bobic - in a slightly deeper role in the second half - had reacted quicker to Ricketts' header Bolton might have taken the lead again.

Robert skied a free-kick well over the bar from 25 yards, then Gardner forced a diving save from Given with a powerful shot from distance that nearly deceived the Newcastle keeper with its swerve.

Sam Allardyce threw caution to the wind after that, but Bolton never looked like scoring and their relegation battle looks, increasingly, a tough one.

Teams:

Newcastle: Given, Hughes, O'Brien, Dabizas, Distin, Solano, McClen (Acuna 81), Speed, Robert, Shearer, Bellamy.

Subs Not Used: Elliott, Harper, Ameobi, Bernard.

Goals: Shearer 23, 43, Bellamy 79.

Bolton: Jaaskelainen, Barness, Bergsson, Whitlow, Southall, Farrelly, Nolan (Pedersen 81), Charlton, Gardner, Bobic (Holdsworth 85), Ricketts (Hansen 88).

Subs Not Used: Forchelet, Poole.

Booked: Jaaskelainen.

Goals: Gardner 19, Southall 34.

Att: 52,094

Ref: D Elleray (Harrow-on-the-Hill).