The late goal curse that blighted Bolton for much of last season cost them victory again in a tense local derby with Blackburn.
Wanderers took a 2-0 lead after dominating the first half but Rovers hit back five minutes after the interval through Matt Jansen.
The Rovers revival appeared to be in full swing but seemed to have ended when Steven Reid, 12 minutes into his debut, was red-carded.
Yet with four minutes of added time testing Wanderers' resistance, Rovers snatched a Dwight Yorke 93rd minute equaliser, just as they did last season when a late Craig Short goal denied Sam Allardyce's side the winning point.
Yet it had started so well for the home side. With new Brazilian striker Mario Jardel on the subs bench, Wanderers showed their attacking prowess in the opening two minutes.
Architect of the opening opportunity in the 1st minute was Youri Djorkaeff, whose 25-yard chip shot beat the retreating Brad Friedel, but just flew over the far angle of the post and bar.
That hardly mattered as within 60 seconds Wanderers were ahead as Jay Jay Okocha's trickery forced Lucas Neill into a clumsy challenge inside the area and referee Andy d'Urso pointed to the spot and Djorkaeff dispatched the penalty into the far left corner.
After the opening day 4-0 disappointment against the champions at Old Trafford it was the encouragement Wanderers needed at a packed Reebok.
They ran most of the play and forced Rovers into a number of errors that had manager Graeme Souness racing off the bench to berate his bemused players.
Neill was booked after being mesmerised by Ricardo Gardner's sprint and in the 25th minute striker Kevin Davies, once a £7million misfit at Ewood Park fired the home side into a deserved 2-0 lead after picking up Djorkaeff's precision pass and firing it into the far bottom corner.
Frustration brought further bookings of Garry Flitcroft and Brett Emerton while Wanderers' Kevin Nolan was also showed a first-half yellow card.
If Davies had needed a goal to pick up his career the same was true of Jansen.
Out for most of last season after a holiday motor-cycle accident, he fired Rovers back into the game five minutes after the break as he turned David Thompson's cross past the stranded Jussi Jaaskelainen.
That breathed new life into Rovers and Andy Cole came on to add some more potency, although it was his strike partner Yorke who forced Nicky Hunt into a goal-line clearance.
The game flared up in the 88th minute when Wanderers' Greek sub Stelios Giannakopoulos was flattened by Rovers new signing Steven Reid. It was only 12 minutes into his debut when he received the red card from the referee.
Yet Rovers still had the last word as Yorke headed in Corrado Grabbi's cross three minutes into added time.