Football – England – Championship
Saturday 1st December 2012 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
Bolton will be looking to post back-to-back Championship wins for the first time this season when they welcome Ipswich Town to the Reebok Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Bolton secured a much-needed win and all three points for a change in their important Lancashire derby at Blackburn Rovers on Wednesday night which will give them belief and confidence going into this match against a struggling Ipswich outfit.
Bolton are unbeaten in their last six matches with wins over Cardiff City and Blackburn Rovers along with four draws involving Leicester City, Blackpool, Barnsley and Brighton, they’ll certainly be looking for another maximum return on Saturday. Bolton’s home form stands at 4-4-1 14/10 and they’ve also posted wins over Derby County, Watford and Bristol City. The Trotters’ attacking personnel have depended largely on the shoulders of playmaker Chris Eagles (6 goals, 9 assists) and striker Kevin Davies (5 goals, 4 assists) but they also have the likes of Chung Yong-Lee and Martin Petrov & former Liverpool forward David N’Gog on the bench who are still capable of creating and scoring.
Ipswich travel north with a certain amount of confidence behind them following their midweek win over Nottingham Forest, along with another recent win over Burnley 2-1 and a point shared at home with Peterborough United. However, Ipswich’s recent successes have been in front of their home fans while away from home they are still struggling.
An early season away win at Watford and a narrow 1-0 win at hapless Birmingham City a couple of weeks ago are the meagre returns from their away-days and The Tractor Boys’ away record currently stands at 2-2-5 5/23 and they are sitting precariously just two points above relegation rivals Bristol City. Ipswich’s failure in front of goal away from home has been their downfall so far as they’ve failed to hit the back of the net on four occasions.
They’ve also had heavy defeats inflicted on them by Blackpool 0-6, Crystal Palace 0-5 and Leicester City 0-6, so if Bolton score first it’ll be interesting to see how they respond. DJ Campbell is their leading scorer with 5 goals but 4 of the 5 have been at Portman Road. Daryl Murphy (3 goals) and dangerous striker Michael Chopra (2 goals) make up the other scorers, and the latter is starting to return to match-time and came off the bench against Forest for a few minutes the other night.
Bolton will be buoyed by their recent derby win at Blackburn while all too often, Ipswich Town’s defence has let them down particularly on their travels. I’ll plump for a home win here with Bolton taking the honours 2-1.
Pick: Bolton Wanderers straight win @ 1.73 Coral should come home
