Football – England – Championship
Friday 24th August 2012 – Kickoff: 1945hrs
Apologies for this being a little late…
Bolton Wanderers take on Nottingham Forest at the Reebok Stadium on Friday night with the hosts looking to post back-to-back victories for the first time since March when they were still in the Premiership.
Back then, they beat QPR and Blackburn Rovers both with 2-1 scorelines and these were both home matches too incidentally. If there was a record for the number of pre-season friendlies then Bolton must be in contention as during this summer they played a total of 11 friendly matches, and the players should be ‘match-fit’ if nothing else by now! Manager Owen Coyle has drafted in a couple of players also during this time with former Leeds United keeper Andy Lonergan joining The Trotters to cover for the departure of Jussi Jaaskelainen who has re-joined Sam Allardyce and West Ham.
Keith Andrews from West Brom, defender Matt Mills from Leicester City (solid signing) and Benik Afobe (on loan from Arsenal) are the other stand-out signings to add to a squad that has pretty much remained despite the drop.
Manager Owen Coyle would have endured a Championship baptism of fire on the season’s opening day when his side travelled to Burnley and got beaten 0-2! But with that tricky and awkward fixture out of the way, Bolton bounced back quickly with a midweek win over Derby County 2-0 at home and the visit of Nottingham Forest is next up.
Bolton have a number of dangerous players at their disposal despite being relegated from the Premiership; midfielders Eagles, Petrov, Pratley, M.Davies and Andrews, along with Kevin Davies, David N’Gog and new signing striker Marvin Sordell from Watford.
Let’s not forget their defence consisting of Mills, Ricketts, Knight and Mears also.
Nottingham Forest make the trip up north for this one on the back of a couple of solid results; 1-0 at home over Bristol City and a hard-earned 1-1 draw at Huddersfield midweek sees them currently in the top six. New manager Sean O’Driscoll will be keen to gain an improvement on last season’s finish of 19th place, which was in no small part down to the ‘wally with the brolly’ Steve McLaren.
Forest have swooped for a few handy players in the off-season with the likes of Simon Gillett, Daniel Harding, Daniel Ayala, Simon Cox, Sam Hutchinson (on loan from Chelsea), Greg Halford and Danny Collins. Defenders Luke Chambers and Joel Lynch are the notable departures and it’s a similar picture as with the recent Blackburn Rovers/Hull City fixture where the hosts’ squad remained largely the same, whilst the visitors have a new manager and a large influx of new players.
This suggests to me that Bolton have the edge tonight over their opponents, and also given Nottingham Forest’s away form of last season (8-3-12 27/31) I think they will depend on their home form to establish a mid-table position this season which I feel is their true league position right now; a 2-1 home win for Bolton here, but again I’ll play it safe as it’s early season and a draw loses half of your stake.
Pick: Bolton Wanderers AH-0.25 @ 1.77 Pinnacle
