Walsall Preview

By Mark Heys
September 18 2006

Bolton take a break from Premiership action tommorow evening as they face high flying League Two side Walsall in the Second Round of the Carling Cup.

The high flying Saddlers overcame Championship side Plymouth Argyle in the last round of this competition and they currently remain unbeaten at the Bescot Stadium this season with five home wins out of five games played so far.

Walsall are also freescoring at the moment as the recent victories against Peterborough United and Macclesfield Town has shown, but perhaps more impressive is the fact that they have yet to concede a goal on home soil this term.

Sam Allardyce will send his Bolton troops to the West Midlands with progression to the next round in mind but he knows that his Walsall counterpart Richard Money will have other ideas and will look to cause an upset. 

Iran World Cup star Andranik Teimourian could be handed his first start in Bolton colours as could the veteran Israeli midfielder Idan Tal who has impressed sufficiently in recent games when coming off the substitutes bench.

Kevin Davies (cheekbone), Joey O'Brien (knee), Henrik Pedersen (achillies) and Ricardo Gardner (knee) are unlikely to be risked as they continue their rehabilitation but recent injury victim Stelios Giannakopoulos may once again get to play from the start.

Ex-England international Ian Walker could be handed a rare outing in place of Jussi Jaaskelainen in goal and there could also be places in the sixteen for Academy graduates Johann Smith and Jarostaw Fojut.

Walsall manager Money will be without the suspended Anthony Gerrard for this game after the ex-Everton youngster was sent off in a recent game against Peterborough so Australian Allan Picken could be given another run out in defence.

Midfielder Darren Wrack and forward Alex Nicholls are both on the treatment table but quartet Clayton Ince, James Constable, Hector Sam and Martin Butler should be okay to play despite picking up knocks during the weekend win over Macclesfield.

LEAGUE CUP RECORD

11/09/2001 BOLTON WANDERERS 4 (Ricketts, Holdsworth, Nishizawa, Pedersen) WALSALL 3 (Wrack, Byfield, Barrass)

18/09/2003 BOLTON WANDERERS 3 (Jardel 2, Nolan) WALSALL 1 (Merson)

LEAGUE CUP FORM GUIDE:

Played: 2

Won: 2

Drawn: 0

Lost: 0

CONNECTIONS

Alan Boswell, Steve Elliott, David Holdsworth, John Manning, Andy Oakes, Dennis Peacock, Michael Ricketts, Paul Ritchie, Bryan Small, Chris Thompson, Ray Train, Gavin Ward, Terry Wharton

IT HAPPENED WHEN BOLTON PLAYED WALSALL

The first League Cup meeting between these two sides occured five years ago on the same day as the 9/11 disaster in America. As a result of the days shock news flags where flown at half mast outside the ground and a minutes silence was held before the game.

It was an eventful first cup meeting as the two sides shared out seven goals between them. Michael Ricketts found the target for Bolton against his former club, Walsall goalkeeper Lee Harper was carried off, Bolton's Colin Hendry was sent off and Akinori Nishizawa scored on his Wanderers debut.

Three years ago former Golden Boot winner Mario Jardel struck his first goals in English football as he helped The Trotters to a 3-1 victory. Ex-England international Paul Merson replied for Walsall with a header and ex-Wanderer Paul Ritchie played the whole game for the Saddlers in defence.