Liverpool Preview

By Mark Heys
December 31 2006

Bolton are aiming to start the New Year on a high as they take on Liverpool at Anfield for the first match of the 2007 calendar year.

Victory against Portsmouth at the end of December meant the Wanderers recorded their fifth straight win in all competitions so Sam Allardyce will be hoping that his side can continue the trend going into a new year.

Only Blackburn have defeated Liverpool in the league since mid-November and you have to back to Benfica's success in the Champions League to find a visiting club successful from their trip to Anfield so this fixture could make very interesting reading especially when you consider that third placed Bolton take on fifth placed Liverpool.

The Trotters will be hoping to cement their third double of the season in quick succession having already defeated Newcastle United and Pompey over the festive season.

Back in September goals from Gary Speed and Ivan Campo earned the Wanderers victory over Liverpool but you have to go back over three years to find any Bolton win at Anfield with Liverpool winning the last two meetings by a singular goal.

Bolton are likely to remain unchanged from the teams which have proved victorious over the last two matches so that will mean starting places for former Liverpool duo El-Hadji Diouf and Nicolas Anelka.

The likes of Ricardo Gardner, Henrik Pedersen and Idan Tal are all chomping at the bit to get a place in the starting line up and this could come sooner rather than later as the Premiership season enters its second half.

Joey O'Brien and Quinton Fortune will be out for the long term but Stelios Giannakopoulos is making a good recovery from the injury which forced his premature exit from the game against Aston Villa over a fortnight ago.

Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez is without long term injury casualties Mohammed Sissoko and Harry Kewell. There is also a slight doubt over the fitness of experienced midfielder Bolo Zenden after the Dutchman picked up a recent knee injury.

PREMIERSHIP RECORD

23/09/1995 LIVERPOOL 5 (Fowler 4, Harkness) BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Todd, Patterson)

09/12/1995 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 LIVERPOOL 1 (Collymore)

01/11/1997 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Blake) LIVERPOOL 1 (Fowler)

07/03/1998 LIVERPOOL 2 (Ince, Owen) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Thompson)

27/08/2001 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Ricketts, Holdsworth) LIVERPOOL 1 (Heskey)

01/01/2002 LIVERPOOL 1 (Gerrard) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Nolan)

14/09/2002 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Gardner, Campo) LIVERPOOL 3 (Baros 2, Heskey)

08/03/2003 LIVERPOOL 2 (Diouf, Owen) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

26/12/2003 LIVERPOOL 3 (Hyppia, Sinama-Pongolle, Smicer) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Pedersen)

07/02/2004 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Hunt, Djorkaeff) LIVERPOOL 2 (Hyppia, Gerrard)

29/08/2004 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Davies) LIVERPOOL 0

02/04/2005 LIVERPOOL 1 ( Biscan) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

02/01/2006 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Jaidi, Diouf) LIVERPOOL 2 (Gerrard, Garcia)

09/04/2006 LIVERPOOL 1 (Fowler) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

30/09/2006 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Speed, Campo) LIVERPOOL 0

PREMIERSHIP FORM GUIDE:

Played: 15

Won: 3

Drawn: 4

Lost: 8

CONNECTIONS

Nicolas Anelka, Peter Beardsley, El-Hadji Diouf, Roger Hunt, Sammy Lee, Jason McAteer, Phil Neal, Jon Otsemobor, Mark Seagraves, Peter Thompson, Johnny Wheeler

IT HAPPENED WHEN BOLTON PLAYED LIVERPOOL

Premiership legend Robbie Fowler ran riot when these two sides met in September 1995 as he scored four goals for Liverpool in their 5-2 win over the Wanderers at Anfield.

Fowler scored again in the first ever meeting between these two sides at the Reebok Stadium in November 1997 but later saw red in that game for striking a Bolton player.

Current Celtic winger Alan Thompson scored a superb goal from distance at Anfield in March 1998 when playing a one-two with then Bolton team mate Nathan Blake. Liverpool came back to win the game 2-1 with a rather youthful Michael Owen on the scoresheet.

Dean Holdsworth scored one of the most bizarre goals in Bolton history as his last minute effort slithered under Liverpool goalkeeper Sander Westerveld to give Bolton a 2-1 victory in this fixture in August 2001.

Bolton where forced to give 17-year old youngster Danny Livesey his debut in this fixture in September 2002 as a first half substitute for the injured Anthony Barness. Liverpool went on to win the game 3-2 courtesy in the main of two Milan Baros goals

Liverpudlian Kevin Nolan captained the Bolton side on his first visit as a Bolton player to Anfield on New Years Day 2002 and weighed in with the Wanderers goal in a 1-1 draw.

Current Wanderer El-Hadji Diouf was once a ten million Liverpool signing but scored just three goals in over 50 games. One of his three Reds goals came against Bolton at Anfield in March 2003.

Bolton record buy Nicolas Anelka spent the latter half of the 2001-2002 season on loan to Liverpool. He scored four league goals from a possible twenty matches.