Blackburn Rovers Preview

By Mark Heys
March 2 2007

The Wanderers hope to get back to winning ways this Sunday lunchtime as they take on Lancashire rivals Blackburn Rovers at the Reebok Stadium.

Last weekend Sam Allardyce's side lost heavily to Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane with three of the four goals conceded coming in the opening twenty two minutes of the game.

The eventual scoreline was 4-1 in Spurs favour and Allardyce will want his back line to tighten up for the visit of Rovers who are in a bouyant mood following their cup exploits earlier this week.

Earlier on in the season an Ivan Campo header gave Bolton the victory against Blackburn at Ewood Park in a game which also saw Wanderers keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen save two late penalties.

Rovers offered their near neighbours reduced ticket prices for the game and Wanderers duly responded by packing out the whole of the Darwen End. It is hoped that such an atmosphere can be generated this Sunday for what is usually a well fought encounter.

Bolton will have defender Tal Ben-Haim and ex-Blackburn man David Thompson back from suspension but another former Rover in the shape of Kevin Davies (ankle) misses out through injury.

Adboulaye Meite is banned after picking up his fifth booking of the season against Spurs and Abdoulaye Faye is doubtful after picking up a knock in the same game.

Either Cesar Martin or Lubomir Michalik could be in line for their Bolton debuts if Faye misses out but alternatively manager Allardyce could once again move Ivan Campo back into the defence as was the case in North London last weekend.

Rovers will be without broken leg victims Robbie Savage and Andre Ooijer as well as Irish midfielder Stephen Reid who has knee ligament damage. Former Bolton transfer target David Dunn will play his last game for Blackburn before serving a suspension.

PREMIERSHIP RECORD

26/08/1995 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (De Freitas, Stubbs) BLACKBURN ROVERS 1 (Holmes)

03/02/1996 BLACKBURN ROVERS 3 (Shearer 3) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Green)

06/12/1997 BLACKBURN ROVERS 3 (Gallacher, Sutton, Wilcox) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Frandsen)

11/04/1998 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Holdsworth, Taylor) BLACKBURN ROVERS 1 (Duff)

19/09/2001 BLACKBURN ROVERS 1 (Neill) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Wallace)

02/03/2002 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Wallace) BLACKBURN ROVERS 1 (Jansen)

07/12/2002 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Okocha) BLACKBURN ROVERS 1 (Short)

21/04/2003 BLACKBURN ROVERS 0 BOLTON WANDERERS 0

23/08/2003 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Djorkaeff, Davies) BLACKBURN ROVERS 2 (Jansen, Yorke)

10/01/2004 BLACKBURN ROVERS 3 (Gresko, Yorke, Cole) BOLTON WANDERERS 4 (Nolan 2, Djorkaeff, Giannakopoulos)

28/12/2004 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 BLACKBURN ROVERS 1 (Dickov)

24/01/2005 BLACKBURN ROVERS 0 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Diouf)

11/09/2005 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 BLACKBURN ROVERS 0

14/01/2006 BLACKBURN ROVERS 0 BOLTON WANDERERS 0

21/09/2006 BLACKBURN ROVERS 0 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Campo)

PREMIERSHIP FORM GUIDE:

Played: 15

Won: 5

Drawn: 7

Lost: 3

CONNECTIONS

Nathan Blake, John Byrom, Paul Comstive, Walter Crook, Malcolm Darling, Kevin Davies, Youri Djorkaeff, Reg Elvy, Per Frandsen, Colin Hendry, George Higgins, Matt Jansen, Glenn Keeley, Andy Kennedy, Bobby Langton, Jason McAteer, Harry McShane, Mark Patterson, Leam Richardson, Stuart Ripley, Mike Salmon, Scott Sellars, Gordon Taylor, Chris Thompson, David Thompson, Andy Todd, Paul Warhurst

IT HAPPENED WHEN BOLTON PLAYED ROVERS

Bolton secured their first ever Premiership win against Rovers back in August 1995. Fabian De Freitas had given the Trotters the lead from close range in the first half but Rovers equalised via a long range shot from Matty Holmes. An Alan Stubbs header secured all three points for Bolton ten minutes from time against the then Premiership champions.

Rod Wallace scored on his Bolton debut in this fixture in September 2001. He did likewise in the reverse fixture held at the Reebok Stadium later on that season.

In the January 2005 fixture El-Hadji Diouf was adjudged to have dived to earn a late penalty at Ewood Park. Diouf missed the resulting spot kick but tapped in the rebound for the winning goal to incense the Rovers who where later proved right in their accusations of diving

Kevin Davies netted his first Bolton goal against Rovers in August 2003, ironically Blackburn paid out £7.5 million for the striker some five years previously.

In the meeting between these two sides last season striker Matt Jansen made his debut for Bolton just 24 hours after leaving Blackburn on a Free Transfer. The game ended goalless but Hidetoshi Nakata saw red for Wanderers after a second bookable offence.