O'Brien Makes Return To Action

Comeback Kid O'Brien
By Mark Heys
August 22 2007

Joey O'Brien will make his first Bolton Wanderers appearance in over twelve months this evening when lining up for the reserves in their game against Manchester City at the County Ground in Leyland.

The Republic of Ireland international last turned out for the Trotters in their pre-season friendly at Burnley in July 2006 before medics discovered that he had a tendonitis problem in his knee.

Now the 21-year old Dubliner hopes to make the first steps to a full recovery to try and get back to the form which made him a surprise find of the 2005-2006 season.

Jimmy Phillips reserve champions take on City for the second time in over a week as nine days ago two Zoltan Harsanyi goals defeated the Citezens in the Manchester Senior Cup tie at Sport City.

Ricardo Gardner makes his first Bolton appearance since the Peace Cup last month and new signing Andy O'Brien joins the likes of Danny Guthrie, James Sinclair and Jaroslaw Fojut in the starting eleven.

City include goalkeeper Richard Martin who recently completed a Free Transfer move from League One side Brighton & Hove Albion.

BOLTON WANDERERS RESERVES: Ali Al-Habsi, Joey O'Brien, Scott Jamieson, Chris Basham, Andy O'Brien, Jaroslaw Fojut, James Sinclair, Danny Guthrie, Leslie Thompson, Temitope Obadeyi, Ricardo Gardner

SUBS FROM: Robert Sissons, Przemyslaw Kazimierczak, Johann Smith, David Gbermie, Nathan Wolfe

MANCHESTER CITY RESERVES: Richard Martin, Joe Clegg, Ben Mee, Shaleum Logan, Vladimir Weiss, Garry Breen, Scott Kay, Clayton McDonald, Sam Williamson, Paul Marshall, Michael Daly, Marc Laird, Adam Clayton, Ashley Grimes, Donal McDermott, Karl Moore, Javan Vidal