Sheffield United Preview

By Mark Heys
January 4 2008

It's the third round of the FA Cup tommorow afternoon and for Bolton Wanderers that means that they will be up against Championship side Sheffield United in a potentially difficult tie at the Reebok Stadium.

Last season these two teams came face to face in the Premiership with Bolton gunning for a European place and United hoping to consolidate their position in the top flight.

Times have changed dramatically since then, both sides lost long serving managers in the shape of Sam Allardyce and Neil Warnock, the Blades returned to the Championship after just one season and Bolton themselves are now at the wrong end of the top flight table.

The FA Cup represents a break from the league though and in some cases can help kick start a good period of form without the pressure of having to get points on the board.

Bolton's dramatic late win over Derby County on Wednesday night was their fourth home win in succession and they will be aiming for another victory on Saturday against a side who's record at the Reebok is generally quite good.

Bolton manager Gary Megson will have to go into this game without the suspended Kevin Davies after the striker picked up his fifth booking of the campaign against Derby.

El-Hadji Diouf and Abdoulaye Meite will play their last game for the club prior to jetting off to play for their respective countries in the African Nations Cup tournament.

Greek international Stelios Giannakopoulos will be pushing for a rare start following his goalscoring exploits in midweek and there could also be a place in the sixteen for recent signing Tamir Cohen.

Blades boss Bryan Robson is without his injured top goalscorer James Beattie and former Manchester United trainee Danny Webber but there is some good news for the Yorkshire side as Rob Hulse is now back in action after a long spell out of action with a broken leg.

Veteran midfielder Gary Speed, who is ironically on loan from Bolton, will not be able to play due to the terms of his transfer and this could also apply to Phil Bardsley and Gary Cahill.

Bolton target Chris Morgan is once again expected to be out of contention having made only one appearance for Sheffield in the past couple of months.

LAST TIME WE MET:

31/03/2007 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Davies) SHEFFIELD UNITED 0

BOLTON: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Nicky Hunt, Tal Ben-Haim, Abdoulaye Meite, Ricardo Gardner, Kevin Nolan, Abdoulaye Faye, Gary Speed, Kevin Davies, Nicolas Anelka, El-Hadji Diouf (Andranik Teimourian)

SUBS NOT USED: Stelios Giannakopoulos, David Thompson, Idan Tal, Ian Walker (GK)

UNITED: Paddy Kenny, Leigh Bromby, Phil Jagielka, Chris Lucketti, Matthew Kilgallon, Keith Gillespie (Luton Shelton), Nick Montgomery, Mikele Leigertwood, Michael Tonge, Colin Kazim-Richards, Christian Nade (Jon Stead)

SUBS NOT USED: Chris Morgan, Chris Armstrong, Derek Geary

PLAYED FOR BOTH:

Malcolm Barrass, Nathan Blake, Andy Campbell, Franz Carr, Aidan Davison, Bob Hatton, David Holdsworth, Garry Jones, Andy Kennedy, Mark Patterson, Tony Philliskirk, Martin Pike, Terry Poole, Billy Russell, Gary Speed, Andy Walker

DID YOU KNOW?:

Bolton-born Greg Strong scored his only goal for the Wanderers when these two sides met in August 1998.

Kevin Davies, a boyhood supporter of the Blades, scored for Bolton in each of the two fixtures played against Sheffield United last season.

Trotters chief Gary Megson grew up in Sheffield and spent the large majority of his playing career with the Blades arch rivals Sheffield Wednesday.

Former Wanderers players Brian Kidd and Scott Sellars are prominent members of Bryan Robson's coaching staff at Sheffield United.