Blackburn Rovers Preview

By Mark Heys
September 9 2005

Bolton Wanderers will be looking for their third straight win in as many games as they take on Lancashire rivals Blackburn Rovers at the Reebok Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Games between the two local foes have been tight encounters in recent years with hardly anything to separate the two sides. Last season both games ended 1-0 with each club gaining one win each.

Bolton and Blackburn will check on the fitness of their international players following the World Cup qualifiying matches this week but the extra day's recouperation could prove useful.

Wanderers boss Sam Allardyce looks to include recent signing Fabrice Fernandes in some capacity following his move from Southampton nearly two weeks ago. Fellow new boys Hidetoshi Nakata and Jared Borgetti are also pushing for roles in the squad but it seems likely that Allardyce will stick with most of the eleven who beat West Ham.

Radhi Jaidi (hamstring), Ricardo Gardner (hamstring) and Khalilou Fadiga (knee)have all been suffering from injuries in recent weeks but are a step closer to returning to the Bolton fold.

Blackburn manager Mark Hughes will be without the suspended Andy Todd so on-loan Rangers player Zurab Khizanishvili could be handed his debut in place of the ex-Trotters defender.

David Bentley may also make his Rovers bow following his loan move from Arsenal a fortnight ago. Attacking duo Craig Bellamy and Paul Dickov hope to be fit following recent injuries.

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)

PREMIERSHIP FORM GUIDE:

Played: 12

Won: 4

Drawn: 5

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, Glenn Keeley, Andy Kennedy, Bobby Langton, Jason McAteer, Harry McShane, Mark Patterson, Leam Richardson, Stuart Ripley, Mike Salmon, Scott Sellars, Gordon Taylor, Chris 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.