Manchester City Preview

By Mark Heys
September 17 2005

Bolton Wanderers are hoping that they can burst Manchester City's bubble when they make the short journey to the City of Manchester Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

City are as yet undefeated since the turn of the new campaign and currently occupy a position in the top three of the Premiership alongside London clubs Charlton Athletic and Chelsea.

They have found new optimism since appointing former England full back Stuart Pearce as their new manager and despite the sale of Shaun Wright-Phillips they are now playing better as a team.

Wanderers have just defeated Bulgarian outfit Lokomotiv Plovdiv in the UEFA Cup first round a couple of days ago, but they stress that there will be no European hangover at Eastlands.

Sam Allardyce's side won at City last season thanks to an El-Hadji Diouf goal and they will be looking for a repeat of that 1-0 scoreline in tommorow's local derby.

Allardyce is expected to recall Tal Ben-Haim and Kevin Davies to his side after both missed the game against Plovdiv on Thursday. Davies had been suffering from an ankle problem but he is expected to return to the Trotters first eleven.

Fabrice Fernandes may once again get a place on the Bolton bench after impressing as a second half substitute in midweek. Veteran midfielder Gary Speed may return to action in place of Japanese international Hidetoshi Nakata but all depends on whether or not the ex-Leeds player can shake off a hamstring problem.

City manager Stuart Pearce is boosted by the return of Sylvain Distin and Robbie Fowler from injury but youngster Bradley Wright-Phillips is once again absent due to a knee problem

PREMIERSHIP RECORD

04/11/1995 MANCHESTER CITY 1 (Summerbee) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

30/03/1996 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (McGinlay) MANCHESTER CITY 1 (Quinn)

30/11/2002 MANCHESTER CITY 2 (Howey, Berkovic) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

05/04/2003 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Pedersen, Campo) MANCHESTER CITY 0

18/10/2003 MANCHESTER CITY 6 (Wright-Phillips 2, Distin, Anelka 2, Reyna) BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Nolan, Campo)

21/02/2004 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Nolan) MANCHESTER CITY 3 (Fowler 2, Charlton O.G)

18/12/2004 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 MANCHESTER CITY 1 (Barton)

07/03/2005 MANCHESTER CITY 0 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Diouf)

PREMIERSHIP FORM GUIDE:

Played: 8

Won: 2

Drawn: 1

Lost: 5

CONNECTIONS

Peter Barnes, Peter Beardsley, David Cross, Tony Cunningham, Wyn Davies, Andy Dibble, Mike Doyle, Asa Hartford, Colin Hendry, Tony Henry, Freddie Hill, Steve Howey, Alan Kernaghan, Brian Kidd, Francis Lee, Stuart Lee, Billy McAdams, Neil McNab, Andy May, Jamie Pollock, Peter Reid, Paul Ritchie, Mark Seagraves, Barry Siddall, Nicky Summerbee, Gerry Taggart, Mike Walsh, Tommy Wright

IT HAPPENED WHEN BOLTON PLAYED CITY

City hadn't won a game all season prior to their game against Bolton in November 1995. Both sides had been languishing at the bottom of the Premiership but Alan Ball's City team came away with the win thanks to a goal from future Wanderer Nicky Summerbee.

Goalkeeper Gavin Ward made his Bolton debut against City in March 1996 and his first job as a Trotters player was to pick the ball out of the net following Niall Quinn's first minute header.

Bolton's first ever visit to the City of Manchester Stadium in October 2003 ended in disaster as City destroyed Bolton by six goals to two and all this came after the Wanderers had taken a first minute lead.

City coach Derek Fazackerley had a short spell on Bolton's coaching staff in the spring of 1999.