Middlesbrough Preview

By Mark Heys
May 2 2006

UEFA Cup finalists Middlesbrough are the visitors to the Reebok Stadium tommorow evening in what will be Bolton Wanderers penultimate game of the season.

The fixture was originally due to be played at the end of December but a fault with the clubs undersoil heating and a few days of bad weather put paid to the game going ahead on account of safety reasons.

At the time Boro where enduring an awful run of form and had to contend with a number of injury problems to key players but this has since now eased as the Teesiders celebrate an upturn in form and progression in two key cup competitions.

Just over Five weeks ago the two sides battled out an exciting seven goal thriller which was to go the way of Boro and start a bad sequence of results for the Wanderers who had failed to register a league win on away soil throughout the first part of 2006.

The defeat began a run of negativity which some may argue is still evident but an encouraging Bolton performance at White Hart Lane against Spurs on Sunday will give the Trotters the right type of preparation going into this game where two potential England managers come face to face.

Bolton's manager Sam Allardyce will be without striker El-Hadji Diouf for the rest of the season after the ex-Liverpool striker failed to recover fully from a hernia problem picked up in the African Cup of Nations.

Diouf's fellow compatriot Khalilou Fadiga is also out of contention until next season but the likes of Joey O'Brien and Radhi Jaidi are now fit after struggling with injuries over the past few weeks..

Boro may once again rest a number of key players in light of their pending European final so that could once again mean places for the likes of David Wheater, Matthew Bates and Lee Cattermole.

It will be the second league game in three days for the North East side as they gallantly held a Manchester United side to a goalless draw at Old Trafford on Bank Holiday Monday.

Mark Schwarzer, Gaizka Mendieta and Emmanuel Pogatetz are out for the rest of the season and there is some doubts about the fitness of Gareth Southgate, Jimmy Floyd-Hasselbaink, Mark Viduka and Tony McMahon

PREMIERSHIP RECORD

09/09/1995 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (McGinlay) MIDDLESBROUGH 1 (Hignett)

17/02/1996 MIDDLESBROUGH 1 (Pollock) BOLTON WANDERERS 4 (Blake, Coleman, De Freitas, Lee)

21/08/2001 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Ricketts) MIDDLESBROUGH 0

19/01/2002 MIDDLESBROUGH 1 (Whelan) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Hansen)

05/10/2002 MIDDLESBROUGH 2 (Ehiogu, Geremi) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

11/05/2003 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Frandsen, Okocha) MIDDLESBROUGH 1 (Ricketts)

13/09/2003 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Davies, N'Gotty) MIDDLESBROUGH 0

03/04/2004 MIDDLESBROUGH 2 (Nolan (OG), Greening) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

07/11/2004 MIDDLESBROUGH 1 (Boateng) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Pedersen)

12/02/2005 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 MIDDLESBROUGH 0

26/03/2006 MIDDLESBROUGH 4 (Hasselbaink 2, Viduka, Parnaby) BOLTON WANDERERS 3 (Giannakopoulos, Okocha, Jaidi)

PREMIERSHIP FORM GUIDE:

Played: 11

Won: 4

Drawn: 4

Lost: 3

CONNECTIONS

Ian Bailey, Anthony Barness, Andy Campbell, Simon Coleman, Neil Cox, Andy Dibble, Allan Johnston, Alan Kernaghan, Gary Parkinson, Jimmy Phillips, Jamie Pollock, Kevin Poole, Michael Ricketts, Bruce Rioch, Stuart Ripley, Walter Rowley, Andy Todd, Colin Todd, Tom Woodward

IT HAPPENED WHEN BOLTON PLAYED BORO

In this fixture last season Jussi Jaaskelainen was sent off in the final minute of the game for a foul on Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. Boro scored the resulting free kick past their former goalkeeper Kevin Poole to equalise.

Florent Laville played his last ever game for Bolton against Boro in September 2003. The French centre half was stretchered off with serious knee ligament damage which kept him out of action for over a year.

Jamie Pollock scored against Bolton in their first ever visit to the Riverside Stadium in February 1996.