Blackburn Rovers Preview

By Mark Heys
January 13 2006

Bolton Wanderers know that a win at Ewood Park tommorow afternoon will put some safe distance between themselves and opponents Blackburn Rovers.

The Premier League table currently shows that these sides are evenly matched and seperated by just two points so seventh placed Bolton could widen the gap if they claim a victory against their near neighbours in front of the TV cameras.

On the other hand should Blackburn win their fourth straight league game then it will be a different story altogether as they will leapfrog the Wanderers and take over seventh place just behind Wigan Athletic.

Bolton are on the back of a fine FA Cup win at Watford last weekend but results since the start of December in the league have produced a number of draws including in the last Premiership game at home to title chasers Liverpool.

However, Sam Allardyce's team have never lost a game at Ewood since returning to the top flight in 2001 and they have won their last two meetings on that ground so they will be quietly confident going into the game.

Rovers last defeated the Trotters at home back in December 1997 when goals from Kevin Gallacher, Chris Sutton and Jason Wilcox made all the difference but since then the games have either ended all square or gone the way of Bolton.

That said, Blackburn are on a fine run of form at the moment and have also been going well in the cup competitions with a midweek draw against Manchester United in the Semi Finals of the League Cup inclusive.

The extra game could prove to work against Rovers and in the Wanderers favour as Allardyce welcomes back Kevin Nolan, Ivan Campo and Blackburn old-boy Kevin Davies after they all served suspensions in previous games.

Abdoulaye Diagne-Faye, Radhi Jaidi, Jay-Jay Okocha and El-Hadji Diouf are all missing due to their involvement in the African Cup of Nations throughout this month.

Henrik Pedersen is definately ruled out with an achillies problem and both Gary Speed and Nicky Hunt are doubtful having received extensive treatment for respective knee and calf problems recently.

Finnish international goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen is expected to return to the Wanderers starting eleven after being rested for the game at Vicarage Road last time out.

Blackburn have no fresh injury problems to contend with as Brett Emerton, Steven Reid and Paul Dickov will all be hopeful of making the starting line up after impressing against United in midweek.

Bolton-born Garry Flitcroft will not be involved with the Rovers squad as he completed a permanent move to Championship high fliers Sheffield United yesterday afternoon.

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.