Tottenham Hotspur Preview

By Mark Heys
April 28 2006

Bolton Wanderers will be going all out to try and secure victory this weekend as they face Tottenham Hotspur in the final away game of the season on Sunday afternoon.

Last weekend's 4-1 demolition of Charlton Athletic has breathed new life into the Wanderers and this will give them confidence to push on further as they visit White Hart Lane to face a Spurs side looking to make the much coveted fourth place theirs.

The Londoners took a somewhat contraversial point from their North London derby with Arsenal last time out, however they will be looking to go one better at the weekend to enhance an impressive home record which has been breached just once since the turn of the New Year.

Bolton usually flourish during their trips to Spurs and have not lost at the Lane since the 2002-2003 season when a late Youri Djorkaeff goal proved to be just a mere consolation in a 3-1 defeat.

Last season Radhi Jaidi continued his impressive streak in front of goal by sending Wanderers on the way to victory with a header in a 2-1 win and the season before saw Kevin Nolan net the only goal of the game in a Jay-Jay Okocha inspired Bolton performance.

Jaidi and fellow defender Joey O'Brien are named in the squad for Sunday's clash after recent injury problems leaving manager Sam Allardyce with only midfielder Khalilou Fadiga and striker El-Hadji Diouf unavailable.

Diouf has been told to prove his fitness whilst Fadiga is not expected to return until the summer after having surgery on a knee ligament problem sustained during a game against Manchester City in January.

Former Spurs goalkeeper Ian Walker will be battling it out with Ali Al-Habsi for a place on the substitutes bench as Jussi Jaaskelainen's understudy. Walker has yet to make his Premiership debut for Wanderers despite having appeared in a number of cup games

Tottenham manager Martin Jol is without England defender Ledley King (broken foot) and Mido (knee) so Jermain Defoe is once again expected to forge a partnership with the in-form Robbie Keane up front.

Experienced playmaker Edgar Davids will miss the game having been shown a red card during last week's high tempo clash at Highbury so Danny Murphy could get an opportunity to start.

PREMIERSHIP RECORD

23/12/1995 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 2 (Sheringham, Armstrong) BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Green, Bergsson)

20/03/1996 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Curcic, Sellars) TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 3 (Howells, Fox, Armstrong)

23/09/1997 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Thompson) TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1 (Armstrong)

01/03/1998 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1 (Neilsen) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

03/12/2001 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 3 (Poyet, Ferdinand, Sheringham) BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Ricketts, Wallace)

20/04/2002 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Holdsworth) TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1 (Iversen)

20/10/2002 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 3 (Keane 2, Davies) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Djorkaeff)

24/03/2003 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Okocha) TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 0

01/11/2003 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 0 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Nolan)

17/04/2004 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Campo, Pedersen) TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 0

23/10/2004 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1 (Keane) BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Jaidi, Pedersen)

01/02/2005 BOLTON WANDERERS 3 (Diouf, Ben-Haim, Davies) TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1 (Defoe)

07/11/2005 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Nolan) TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 0

PREMIERSHIP FORM GUIDE:

Played: 13

Won: 6

Drawn: 3

Lost: 4

CONNECTIONS

Chris Armstrong, Gudni Bergsson, Chris Fairclough, Les Ferdinand, George Hunt, Don McAllister, Neil McNab, Ian Moores, Ian Walker.

IT HAPPENED WHEN BOLTON PLAYED THE ADDICKS

Spurs became the first opposing team to score at the Reebok Stadium when future Wanderer Chris Armstrong planted a header past Keith Branagan in the Premiership match between Bolton and Tottenham in September 1997.

In November 2003 Jay-Jay Okocha hit the Tottenham woodwork five times in an excellent individual performance. Despite this, the Nigerian could not score a league goal throughout that campaign.

Ex-Spur Gudni Bergsson gained Bolton a valuable point when he struck a late equaliser in the 2-2 draw at White Hart Lane ten years ago. Spurs had seemingly been cruising thanks to goals from Armstrong and Teddy Sheringham but Scott Green of Bolton set up a nervous finish prior to Bergsson's leveller from the edge of the area past current Wanderer Ian Walker.

Earlier this season a Kevin Nolan wonder goal from all of 30-yards gave the Wanderers their fourth consecutive home win against Spurs