By Mark Heys
December 31 2005

Bolton Wanderers will be hoping to start the New Year in fine style as they welcome the in-form European Champions Liverpool to the Reebok Stadium on Monday afternoon.

The Reds haven't had much joy at Bolton in recent years but are currently on a remarkable run of form which stretches back to late October and includes ten straight Premiership wins.

Rafael Benitez side have put themselves firmly in the race for second place in recent weeks despite the fact that they started the season as the league's draw specialists.

Bolton know they will be in for a tough game of it and will be keen to get the 4-1 drubbing by local rivals Manchester United out of their system in time for the visit of another North West club.

The Wanderers have lost just once at the Reebok Stadium this season and rarely concede a goal to opposition teams on home turf but the last two matches at the Reebok against Aston Villa and Sevilla ended all square at one each.

Former Liverpool striker El-Hadji Diouf is expected to line up for Bolton against the Reds for the first time since his switch to Lancashire eighteen months ago after serving a one match ban which kept him out of the trip to Old Trafford on New Years Eve.

Nigerian playmaker Jay-Jay Okocha may be the one to make way for Diouf as the Wanderers look to get back to winning ways at home for the first time in nearly a month.

Ivan Campo (suspended) and Henrik Pedersen (injured) miss the game but these are Sam Allardyce's only major worries for this game as he otherwise has a fully fit squad to choose from.

Liverpool manager Benitez will be without former Real Madrid striker Fernando Morientes after the Spanish international sustained a knee injury which is expected to take two weeks to heal.

Dutch winger Boudwijn Zenden is also out of action with the same problem and is as yet in no fit state to play any competitive matches. Full Back Josemi is talking over a move to Spanish club Villareal and will therefore not be in contention.

PREMIERSHIP RECORD

23/09/1995 LIVERPOOL 5 (Fowler 4, Harkness) BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Todd, Patterson)

09/12/1995 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 LIVERPOOL 1 (Collymore)

01/11/1997 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Blake) LIVERPOOL 1 (Fowler)

07/03/1998 LIVERPOOL 2 (Ince, Owen) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Thompson)

27/08/2001 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Ricketts, Holdsworth) LIVERPOOL 1 (Heskey)

01/01/2002 LIVERPOOL 1 (Gerrard) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Nolan)

14/09/2002 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Gardner, Campo) LIVERPOOL 3 (Baros 2, Heskey)

08/03/2003 LIVERPOOL 2 (Diouf, Owen) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

26/12/2003 LIVERPOOL 3 (Hyppia, Sinama-Pongolle, Smicer) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Pedersen)

07/02/2004 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Hunt, Djorkaeff) LIVERPOOL 2 (Hyppia, Gerrard)

29/08/2004 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Davies) LIVERPOOL 0

02/04/2005 LIVERPOOL 1 (Biscan) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

PREMIERSHIP FORM GUIDE:

Played: 12

Won: 2

Drawn: 3

Lost: 7

CONNECTIONS

Peter Beardsley, El-Hadji Diouf, Roger Hunt, Sammy Lee, Jason McAteer, Phil Neal, Jon Otsemobor, Mark Seagraves, Peter Thompson, Johnny Wheeler

IT HAPPENED WHEN BOLTON PLAYED LIVERPOOL

Premiership legend Robbie Fowler ran riot when these two sides met in September 1995 as he scored four goals for Liverpool in their 5-2 win over the Wanderers at Anfield.

Fowler scored again in the first ever meeting between these two sides at the Reebok Stadium in November 1997 but later saw red in that game for striking a Bolton player.

Current Celtic winger Alan Thompson scored a superb goal from distance at Anfield in March 1998 when playing a one-two with then Bolton team mate Nathan Blake. Liverpool came back to win the game 2-1 with a rather youthful Michael Owen on the scoresheet.

Dean Holdsworth scored one of the most bizarre goals in Bolton history as his last minute effort slithered under Liverpool goalkeeper Sander Westerveld to give Bolton a 2-1 victory in this fixture in August 2001.

Bolton where forced to give 17-year old youngster Danny Livesey his debut in this fixture in September 2002 as a first half substitute for the injured Anthony Barness. Liverpool went on to win the game 3-2 courtesy in the main of two Milan Baros goals

Liverpudlian Kevin Nolan captained the Bolton side on his first visit as a Bolton player to Anfield on New Years Day 2002 and weighed in with the Wanderers goal in a 1-1 draw.

Current Wanderer El-Hadji Diouf was once a ten million Liverpool signing but scored just three goals in over 50 games. One of his three Reds goals came against Bolton at Anfield in March 2003.