By Mark Heys
January 20 2006

A depleted Bolton Wanderers team will be looking to do the double over local rivals Manchester City when the two sides meet tommorow afternoon.

The Wanderers claimed a last minute victory at the City of Manchester Stadium back in September despite the fact that the Citezens had ruled the game overall for the ninety minutes.

Since then both sides have hovered in the top ten of the Premiership with Bolton making life difficult for any side making the journey to the Reebok Stadium with only Everton having taken maximum points in the opening home game of the season.

City defeated their arch enemy Manchester United last weekend to record their first league win in five matches but they can also boast a good record at the Reebok having won three out of their four league meetings here since 1999.

Bolton's only win on home soil over City in the Premiership came in April 2003 when Ivan Campo and Henrik Pedersen scored the goals to give the then relegation threatened Trotters a much needed boost.

Last season Joey Barton scored the only goal of the game from close range to secure the points for the Mancunians and further inflict misery on the Wanderers who at that time where in dire straits in terms of their results.

Bolton boss Sam Allardyce has a number of players missing for this one as Henrik Pedersen (achillies), Gary Speed (knee) and Hidetoshi Nakata (suspended) all miss out.

African quartet Abdoulaye Faye, Jay-Jay Okocha, Radhi Jaidi and El-Hadji Diouf are also absent due to their involvement in this months African Nations Cup tournament.

Ivan Campo could replace Nakata in the heart of the Wanderers midfield and recent signing Matt Jansen should once again take to the substitutes bench after making his debut last week.

Academy youngster Jarostaw Fojut may also get a place on the bench as the Trotters remain desperately short on numbers throughout the course of this month.

City manager Stuart Pearce is without Claudio Reyna (ankle) and Danny Mills (leg) for the short trip down the East Lancs Road whilst French defender David Sommeil is still suspended after his clash with Tottenham left back Lee Young-Po at the start of the month.

Welsh international Ben Thatcher should return after missing the Manchester derby and Spaniard Albert Reira is likely to keep his place in the midfield following his move from Espanyol.

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)

18/09/2005 MANCHESTER CITY 0 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Speed)

PREMIERSHIP FORM GUIDE:

Played: 9

Won: 3

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.