Bolton Wanderers v Birmingham City
Posted Saturday, August 28, 2010 by Telegraph.co.uk
Bolton manager Owen Coyle
Sunday, August 29
Bolton Wanderers v Birmingham City
Reebok Stadium
Kick-off: 13.30 BST
TV: Live Sky Sports and highlights, BBC2 Match of the Day2
Bolton Wanderers (Possible, 4-4-2): Jaaskelainen; Steinsson, Cahill, Knight, Robinson; Lee, Muamba, Holden, Petrov; K Davies, Elmander.
Birmingham City (Possible, 4-4-2): Foster; Carr, Johnson, Dann, Ridgewell; Larsson, Ferguson, Gardner, McFadden; Jerome, Zigic.
Referee: Kevin Friend. Matches 1. R: 0.Y: 5.
Tale of the game
Bolton maintained their good start to the season by beating Southampton at St Mary’s on Tuesday. Ivan Klasnic scored the winner but Owen Coyle is likely to continue with Kevin Davies and Johan Elmander in attack. Gavin McCann is still injured.
Birmingham, like Bolton, are unbeaten in the Premier League, with four points from their opening two games and manager Alex McLeish could go with the side that beat Blackburn 2-1 last weekend, meaning that Matt Derbyshire may have to wait for his first start.
What they are saying
Alex McLeish: "Bolton have a record to preserve but so do we as we are both unbeaten so far this season.
"We had a good record away from home last season and we would like to try and do as well as we did last season on that front.
"But that will be a big task. We took teams by surprise last year but we are not a surprise package anymore.
"There is a little bit more pressure on us but I believe the players have the mentality and the toughness to stand up to everything."
Last season: Birmingham 1 Bolton 2, Bolton 2 Birmingham 1.
Stat of the game: Bolton have won their last three games against Birmingham.
Betting tip: Good starts for both; fancy Bolton to shade it. A 2-1 home win is 8-1.
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