Newcastle vs Bolton preview - Pardew wary of Bolton threat

Posted Monday, April 09, 2012 by PA

Alan Pardew has warned his Newcastle players they must take Monday's home match with Bolton as seriously as Friday's trip to Swansea if they are to stay on course to gatecrash the Barclays Premier League top four.

Good Friday saw Pardew's men win at what is widely regarded as one of the toughest places to go in the top flight when they ran out 2-0 victors at the Liberty Stadium.

Newcastle will be expected to follow that up with another three points on Easter Monday against a Bolton side who have lost 10 times on the road this season, the joint worst record in the Premier League ahead of QPR's Easter Sunday trip to Manchester United.

But Magpies boss Pardew was wary of opponents that recorded a hat-trick of league wins before Saturday's 3-0 home defeat to Fulham as his own side eye a fifth successive top-flight win for the first time for six years.

"They are a serious threat," Pardew said. "Owen Coyle has just won Manager of the Month and rightly so. They are re-harnessed and it will be a tough game."

Pardew admitted having an extra day to prepare would give Newcastle "a slight advantage in preparation" as they look to reclaim fifth place from Chelsea and stay within striking distance of Tottenham and Arsenal.

Pardew still has defensive injury concerns but his side have responded magnificently to the problem, keeping two clean sheets in the absence of captain Fabricio Coloccini.

He said of his makeshift back four: "They know the job they have to do and they see it through.

"We have people doing the best possible job and that's giving us the chance to win games.

"Monday will be tricky for us as we are short of personnel - there are seven or eight in the treatment room."

Bolton boss Owen Coyle has called on his players to regroup quickly after their survival setback at the hands of Fulham.

The Trotters missed a chance to pull clear of the Barclays Premier League relegation zone as they slumped 3-0 to the Clint Dempsey-inspired Londoners at the Reebok Stadium.

Results elsewhere meant they stayed outside the bottom three but Coyle felt his side, after winning their three previous games, had spurned a good opportunity for more points ahead.

Coyle said: "We under-achieved and let ourselves down, no doubt about it.

"It is a setback and of course we are disappointed, particularly at home.

"Our home form had been very good of late and we were looking to capitalise on that.

"We now have to play again on Monday and we have to get ourselves up for that.

"It is not a nice feeling as we were coming into the game after three straight wins, we were at home and looking to open up a gap in that area of the league we are in.

"But it has happened to us before - we have to pick ourselves up and prepare to go again. That is what we will look to do.

"It's been similar to previous weeks when teams have won and we have won. That's why it's such an intriguing league.

"I have said before that it will go right to the wire, both at the top and bottom.

"That is why it is the best league in the world and we have not done ourselves justice in that league here.

"The fans came in huge numbers again and I feel for them because they deserved a better performance than we delivered."

Bolton have a quicker Easter turnaround than some of the other struggling sides with Blackburn not playing again until Tuesday and Wigan and Wolves only back in action on Wednesday. QPR have Sunday and Wednesday fixtures.

Coyle said: "We have the task of playing on Monday as opposed to everyone else who has got a couple of extra days to rest, but it is what it is.

"We go to Newcastle and look to get a positive result, which can be achieved.

"It will need to be a better performance to get anything at Newcastle, that's for sure, but we have shown in the previous three games that we can do that."