Matt Taylor and Gretar Steinsson are expected to make their home debuts tonight, but new signing Gary Cahill will probably not figure after completing his move to the Reebok. If he figures, Joey O’Brien will be making his 50th league appearance as an official Bolton player, although nearly a third of those were whilst on loan at Sheffield United. Heidur Helguson could figure after recovering from injury, and if so, he will be facing the club which he joined Bolton from and then scored against during the 2-1 defeat early in the season.
Stats-wise, Bolton shouldn’t have much to worry about. Fulham are in 19th place in the league, 5 points adrift of nearest rivals Sunderland. However, if Bolton lose and Sunderland win against Birmingham then Wanderers could replace them in the relegation zone. Fulham have gone 28 away games without a win, which makes Bolton’s 14 seem like nothing!
Megson has billed the game as ‘huge’ and said it could be the biggest match of the season so far.
You’ve got to win your games against the teams that are in the area where you are and this is a huge game for us.
We were disappointed in our last home game in the league against Blackburn in as much that we didn’t play well but we didn’t pick anything up from it with Blackburn’s goal in the last minute.
We’ve got to get back to having a good, strong home record and this is our next chance. Obviously, if we can get a result against Fulham, then that makes life all the more difficult for them.
- Gary Megson
Matt Taylor, who is to make his home debut tonight, said that this, and every game until the end of the season, is like a cup final for the Whites.
To me, we can’t worry too much about other people. We can only worry about ourselves and about the game rather than worrying about everyone else around us.
Hopefully, if we do what I’ve seen the lads can do so far, then it won’t be a problem and I’d like to think we can get a positive result.
The game against Fulham is like a cup final to us. The manager referred to it this morning as arguably being the biggest game of our season so far, and I think he’s right. We’ve got 15 cup finals from now until the end of the season and we need to win as many games as we can because ultimately, winning football matches is what we’re all here for.
It’s difficult for me to talk on things prior to my arrival because obviously I haven’t seen too much of what’s been going on, all I can talk about is now.
We want to push up the table and get as close to the middle of the table as we can.
This club, in comparison to what has happened in the past few seasons, is underachieving at the moment and I don’t think there would be any problems with me saying that, because we’re languishing at the wrong end of the table and this Club is used to being up the table.
We’re playing UEFA Cup this season and we’ve got Atletico Madrid coming up and that’s a massive game, it’s a fantastic competition to be involved in.
For me, to finish 17th at the end of the season, I wouldn’t be happy with because I’ve seen what this squad is capable of and we’re much, much better than that.
- Gary Megson
