Match Preview

Bolton Wanderers: Watford Preview

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Right, woke up much later than planned (stupid jetlag persisting after a week), so I’ll keep this brief. We play Gianfranco Zola’s Watford today, a side that has improved greatly since our scrappy 2-1 win at the Reebok earlier this season.

Zola brought in many this summer, and whilst it took them a long time to gel, they have now well and truly done that. This is a tough game today.

Vital Quotes:

Douglas is confident, yet aware of the quality our opponents possess. He told the club website: “I`m looking forward to the game because, although we lost on Saturday, I thought we gave a fantastic performance. It was a very structured game, we were focussed and we played good football.

“Watford are a good team and they`re flying high. But I feel we`ve been a little unlucky lately and, apart from the win at Sunderland and the point we got at Palace, our results haven`t been a true reflection of the form we`ve been in. The system that we are likely to come up against is a little bit different because they have often used three at the back with wing backs. It can be difficult to play against if we don`t get it right but we`ve got a game-plan and if we stick to that I think we can cause them problems.’

Watford Team News:

Zola has a pretty much full squad to pick from, and I know very little about a lot of them.

Player to watch: Matej Vydra

He’s been scoring a lot it appears; let’s worry about him.

Bolton Wanderers Team News:

No Holden after he limped out of a reserve game, not that I expected him to play. Wheater and Mark D still out.

Player to watch: Lee Chung-Yong

I think this could be a big game for Chungy. If Watford stick to their wing back style, there may just be some space at the back for the South Korean to do some damage. If he remembers how to run past someone with the ball.

Match Facts & Stats

We’ve beaten Watford the last five times we’ve played them. A nice stat, but it says very little. Most of those games were when we had players like Anelka and Okocha, and they were a wee little club from Hertfordshire. It’s different now.

Match Prediction:

If we can play as well as we apparently did last week, then we can get something out of this. I’ll say 1-1.

Next Fixtures:

BURNLEY at home next Saturday. That’ll be fun.

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