Danny, Pug or Andy?

Once again this season there has been a problem with Bolton`s central defence. It isn`t quite the disaster zone that is was last time round with Gerald Cid, Abdoulaye Meite and Lubomir Michalik taking turns to terrify Whites fans, but the mission to provide Gary Cahill with a reliable partner goes on.

With young Polish defender Jaroslaw Fojut having left to return home, there are three candidates for the position. None of them are particularly reassuring.

Andy O`Brien – O`Brien was welcomed with clenched fists rather than open arms when he joined the club, but the Irishman proved everyone wrong with a string of no nonsense displays. This season he has been nervous and error prone. A return to previous form and he would be the front runner, but this seems unlikely.

Danny Shittu – Prior to joining Bolton, Shittu had spent every season bar one playing in the lower leagues. Disastrous performances against Northampton in the Carling Cup and Fulham, where Bobby Zamora literally ran rings around him, seemed to demonstrate why. Yet he gave a good account of himself at Arsenal and didn`t put a foot wrong in Saturday`s thrashing of Northampton. The way he put Stewart Downing into orbit, within a few minutes of the start was highly enjoyable.

Sebastien Puygrenier – The Frenchman is a better than average ball player for a centre-half, but he looks uncertain in the air and there are doubts about his positional sense. Those problems might be rectified as he gets acclimatised to the English game, but until then he`s a potential weak link.

Who to pick? Andy, Danny or the Pug. You decide in the latest Vital Bolton poll.