Wanderers haven't lost a game at Ewood since December 1997 and manager Sam Allardyce will be hoping that his in-form side can continue that trend and stretch their unbeaten run to seven matches.

Since the season began only Charlton Athletic have managed to take maximum points from Bolton as they sit proudly behind Manchester United and Chelsea in the Premiership table.

Rovers are still on a high themselves following their dramatic win against Polish side Wisla Krakow in the UEFA Cup on Thursday evening so the clash of the two old foes could produce an entertaining contest.

Allardyce has no new injury problems to contend with as Irish international full back Joey O'Brien stepped up his comeback following surgery. O'Brien has been missing since pre-season with a knee injury and could be in action well before Christmas.

Fellow defenders Henrik Pedersen and Ricardo Gardner are also making good progress from their injuries but neither will be involved in the action over the weekend.

Blackburn will definately be without long term injury victims Ryan Nelsen (hamstring) and Steven Reid (fractured back). Mark Hughes also has doubts over the fitness of Robbie Savage and David Bentley following their midweek exploits against Krakow.

Reserve goalkeeper Peter Enckleman is also missing for Blackburn with an ankle problem so Welsh international Jason Brown is likely to sit on the substitutes bench once again as cover for Brad Freidel.

PREMIERSHIP RECORD

26/08/1995 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (De Freitas, Stubbs) BLACKBURN ROVERS 1 (Holmes)

03/02/1996 BLACKBURN ROVERS 3 (Shearer 3) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Green)

06/12/1997 BLACKBURN ROVERS 3 (Gallacher, Sutton, Wilcox) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Frandsen)

11/04/1998 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Holdsworth, Taylor) BLACKBURN ROVERS 1 (Duff)

19/09/2001 BLACKBURN ROVERS 1 (Neill) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Wallace)

02/03/2002 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Wallace) BLACKBURN ROVERS 1 (Jansen)

07/12/2002 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Okocha) BLACKBURN ROVERS 1 (Short)

21/04/2003 BLACKBURN ROVERS 0 BOLTON WANDERERS 0

23/08/2003 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Djorkaeff, Davies) BLACKBURN ROVERS 2 (Jansen, Yorke)

10/01/2004 BLACKBURN ROVERS 3 (Gresko, Yorke, Cole) BOLTON WANDERERS 4 (Nolan 2, Djorkaeff, Giannakopoulos)

28/12/2004 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 BLACKBURN ROVERS 1 (Dickov)

24/01/2005 BLACKBURN ROVERS 0 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Diouf)

11/09/2005 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 BLACKBURN ROVERS 0

14/01/2006 BLACKBURN ROVERS 0 BOLTON WANDERERS 0

PREMIERSHIP FORM GUIDE:

Played: 14

Won: 4

Drawn: 7

Lost: 3

CONNECTIONS

Nathan Blake, John Byrom, Paul Comstive, Walter Crook, Malcolm Darling, Kevin Davies, Youri Djorkaeff, Reg Elvy, Per Frandsen, Colin Hendry, George Higgins, Matt Jansen, Glenn Keeley, Andy Kennedy, Bobby Langton, Jason McAteer, Harry McShane, Mark Patterson, Leam Richardson, Stuart Ripley, Mike Salmon, Scott Sellars, Gordon Taylor, Chris Thompson, Andy Todd, Paul Warhurst

IT HAPPENED WHEN BOLTON PLAYED ROVERS

Bolton secured their first ever Premiership win against Rovers back in August 1995. Fabian De Freitas had given the Trotters the lead from close range in the first half but Rovers equalised via a long range shot from Matty Holmes. An Alan Stubbs header secured all three points for Bolton ten minutes from time against the then Premiership champions.

Rod Wallace scored on his Bolton debut in this fixture in September 2001. He did likewise in the reverse fixture held at the Reebok Stadium later on that season.

In the January 2005 fixture El-Hadji Diouf was adjudged to have dived to earn a late penalty at Ewood Park. Diouf missed the resulting spot kick but tapped in the rebound for the winning goal to incense the Rovers who where later proved right in their accusations of diving

Kevin Davies netted his first Bolton goal against Rovers in August 2003, ironically Blackburn paid out £7.5 million for the striker some five years previously.

In the last meeting between these two sides striker Matt Jansen made his debut for Bolton just 24 hours after leaving Blackburn on a Free Transfer. The game ended goalless but Hidetoshi Nakata saw red for Wanderers after a second bookable offence.

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