By Mark Heys
August 25 2006

The Wanderers will be hoping to continue their steady start to the season as they take on Charlton Athletic at The Valley tommorow afternoon.

In the first week of the new season Bolton have claimed four points from a possible six whilst Charlton are yet to get off the mark following two straight defeats.

The Wanderers record in South East London is very good indeed as they have not lost down there since making the return to Premiership football in the 2001-2002 season.

Overall Charlton have managed just one win against the Trotters in the last five years, this came in an early season game at the Reebok Stadium in August 2002 when Jason Euell and Chris Bart-Williams cancelled out an early Youri Djorkaeff opener in a 2-1 reverse.

Charlton currently lie bottom of the table and new manager Iain Dowie will be hoping that his newly assembled squad can string some good results together sooner rather than later.

Bolton completed the club record signing of French striker Nicolas Anelka on Friday morning but the former Arsenal and Liverpool man will not be making his debut this weekend.

Left wing back Quinton Fortune is the Trotters biggest doubt for this game as he limped out of the midweek draw with Fulham with an ankle injury but Abdoulaye Faye and Henrik Pedersen are now both back in first team contention following recent injury problems.

Full backs Joey O'Brien and Ricardo Gardner are still receiving treatment for knee injuries and will not be making the long journey down to London.

Sam Allardyce must also decide whether or not to hand a recall to last season's top goalscorer Stelios Giannakopoulos after the Greek international spent the last two games amongst the substitutes.

Charlton are without long term injury absentees Cory Gibbs (knee), Gonzalo Sorondo (back) and Jerome Thomas (foot) but recent signing Andy Reid could be set for his Addicks debut following his move from Spurs.

Ex-Liverpool defender Djimi Traore is also likely to return to first team action after sitting out the midweek defeat to Manchester United following a one match suspension

PREMIERSHIP RECORD

15/12/2001 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 CHARLTON ATHLETIC 0

23/03/2002 CHARLTON ATHLETIC 1 (Johansson) BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Djorkaeff 2)

24/08/2002 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Djorkaeff) CHARLTON ATHLETIC 2 (Bart-Williams, Euell)

18/01/2003 CHARLTON ATHLETIC 1 (Fish) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Djorkaeff)

30/08/2003 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 CHARLTON ATHLETIC 0

31/01/2004 CHARLTON ATHLETIC 1 (Johansson) BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Pedersen, Nolan)

14/08/2004 BOLTON WANDERERS 4 (Okocha 2, Pedersen 2) CHARLTON ATHLETIC 1 (Lisbie)

16/04/2005 CHARLTON ATHLETIC 1 (Jeffers) BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Okocha, Diouf)

29/10/2005 CHARLTON ATHLETIC 0 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Nolan)

22/04/2006 BOLTON WANDERERS 4 (Vaz Te, Davies 2, Borgetti) CHARLTON ATHLETIC 1 (D.Bent)

PREMIERSHIP FORM GUIDE:

Played: 10

Won: 6

Drawn: 3

Lost: 1

CONNECTIONS

Anthony Barness, Mark Fish, Claus Jensen, Alan Kernaghan, Don McAllister, Neil Redfearn, John Salako, Mike Salmon, Andy Todd, Charlie Wright.

IT HAPPENED WHEN BOLTON PLAYED THE ADDICKS

Youri Djorkaeff became an instant hero when earning relegation threatened Bolton an all important win at The Valley in March 2002. The former World Cup winner struck twice from long range to record his first goals for the club.

Some ten months later he scored again at The Valley, this time to secure a late point after former Wanderer Mark Fish had put Charlton in front. Djorkaeff acrobatically converted Michael Ricketts pass for one of his finest goals in a Bolton jersey.

Jay-Jay Okocha hadn't scored a league goal throughout the 2003-2004 season but he was to score twice for Bolton against the Addicks on the opening day of the following season

Ricardo Vaz-Te scored his first league goal for the Wanderers when these two sides last met in April. The young Portuguese striker planted a looping header over the Addicks goalkeeper Thomas Myhre.