By Mark Heys
September 22 2006

Bolton Wanderers will be hoping to build on their midweek Carling Cup win over Walsall when they travel down to Portsmouth on Monday evening.

The victory at the Bescot Stadium was the Wanderers first on the road since last December and now the aim will be to secure a maximum points against a Portsmouth side bang in form at the top of the Premiership table.

Pompey are unbeaten in five previous games and are looking to match a record of having gained five consecutive clean sheets from the start of a new Premiership season.

The South Coast club will also be hoping to extend their winning run as a thank you to owner Milan Mandaric who will step down after this game following eight years at the helm at Fratton Park.

Bolton are expected to welcome back African duo Abdoulaye Faye and Quinton Fortune after they missed the last game through injury. Former Southampton man Kevin Davies could resume his place in attack after a three week absence with a cheekbone injury.

Trio Henrik Pedersen, Joey O'Brien and Ricardo Gardner are still nursing injuries which have forced them to miss the most part of the early season matches.

Pompey boss Harry Redknapp could hand Premiership debuts to recent signings Manuel Fernandes, Andrew Cole and Niklas Kranjcar after they played in the midweek cup match against Mansfield Town.

Striker Benjani Mwaruwari and ex-Blackburn winger David Thompson may have to once again be content with places on the substitutes bench after only playing a bit part in the win over the Stags.

These two teams have so far contested two wins, two draws and two defeats in the six games played since Pompey made their way into the top flight three years ago so the result on the South Coast next week should make interesting reading.

PREMIERSHIP RECORD

26/08/2003 PORTSMOUTH 4 (Stone, Sheringham 3) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

17/01/2004 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Davies) PORTSMOUTH 0

27/11/2004 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 PORTSMOUTH 1 (De Zeeuw)

07/05/2005 PORTSMOUTH 1 (Yakubu) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Diouf)

24/09/2005 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Nolan) PORTSMOUTH 0

01/02/2006 PORTSMOUTH 1 (Karadas) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Fadiga)

PREMIERSHIP FORM GUIDE:

Played: 6

Won: 2

Drawn: 2

Lost: 2

CONNECTIONS

Brian Bromley, John Gregory, Trevor Hebbard, Russell Hoult, Paul Ritchie

IT HAPPENED WHEN BOLTON PLAYED POMPEY

Ex-Manchester United and England striker Teddy Sheringham scored a hat-trick against Bolton in the first Premiership meetings between these two sides back in August 2003.

Bolton's El-Hadji Diouf was banned for three matches in November 2004 due to spitting at opponent Arjan De Zeeuw who is now back at Wigan Athletic.

Wanderers skipper Kevin Nolan scored a sublime overhead kick a year ago as Bolton claimed their first Premiership home win against Pompey.

Khalilou Fadiga netted his one and only Bolton goal the last time these two teams met at Fratton Park. The Senegal midfielder scored straight from the set piece to give Bolton the lead but Azar Karadas equalised for Portsmouth five minutes from the end