By Mark Heys
October 27 2006

Manchester United are the visitors to the Reebok Stadium tommorow as Bolton Wanderers look to continue their excellent home record.

Wanderers have lost just twice since the season began and both the defeats occured when coming up against Premiership strugglers Charlton Athletic at The Valley.

United were to end Bolton's impressive unbeaten run on home turf last April but only holders Chelsea have been victorious at the Reebok over the last six months since the last meeting between these two sides.

In midweek, a much changed Bolton team lost their Carling Cup status to Charlton whilst United had to wait until the last moments of extra time to despatch of Crewe Alexandra.

It is expected that Sam Allardyce and Sir Alex Ferguson will revert back to a much more familiar line up with a number of players coming back into the starting eleven.

Allardyce will recall Jussi Jaaskelainen for goalkeeping duty whilst top scorer Ivan Campo will be promoted from the substitutes bench. Skipper Kevin Nolan is serving the second of a three match ban but Nicolas Anelka, El-Hadji Diouf and Abdoulaye Faye should all recover from slight knocks picked up over the last week.

Ex-United favourite Quinton Fortune is likely to miss out as he picked up an ankle injury during a training session on Monday so that could give Henrik Pedersen a chance to come back into the team.

Korean midfielder Park Ji Sung is Manchester United's only major injury worry as boss Ferguson recalls the likes of Edwin Van Der Sar, Gary Neville, Nemanja Vidic, Michael Carrick, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Louis Saha.

England international Keiran Richardson and ex-Preston loanee David Jones are unlikely to figure for the Red Devils as their shaky performance against Crewe came under fierce scrutiny from Ferguson.

PREMIERSHIP RECORD

16/09/1995 MANCHESTER UNITED 3 (Scholes 2, Giggs) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

25/02/1996 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 MANCHESTER UNITED 6 (Beckham, Bruce, Cole, Scholes 2, Butt)

20/09/1997 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 MANCHESTER UNITED 0

07/02/1998 MANCHESTER UNITED 1 (Cole) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Taylor)

20/10/2001 MANCHESTER UNITED 1 (Veron) BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Nolan, Ricketts)

29/01/2002 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 MANCHESTER UNITED 4 (Solskjaer 3, Van Nistelrooy)

11/09/2002 MANCHESTER UNITED 0 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Nolan)

22/02/2003 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (N'Gotty) MANCHESTER UNITED 1 (Solskjaer)

16/08/2003 MANCHESTER UNITED 4 (Giggs 2, Scholes, Van Nistelrooy) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

07/01/2004 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (G.Neville OG) MANCHESTER UNITED 2 (Giggs, Scholes)

11/09/2004 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Nolan, Ferdinand) MANCHESTER UNITED 2 (Heinze, Bellion)

26/12/2004 MANCHESTER UNITED 2 (Giggs, Scholes) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

31/12/2005 MANCHESTER UNITED 4 (N'Gotty OG, Saha, Ronaldo 2) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Speed)

01/04/2006 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Davies) MANCHESTER UNITED 2 (Saha, Van Nistelrooy)

PREMIERSHIP FORM GUIDE:

Played: 14

Won: 2

Drawn: 4

Lost: 8

CONNECTIONS

John Ball, Peter Barnes, Peter Beardsley, Wyn Davies, Tony Dunne, Quinton Fortune, Alan Gowling, Brian Kidd, Harry McShane, Willie Morgan, John O’Kane, Paul Wheatcroft, Bill Wrigglesworth

IT HAPPENED WHEN BOLTON PLAYED UNITED

Bolton's biggest Premiership defeat came in February 1996 at Burnden Park as United ran out 6-0 winners

Gary Pallister (Manchester United) and Nathan Blake (Bolton Wanderers) where sent off for fighting when these two sides met in September 1997. Pallister later having his caution overturned by an FA Panel

The 40th Anniversairy of the Munich Air Tragedy took place on 7th February 1998 and Bolton where the visitors to Old Trafford. Bob Taylor put the Wanderers in front with his first goal for the club since moving from West Brom but Andy Cole struck four minutes from time with a header following a defensive mix up

In October 2001 United where the ones making the defensive blunders as Wes Brown allowed Bolton's Michael Ricketts to gain a late winner at Old Trafford for the Wanderers first win there since 1978-79

Last minute blunders have proved costly for Bolton in recent years. In 2003 Ricardo Gardner gave the ball away to David Beckham who in turn crossed for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to equalise and in 2004 the same happened as Nicky Hunt allowed David Bellion to net a rare goal in a 2-2 draw

Les Ferdinand scored his only Premiership goal for Bolton against United in September 2004. Gabriel Heinze, making his United debut in that game, also found the net.