By Mark Heys
January 30 2007

Bolton hope to make it third time lucky when they come up against struggling Charlton Athletic at the Reebok Stadium tommorow evening.

Wanderers have played bottom of the table Charlton twice already this season in the league and the league cup and both games went in favour of the Addicks who where then managed by Iain Dowie

Since then though Charlton have sunk deep into the relegation zone under two different head coaches, firstly Les Reed had an ill fated spell at the helm and then earlier this month former player Alan Pardew took over the reigns at The Vally after being dismissed from London rivals West Ham United.

Many new players have come into the Addicks team since the summer and have failed to gel. The fact that previous boss Dowie spent £11 million of the close season transfer kitty on failed signings such as Djimi Traore is perhaps one of the main reasons why he lasted just twelve matches in charge.

Charlton netted their first away win of the season against Portsmouth in their last league game at the same time that the Wanderers where being convincingly beaten by Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium.

Bolton have since come back from that 5-1 thumping to record a sturdy display against Arsenal in a 1-1 FA Cup draw at the Emirates Stadium so their manager Sam Allardyce will hope for no more unnecessary blips.

Wanderers will be without El-Hadji Diouf who serves the final game of a two match suspension, so Stelios Giannakopoulos is once again likely to fill in alongside Kevin Davies and Nicolas Anelka.

Davies needed pain killing injections in his foot in the Arsenal game so his fitness will be strongly monitored ahead of the game with Charlton. Tal Ben-Haim was ruled out of the last game at his own request with a calf injury so it remains to be seen if he makes a return to the fold.

South African defender Quinton Fortune and his Irish counterpart Joey O'Brien are both on the sidelines and are not expected to feature in the game.

Charlton manager Pardew could give a debut to Algerian defender Madjid Bougherra after his arrival from Sheffield Wednesday earlier this week. American international Cory Gibbs is the only long term absentee for the visitors as he continues to be plagued with a knee problem.

Luke Young, Darren Bent and Andy Reid are all itching to play following respective knee and hamstring problems in recent weeks. Giant Icelander Hermann Hreidarsson will play after seeing a recent move to West Ham United fall through at the last minute.

Teenage midfielder Alexandre Song could make his Charlton debut after arriving on loan from Arsenal.

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)

26/08/2006 CHARLTON ATHLETIC 2 (D.Bent 2 (1P) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

PREMIERSHIP FORM GUIDE:

Played: 11

Won: 6

Drawn: 3

Lost: 2

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 met in April 2006. The young Portuguese striker planted a looping header over the Addicks goalkeeper Thomas Myhre

Kevin Davies and Hermann Hreidarsson where both sent off when these two sides last met in the league at the start of the season. Both players where sent off for violent conduct in seperate incidents.