By Mark Heys
January 18 2008

Bolton Wanderers will want to earn the title of party poopers this weekend when they take on Newcastle United at St James Park in what will be Kevin Keegan's first match in charge of the Magpies since returning to the hotseat earlier this week.

Keegan left his previous stint on Tyneside eleven years ago but the Toon Army are hopeful that the former England coach can succeed where so many have failed over the years.

Newcastle sacked ex-Wanderers boss Sam Allardyce recently and since then they have been heavily beaten away at Manchester United and recorded a good win in front of their home fans an FA Cup game against Stoke City.

Bolton have lost their last two games and have picked up just two points away from home all season and furthermore  they have won just once at Newcastle in over 45 years - this coming last season in a 2-1 win.

This will not deter Wanderers manager Gary Megson, himself an ex-Newcastle midfielder in the early 1980's, from spoiling the euphoria which surrounds Keegan's return and Bolton will be going all out to get the three points.

Megson will once again be without the services of African Nations Cup duo Abdoulaye Meite and El-Hadji Diouf but there could be debuts for recent signings Gretar Steinsson and Matt Taylor.

Heidar Helguson and Ricardo Vaz-Te continued to be troubled by long term ankle and knee injuries respectively so the attack line is likely to consist of Kevin Davies, Stelios Giannakopoulos and the on-loan Danny Guthrie for the second game in succession.

Defender Andy O'Brien will come up against his former club having spent the best part of four years with the Toon Army.

Keegan will be without the suspended Alan Smith, whilst former Wanderer Abdoulaye Faye misses the chance to come up against old friends due to the African Nations Cup and Habib Beye is also missing due to the same competition.

Defender Peter Ramage is expected to be sidelined until at least the middle of next month.

LAST TIME WE MET:

11/08/2007 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Anelka) NEWCASTLE UNITED 3 (N'Zogbia, Martins 2)

BOLTON: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Nicky Hunt, Abdoulaye Faye, Gerald Cid, Jlloyd Samuel, Kevin Nolan, Gavin McCann, Gary Speed (Mikel Alonso), Ricardo Vaz-Te (El-Hadji Diouf), Kevin Davies (Heidar Helguson), Nicolas Anelka

SUBS NOT USED: James Sinclair, Ali Al-Habsi (GK)

UNITED: Steve Harper, Stephen Carr, Steven Taylor, David Rozehnal, James Milner (Peter Ramage), Nicky Butt, Geremi, Alan Smith, Charles N'Zogbia, Obafemi Martins (Nolberto Solano), Mark Viduka (Shola Ameobi)

SUBS NOT USED: Claudio Cacapa, Fraser Forster (GK)

PLAYED FOR BOTH:

Peter Beardsley, Franz Carr, Tony Cunningham, Wyn Davies, Robbie Elliott, Abdoulaye Faye, Les Ferdinand, Alan Gowling, Steve Howey, Mike Jeffrey, Glenn Keeley, Neil McDonald, Ron McGarry, Andy O'Brien, Scott Sellars, Gary Speed, Alan Thompson, Andy Walker, Tommy Wright

DID YOU KNOW:

Abdoulaye Faye played his last game for Bolton when these two sides last met prior to switching to the Magpies.

Kevin Keegan's last game in charge of Manchester City was a 1-0 defeat by Bolton in March 2005.

Eight debutants where included across both sides in the last meeting - that's not including the first Newcastle match in charge for Sam Allardyce.