By Mark Heys
March 17 2006

Bolton Wanderers welcome bottom club Sunderland to the Reebok Stadium tommorow afternoon knowing that a win would put some serious pressure on fourth placed Tottenham Hotspur.

Last weekend's demolition of West Ham United nudged the Trotters back up the Premiership table and kept hopes of European qualification alive whether it be in the Champions League or the UEFA Cup.

Opponents Sunderland are now seemingly playing for pride for the rest of the campaign but they can be upbeat at the fact that they have never lost a competitive game at the Reebok Stadium.

Kevin Ball has taken over as manager of the Black Cats until the end of the season and he will be hoping to improve morale in the dressing room as we enter the final phase of the season.

Bruno N'Gotty and Hidetoshi Nakata may return to the Wanderers starting line up for this game but there is a major doubt over El-Hadji Diouf after he aggravated a hernia problem during the warm up against West Ham a week ago.

Ivan Campo, Khalilou Fadiga and Matt Jansen are all long term absentees and will definately not be considered the game.

Sunderland have the experienced defender Gary Breen back from a suspension but caretaker boss Ball is likely to continue with Stephen Caldwell and Danny Collins at the heart of his defence.

Argentinian full back Julio Arca is a big doubt for the game after suffering a hamstring injury in the Wearsiders defeat against Wigan Athletic last week but teenage midfielder Martin Woods has an outside chance of playing after recovering from an ankle injury.

Andy Gray (achillies), Ben Alnwick (leg), Stephen Wright and Chris Brown (both ankle) are all on the treatment table and are unlikely to be making the trip down to Lancashire.

PREMIERSHIP RECORD

29/09/2001 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 SUNDERLAND 2 (Phillips, Craddock)

05/03/2002 SUNDERLAND 1 (McAteer) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

28/10/2002 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Babb OG) SUNDERLAND 1 (Gray)

15/03/2003 SUNDERLAND 0 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Okocha, Pedersen)

26/12/2005 SUNDERLAND 0 BOLTON WANDERERS 0

PREMIERSHIP FORM GUIDE:

Played: 5

Won: 1

Drawn: 2

Lost: 2

CONNECTIONS

Sam Allardyce, Peter Barnes, John Bollands, Michael Bridges, Jimmy Davison, Andy Dibble, Wayne Entwistle, Carsten Fredgaard, Darren Holloway, Charlie Hurley, Allan Johnston, Jason McAteer, Jim McDonagh, Peter Reid, Barry Siddall, Alan Stubbs, Nicky Summerbee, Emerson Thome, Ray Train, Steve Whitworth, Frank Worthington

IT HAPPENED WHEN BOLTON PLAYED SUNDERLAND

Sunderland had four future Wanderers players in their 1999 promotion winning team as Allan Johnston, Nicky Summerbee, Darren Holloway and Michael Bridges all represented the Black Cats that season.

Jason McAteer began his league career with Bolton in 1992 but his goal in a 1-0 win for Sunderland ten years later damaged the Wanderers prospects of staying in the Premiership

Both clubs moved to their respective stadiums at the start of the 1997-98 season

Martin Djetou made his only league start for Bolton when these two sides went head to head at the Stadium of Light on Boxing Day 2005