Wanderers welcome Brian Barry Murphy’s Rochdale to the University of Bolton Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Rochdale currently sit 17th in Sky Bet League One at the time of writing and they are unbeaten in their last three matches.
Their last game in the league against Accrington Stanley ended in a 2-1 victory for the Dale, with Ian Henderson scoring a brace to secure all three points.
Team News
Following on from our last game against Blackpool in Sky Bet League One, assistant manager David Flitcroft confirmed to bwfc.co.uk that striker Chris O’Grady has returned to training and may be in contention to be involved this weekend.
Will Buckley and Liam Bridcutt will miss out with their respective long term injuries, with Josh Earl and Connor Hall both returning to training earlier this week.
Earl and Hall did play 90 minutes for our Under-23s side against Crewe Alexandra, with the latter getting on the scoresheet on his comeback from injury.
Head to Head
Wanderers and Rochdale have faced each other on 18 occasions since the first encounter back in 1969, with us coming out on top in nine of those meetings.
The two teams have drawn on six occasions and Rochdale have three victories to their name in clashes between the two sides.
The last time the two teams met at the University of Bolton Stadium was not so long ago in the Sky Bet League One, in February 2017.
We came out on top with a 1-0 victory, as a goal line scramble over the line with eight minutes to spare earned Wanderers the three points.
Match Coverage:
As usual, match updates will be provided by the club’s official twitter account (@OfficialBWFC). We will keep you up to date with the action to ensure you don’t miss a kick – delivering a match report shortly after the final whistle with post-match reaction from manager, Keith Hill.
Live commentary will also be available by the iFollow BWFC channel (subscribe via the website), with the BBC Radio Manchester team providing the coverage.
Betting Odds
Rochdale are the marginal favourites heading into this one. The away side are fancied to take this one by Sky Bet and are priced at 11/8 at the time of writing.
Wanderers are priced at 7/4 to register a first victory of the 2019/20 campaign and you can get the draw at 23/10.
Man in the Middle:
Tomorrow afternoon’s game will be the first time Mr. Coggins has taken a game involving Bolton Wanderers.
He has previously officiated at one Rochdale fixture, a 1-0 Dale win at Peterborough in April 2018, a game where he dismissed scorer Ian Henderson.
This is Mr. Coggins third season on the EFL list following a successful season in the National League which culminated with him taking a play-off game between Dagenham & Redbridge and Forest Green.
So far this season Mr. Coggins has issued 29 yellow cards in nine games and has yet to show a red card.
Indeed, it is 33 games and over a year since today’s referee sent anyone off. Mr.Coggins showed an average of just over three and a half yellow cards per match last season over 37 games. This was an increase of close to an extra yellow card a game compared to his first season when he issued marginally more than two and a half yellows per match over 34outings.
That first season saw Mr. Coggins issue six red cards, followed by a further three in the first part of last season since when he has found no reason to go beyond a yellow card
Key Man for the Dale:
When looking at the Rochdale side, 34-year-old Ian Henderson is the main man leading the line for Brian Barry-Murphy’s side.
The striker has scored seven goals in the league for the Dale and is joint third top goal scorer in the division.
He scored at the Crown Oil Arena when the two sides met in the Carabao Cup First Round, when our opponents came out on top as 5-2 winners.