The fixtures continue to come thick and fast in the Barclays Premier League with Middlesbrough this weekend's opponents for the Wanderers.

There are many fond memories from the trip to the North East last season, where Gavin McCann's close-range winner sealed a vital three points for Bolton in the quest to avoid relegation.

A similar result will no doubt be the order of the day on Saturday as Bolton look to recover from the home defeat against title-chasing Liverpool last weekend.

The Bolton manager spoke to the media on Thursday morning to offer his thoughts on Saturday's trip to face Gareth Southgate's Middlesbrough...

Gary, how's the squad looking for the game at the Riverside?
We're okay. Joey O'Brien is getting closer but he won't be available for Saturday, although we are hopeful for the Sunderland game. From the reports we've had, all the internationals are fit and well, but we haven't managed to contact Ricardo Gardner and Danny Shittu. There's nothing unusual in that so we are hoping they will come back okay too.

Ricardo Gardner started the game against Liverpool from the substitutes' bench and had a great impact when he came on at half-time. Do you see that as an option you could operate with on a more regular basis?
Well he is good from that point of view, but he wouldn't thank you for that. We played a little bit differently against Liverpool in terms of putting Fabrice Muamba on Steven Gerrard, so unfortunately it meant that Bibi started on the bench.

But he has done that before and had a great impact when he has come off the bench, but he's also had a great impact when he has started. He gives us something that the other players don't give us, but it is swings and roundabouts because there are strengths of other players that we need to utilise.

He's a great lad and a good player but this international break doesn't do him any favours at all because the last time we saw him was a few minutes after the Liverpool game and the next time we'll see him is five o'clock on Friday afternoon. It makes life difficult.

Would you like to see some kind of embargo on the international fixtures and friendlies at this time of the year for reasons like that?
I can see what the international managers get out of it because it gets all the players together and it does give them the opportunity to see players that they normally wouldn't use. In Ricardo's case, it wasn't a friendly so that's fair enough.

You've mentioned in recent weeks the need to score more goals. Is that something you'll look to address in the January transfer window or is something you are primarily focusing on out on the training ground?
The players have been working hard out on the training ground, but it's like a golfer practicing from 12 feet. They rarely miss but if it was for the British Open then the circumstances are entirely different.

But we've got people here with a record of scoring goals and we need that again. Matty Taylor was bought because he has a goal threat, while Kevin Nolan, Kevin Davies and Johan Elmander have that menace too.

Everybody has got to chip and I think Ricardo hadn't scored for six years, but he scored the other week and a player of his quality shouldn't have a record of one goal in that amount of time.



Gareth Southgate has started to get some momentum at Middlesbrough so it will be a difficult task to go to the Riverside.
Of course, but we still think that we can go there and get something like we did last season. We think the same about anywhere we go, but at the moment they are on the crest of a wave and I saw them play against Everton last week and I thought they did really well.

They have got some class performers, they look organised, they all work hard and have got pace in the team, so it will be a big test for us.

Are there similarities between Middlesbrough and Bolton in the fact that people give the two clubs a hard time because they are perceived as playing just the one brand of football?
Historically there is a way to view all kinds of football clubs. You have the 'School of Science' from 40 to 50 years ago at Everton and West Ham so suddenly, that's the way that everybody expects those football clubs to play. Tottenham had the pass and move, so historically you get associated with a certain way of playing.

I think if you look at the way that we have been playing and are trying to play, there is an emphasis on other things as opposed to playing in one certain way. That's for other people to judge, but it is what we are trying to achieve.

On another note, statistics revealed this week suggest that Bolton's crowds have increased over the last year so clearly the club is doing something right.
This football club does a lot of things right. More often than not, we put free travel on for the supporters to go away from home and the Fanzone is another first.

We took the prices down last season to try and help people get through the turnstiles, so this football club is in the vanguard of creating initiatives that other clubs in the Premier League will have to follow.

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