Wanderers make their shortest away journey of the season on Monday evening when they travel to the DW Stadium to go head-to-head with Robert Martinez's Wigan Athletic.
Ahead of the game, Bolton boss Gary Megson spoke to Wanderers Player to offer his thoughts on the club's recent performances and what he expects in the final match before Christmas.
Gary, looking back over the last two matches, could it have gone much better for yourself and everyone at the football club?
It could have gone two points better if we had hung on to one of those leads that we had against City, but we have played ever so well.
I didn't think that we played as well against West Ham, but it just goes to show you the vagaries of football.
Against West Ham, did you believe that we had it under control from the first whistle through to the last?
I thought that West Ham came with an idea of keeping it tight. They had their first corner after about 40 minutes and very few shots and didn't cause us many problems.
Our players deserve great credit for that because the work-rate and ability that they showed was there for everybody to see.
We fell into a little bit of a trap where we tried to pass the ball and be patient before we won the game. West Ham weren't stopping us from having possession on the halfway line and were fully concentrated on stopping us from getting the ball going up to Davo (Kevin Davies) and Klas (Ivan Klasnic).
But in the second half we picked up those second balls and that helped to keep the pressure on.
We got the bounce of the ball last Tuesday with Robert Green's error. Was that slice of good fortune welcome?
Every single team needs that. I think there is a tendency to talk about it more when fortune doesn't go your way rather than when it does.
Ivan does deserve a bit of praise because it was an instinctive finish and one that we have come to expect from him since he joined in August.
Without a shadow of doubt. There are times in a game when players do make mistakes but they need to be punished.
Ivan followed the shot in and he was the only one who did that - if he hadn't then the goalkeeper would have got away with it.
He has got that predatory nature about his game and he wants to score goals. He did that numerous times through the game and nothing happened but he anticipated the mistake and thoroughly deserved his goal.
Ivan is neck and neck with Gary Cahill in the goalscoring charts. How well is Gary playing at the moment?
He has played some terrific games and I think that he is getting a bit of recognition because scoring goals does that.
Everyone is aware of who scores goals, but you could ask anybody, for example, how many headers Gary has won in a game and they wouldn't be able to answer that.
That's been the case recently, but since day one when he made his debut against Reading, he's been very consistent at a high level.
Looking to Monday, how important is it that we follow up the good performances in our last two games with another against Wigan?
It would be a huge boost if we could go to Wigan and win there. Not just in terms of the three points and what it would do to us in the league table, but because it would mean getting a result where people don't expect us to.
Last time we went there, Wigan started really well and could have been two or three goals up inside the first half hour and it turned out that we were fortunate to get a point from that game.
We've got to go there and start the game better like we have done in our last two games against Manchester City and West Ham. There is no reason not to do that.
How's it looking with the injuries? Is Gavin McCann expected to be back available for selection with Fabrice Muamba suspended?
I think the game might come a little too early for Gav. He is progressing but his ankle is still sore.
One of the things that came out of the West Ham game was the performance of Bash (Chris Basham) when he went on. I thought he did brilliantly, so if Gav doesn't make it, or indeed if he does, then Bash won't let anybody down.
