please log in to view this image Bolton Wanderers host Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday 2nd May (KO 20:00) in a re-arranged match which was due to Spurs' involvement in the FA Cup Semi-Final at Wembley against Chelsea. It will be the 36th game of the 2011-12 Premier League season for both clubs. Bolton have struggled this season and are in 18th place in the table on 34 points after a 2-2 draw with Sunderland while Spurs come into the game in fourth place in the table on 62 points having beaten Blackburn Rovers 2-0 last time out. This will be the 106th time the two teams have met and the 4th time during the current season after the FA Cup games, one of which was abandoned due to a serious injury to Fabrice Muamba, who has since made a remarkable recovery. The first meeting between Tottenham and Bolton came at Northumberland Park in April 1898 when Spurs were playing in the Southern League in a friendly which was drawn 2-2. A further friendly was played at the same venue in November 1899 which Spurs won 4-0. The clubs first met in Football League action during Tottenham's first season in the competition with Spurs winning both matches 2-1 at home and 1-0 away during 1908-09. Both clubs were promoted to the First Division the next season and Spurs drew 1-1 at White Hart Lane and won 2-0 at Burnden Park. The first FA Cup meeting came in the 2nd round (today's 4th round) in season 1924-25 with Bolton earning a 1-1 draw at White Hart Lane but losing their home replay 1-0. Bolton had the best of the first Football League Cup meeting between the clubs, winning 6-1 at home in the 4th round in November 1996. Spurs got a 2-2 home draw in the first Premier League meeting in December 1995 and followed this with a 3-2 away win in March 1996. During the 2009-10 season, Spurs took four points out of six off Bolton with a 2-2 away draw at the Reebok and a 1-0 win at the Lane. The teams were also drawn together in the 5th round of the FA Cup with Spurs drawing 1-1 away and finishing the job 4-0 at the Lane, which included two Bolton own goals. Bolton won last season's fixture at the Reebok Stadium in November 4-2 with a Kevin Davies brace and goals from Gretar Steinsson and Martin Petrov while Tottenham's goals came from Alan Hutton and Roman Pavlyuchenko. The return game at White Hart Lane in February 2001 resulted in a 2-1 win for Spurs. Rafael van der Vaart scored a 6th minute penalty but Bolton equalised through Daniel Sturridge, on loan from Chelsea, in the 55th minute. Niko Kranjcar's injury time thunderbolt ensured that all three points went to Tottenham. The League fixture at the Lane this season was played in December 2011 and resulted in a 3-0 win for Spurs with goals from Gareth Bale, Aaron Lennon and Jermain Defoe. Bolton's Gary Cahill was sent-off. The reverse fixture at Bolton has yet to be played. During the Premier League Era, Spurs have 10 wins to Bolton's 9 with the other 6 matches drawn. The FA Cup 6th Round game at White Hart Lane on 17th March was abandoned after 41 minutes when Bolton's Fabrice Muamba collapsed. Prior to this, Bolton had taken the lead when Gareth Bale deflected Darren Pratley's header after six minutes and Kyle Walker had pulled Spurs level after eleven minutes. The re-match ten days later resulted in a 3-1 win for Spurs with all four goals coming during the second half. Ryan Nelsen scored after 74 minutes with Gareth Bale adding a second three minutes later. Bolton pulled a goal back from Kevin Davies in the 90th minute but a Louis Saha goal in injury time saw Spurs through to the Semi-Final. Overall, Spurs have the edge over Bolton with 47 wins to 37 with 21 matches out of the 105 played so far. please log in to view this image Full History of Tottenham Hotspur v Bolton Wanderers Matches 1898-2012 please log in to view this image They played for Spurs & Bolton... Chris Armstrong Fred Barrett Gudni Bergsson Sean Davis Frank Drabble Chris Fairclough Les Ferdinand Quinton Fortune George Goldsmith Eidur Gudjohnsen Bill Hinton George Hunt Ernie Jones Gordon Jones Bill Joyce Don McAllister Neil McNab Ian Moores Grzegorz Rasiak Bert Sproston (Spurs player, Bolton coach & scout) Bob Tannahill Wilf Waller Ian Walker please log in to view this image Tottenham Hotspur Premier League Squad Numbers 1993-94 to 2011-12 Bolton Wanderers Premier League Squad Numbers 1995-96 to 2011-12 please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
Memories. Neil McNab one of my favourite players from the 70's. Him and Hoddle were such a good mix. Another top article
Reebok has been one of our bogey grounds for god knows how long. No doubt Davies will will get on the scoresheet for 'em as he always does against us there... Naturally want the win but can only see this ending in a draw. 2-2.
Apparantly he played for our juniors when he first moved over from South Africa at the age of 14 - never made a senior appearance before heading to Spain.
On a similar note, I think it was Hoddle tried to get a permit for Bobby Convey and a year later he received one to join Reading in the Championship. Not sure what happened in a year to change their mind.
Fortune lived in Spain for 4 years after leaving us which probably helped with regards to his work permit. The goals/assists table is encouraging, though they are going to want this game.
Tim Howard got one for Man Utd too, despite being 3rd or 4th choice for his country at the time. Hmm....
This is all about hope now rather than certainty. Although I felt certain that we'd beat Bolton at the Lane I thought hard work was made of it. I'll be holding my breath throughout this match. A fighting Bolton will be hard to beat.
In the FA Cup? I thought we were good value for another 3-0 but then conceded a sloppy goal. This is the toughest game we have left though. The main problem I see in our next two games is that both sides would be happy with a draw and teams that try to shut us out tend to be very successful against us lately.
I'm really surprised that it's us not Chelsea who are favourites for 4th place. To me, the run Chelsea are on gives them the upper hand. If we're still 4th on Thursday, then we should do it.
So did Keller and he was injured for the Confederations Cup but returned to the first 11 for the Gold Cup, whilst Friedel seems to have been given the whole year off as he'd played every game for Villa 2 seasons in a row with a World Cup in between. Convey, who we had a work permit turned down for that year played 15 of their 16 games in 2003 and had 18 caps for the US first team to Howard's 9(?). I'm not really sure how work permits work for footballers but it certainly doesn't seem to be very consistent.
I see Muamba is going to the match tonight. Do you think this will inspire Bolton to greater heights, or have no effect?
Tonight's team? I'd just change Livermore for Lennon. I wonder if Harry will leave it as it is, which would be fair enough.
