There may not be any League One action this weekend but there’s no rest for Keith Hill’s Bolton side as Plymouth come to town in the first round of the FA Cup.
Speaking with the club’s website this week ahead of the hotly anticipated tie, Keith Hill said that he’s come down with “cup fever” and is treating Bolton’s clash with their League 2 opponents as a big game.
As a result, it’s unlikely that the Bolton boss will want to tamper with his newly found winning formula that has seen Bolton win their last three matches on the bounce.
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(Photo by Andrew Kearns – CameraSport via Getty Images)
For the first time since March 2017, Wanderers have the chance to earn four wins in a row and Keith Hill, who is looking to maintain Bolton’s positive momentum, will not want to upset the applecart despite the cup offering the chance to experiment with his side somewhat.
Keith Hill also revealed that he doesn’t expect any of Bolton’s injured players to make a return this weekend which also leaves the manager’s options limited ahead of the cup tie and almost necessitates using the same team that beat Joey Barton’s Fleetwood Town last week.
Of course, using the same team for the Plymouth match is hardly a bad thing, any opportunity for the players to work on their gameplan ahead of the crucial League One match against MK Dons next week will surely be grabbed with both hands. As long as no one new gets injured that is.
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Bolton’s line up against Fleetwood
Bolton’s history against Plymouth would suggest Saturday’s match will be an evenly fought affair as, over the course of the clubs’ history, Wanderers have triumphed 15 times against Plymouth’s 12 wins.
The most recent match between the two clubs, however, came way back in 1993, just three days after Bolton’s ‘white-hot’ win over Liverpool at Anfield. In the Plymouth side that day, non-other than current Bolton boss Keith Hill.
The first round cup tie is scheduled at the usual time of 3pm with tickets priced at a very reasonable £10 for adults and £5 for Under 18s and Over 65s with only the lower tiers open for this fixture.