Bolton Betting Preview: Cardiff City v Bolton Wanderers

Good afternoon ladies and gents and welcome to the second instalment of our weekly Bolton Wanderers betting guide. This week we're looking ahead to Bolton's trip to South Wales to face Cardiff City.

Interestingly, Bolton are shorter odds today than they were at home to Middlesbrough last time out. The best price on a first Bolton away victory since over one year ago - also in Cardiff - is 9/1 with Bet365.

Cardiff, on the other hand, have been made massive favourites for this clash and the best odds you can pick up on a home win is just 2/5 with Coral or 4/11 with Betfair and Betdaq.

If you do fancy putting your money on Bolton coming home from Wales with something then a draw is the safest bet with a best price of 17/4 with Bet365 and BetVictor or 7/2 with William Hill and Betdaq.

Moving on from the match outcome, the bookies' favourite player to open the scoring is Cardiff striker Lex Immers, who I have to admit I've never heard of, at a best price of 50/11 and as low as 3/1. A couple of good shouts here look to be Anthony Pilkington, best priced 9/2, and Peter Whittingham, who is as high as 8/1.

The first nine most likely players to open the scoring are all Cardiff players. Three Bolton players are priced 12/1 - Zach Clough, Gary Madine - who won't even be playing - and Emile Heskey - all longer odds than defensive midfielder Kagisho Digkacoi who, despite having never scored for Cardiff in 20 appearances, is 10/1 to score the first goal. Embarrassingly, they are also all longer odds to score first than for there to be no goalscorer, which stands as low as 10/1.

Fancy a bet on the correct score? Personally I love a little flutter on a 0-0, and you can get as good as 14/1 on that particular scoreline - but you might want to consider the use of your Cash Out button.

Bolton to repeat their 3-0 victory at Cardiff last season is an impressive best price of 250/1 with Unibet, the same odds you can get on Bolton to win 7-2. In other words, it ain't happening. However, a Bolton 2-1 win is available for as much as 28/1 with BetVictor - possibly worth throwing a quid on.

To come back to reality for a moment, a realistic 2-0 home win is as high as 6/1 with BetVictor and PaddyPower while a 3-0 Cardiff victory is available is 9/1. Those same 9/1 odds are available on a 1-1 draw, which may be a tempter.

Frankly the odds are so stacked in Cardiff's favour that it's barely worth putting your money on the hosts, so it could be tempting to add Immers to score at anytime on top of a Cardiff victory - that's 13/10 with PaddyPower. And personally, I'd hold onto my money rather than gamble it on Bolton.

Any obvious punts I've overlooked? Do feel free to share your tips in the Comments section below.