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A poor run of form couldn't have come at a worse time for Bolton Wanderers, with the club still in pole position for automatic promotion but with Fleetwood Town hot on their heels.
Wanderers have managed to score just one goal in their last five games, and that was a last minute winner by Mark Beevers at Southend. We need a much better performance than the absolute dross on show in the 0-0 draw with Bury last time out - and some shots on target would be nice, after mustering just one in the last two matches.
Today's opponents, like Bury, are also threatened with relegation, which means they'll probably cause us all sorts of problems. Port Vale have lost their last four league matches, but are just two points behind Bury and three points behind Shrewsbury Town, so they'll be well up for this today.
The big news for Bolton is that the big man is back, Gary Madine has brushed off his 'shoulder injury' to start this afternoon. He comes in for Derik Osede as Wanderers revert to the 3-5-2 formation that's fared well thus far this season, while the other change sees Jem Karacan make his first start for the club in place of Darren Pratley, who was dreadful against Bury and drops out of the squad completely.
The hosts name former Bolton man Chris Eagles in their starting lineup, surely he can't come back to haunt us? They also have a few former Premier League players in the form of Ryan Taylor, Danny Pugh and Jerome Thomas.
Here are today's starting lineups. You can follow the action from Vale Park and let us know your thoughts on all things Wanderers related in the Comments section below.
Port Vale (4-3-3): Deniz Mehmet; Ryan Taylor, Nathan Smith, Andre Bikey, Scott Tanser; Sam Foley, Danny Pugh, Dan Turner; Chris Eagles, Rigino Cicilia, Jerome Thomas.
Substitutes: Leo Fasan, Remie Streete, Kiko, Anthony de Freitas, Gazim Shelaj, Billy Reeves, JJ Hooper.
Bolton Wanderers (3-4-1-2): Mark Howard; Dorian Dervite, David Wheater, Mark Beevers; Filipe Morais, Jay Spearing, Jem Karacan, Andrew Taylor; Josh Vela; Gary Madine, Adam Le Fondre.
Substitutes: Chris Long, James Henry, Viv Solomon-Otabor, Derik Osede, Dean Moxey, Jake Turner, Conor Wilkinson.