Match Preview: Forest Green Rovers vs Bolton Wanderers

Looking for a thirteenth game unbeaten, Bolton Wanderers travel to Forest Green Rovers with a huge opportunity to potentially move into the automatic promotion places.

It’s the live Sky Sports encounter at midday on Saturday as 3rd plays 5th in Nailsworth. Mark Cooper bemoaned a lack of quality in the final third during their goalless draw in Nottinghamshire, as Mansfield Town kept them at bay.

The Green Devils came out on top at the UniBol on a sunny first day of the season, as the now-departed captain Carl Winchester’s daisy-cutter just after half-time secured all three points for Cooper’s men and I think this game will be equally as tight.

Forest Green Rovers made it just the one defeat in their last five league games as they laboured to a goalless draw with Mansfield Town, while Bolton Wanderers extended their unbeaten run with their fourth win in five as they came from behind to beat Walsall.

Jamille Matt missed a presentable opportunity in the second half but his physicality and ability to bring the likes of Odin Bailey, Aaron Collins and Josh Davison into play high up the pitch will be vital in how they fare against a Bolton side brimming with confidence. His battle with Ricardo Santos will go a long way to deciding this encounter.

Wanderers have scored in fifteen consecutive games now, amidst our country-best twelve game unbeaten run.

Will Marcus Maddison finally shine in a Wanderers shirt? It’s possible, with Ian Evatt stating that this week has been his best on the training pitch since his arrival in the January transfer window. Whether he gets the nod from the start remains to be seen, though I think we’ll see an unchanged line-up from the one that beat Walsall last week.

Form:

Forest Green Rovers – WDWLD

Bolton Wanderers – WDWWW

Opponent to watch:

Jamille Matt – Part of Bolton’s success of late is having a strong defensive foundation, with the likes of Ricardo Santos and Alex Baptiste particularly impressive of late, and so key to Forest Green Rovers being able to get something from this game is being able to ask questions of The Trotters defensively, and I think that Matt may well provide that. He has been in superb form this season and has proved a real stellar addition to the forward line with his physicality, and so may well cause Santos and co. problems.