Match Preview: Shrewsbury Town vs Bolton Wanderers

After grabbing their first win of 2022 at home against Ipswich Town last weekend, Bolton Wanderers head to Shrewsbury Town with the hope of putting an end to their torrid run of form on the road.

Without a win away from the UNIBOL since September’s convincing 4-1 win at Charlton Athletic, Wanderers have lost seven successive away games, scoring just once. Todays opponents home form is quite the reverse of that.

Shrewsbury haven’t lost at New Meadow since September, winning five and drawing twice. They’re unbeaten in their last five games, conceding just the one goal.

Manager Steve Cotterill is obviously in a buoyant mood, telling the Shrews official site:

“It’s a game we’re looking forward to, being at home, and after this, we’re back on the road again for a couple of games. It seems as though we’ve had a fair bit on the road this year and a few spells away from home turf. It’s [preparation] been going well, I’ve been really pleased with how the boys have trained this week and hopefully, they can take it into their performance on Saturday.

“I don’t know if they’ll [Bolton] be full of confidence, they’ve won a game, but their form before that wasn’t so good. You never know in this league, sometimes it throws up strange results. I’ve watched the game back, the one between Bolton and Ipswich, and they’ve obviously had a good win but we’re looking forward to playing them this weekend.

“I’d imagine that’s what he’ll [Ian Evatt] be doing [telling his side to put together a run of positive results]. He won’t be any different to any of the other managers when they’re in a bit of a sticky run, we’ve had one ourselves. Then we go on a run, and we stay unbeaten for five games in the league, everybody wants that, we’re not particularly interested in what other teams want to do, we’re interested in extending our own unbeaten run on Saturday.”

Wanderers haven’t lost against Shrewsbury in the league since 1990, though did lose on their last visit to New Meadow in the EFL Trophy in 2020. Adam Senior scored for Bolton in a 2-1 defeat. Bolton did win the reverse fixture this season 2-1, with Antoni Sarcevic and Dapo Afolayan both scoring goals from outside the box.

Team News

Ian Evatt has no fresh injury concerns, so we’re likely to see a similar line-up to the one that took to the pitch against Ipswich.

New signing Jón Daði Böðvarsson is in line to make his debut, whilst Dapo Afolayan could return to the starting XI after scoring as a substitute last week.

Odds

Shrewsbury 13/10

Draw 9/4

Bolton 2/1