Nottingham Forest have made a positive start to their Championship campaign and will make the trip to the Reebok Stadium on Friday confident they can get something from their clash with Bolton Wanderers (Bolton Wanderers Evens, draw 5/2, Nottingham Forest 13/5 – Match Betting).
The Reds claimed a win on the opening day of the season with a 1-0 home victory over Bristol City, followed by a hard fought 1-1 draw against Huddersfield Town in West Yorkshire in midweek from which they were unlucky not to claim the three points from.
Manager Sean O’Driscoll has made his side hard to beat in their opening games and it looks like Forest (7/2 – Promotion Outright) will be in the mix for the play-offs come the end of the regular season.
Backed by their new Kuwaiti owners, Forest have been able to make some strong signings over the summer and they are likely to add to the squad at the City Ground before the window closes at the end of the month.
The signing of Simon Cox from West Brom already looks like it will pay off over the course of the season, as he found the net against the Terriers on Tuesday and looked a threat throughout.
With the likes of Lewis McGugan and Dexter Blackstock in their ranks, Forest have some real attacking threats who are bound to get chances presented to them on Friday night against a Bolton outfit who have already shown they can be vulnerable at the back this term.
The Whites had a rude awakening to life in the Championship when they were comfortably beaten 2-0 by Lancashire rivals Burnley last weekend.
That result at Turf Moor will have been a bitter pill to swallow for Trotters boss Owen Coyle against his former employers but he will have been pleased with his side’s display in midweek when they saw off Derby County 2-0 at the Reebok.
Bolton (7/1 – Championship Outright) will be a tough proposition on home soil this term, as they have been able to keep hold of many of their key players who dropped down from the Premier League last season.
Mark and Kevin Davies form the spine of the team in the upper half of the pitch and Coyle will need to keep both those players at the club beyond the transfer window if they are to be successful in the second tier of English football.
The strong back two of Matthew Mills and Zat Knight will be tough to break down and the pair of Keith Andrews and Chris Eagles in the middle of the park will add an extra attacking threat that Forest will have to be wary of.
This certainly looks like it will be a very close game and it could go either way, depending on who can make the most of their chances.
It looks like there could well be a share of the spoils which would probably make O’Driscoll the happier of the two managers as Forest (12/1 – Championship Outright) would maintain their unbeaten record in the league this season.
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