Bolton Wanderers don’t have much time to recover from losing their ten-game unbeaten run as they face Huddersfield Town tomorrow night at the Reebok Stadium.
The Trotters lost 1-0 away at Middlesbrough on Saturday after a late Grant Leadbitter penalty was enough to separate the two sides.
However manager Dougie Freedman has urged his side to forget about the defeat and concentrate on their home games starting with the Huddersfield challenge.
“We’ll pick ourselves up and go again on Tuesday night,” Freedman said after Saturday’s defeat.
“We’ll now see if we have any bounce-back-ability in our ranks.
“We’ve got beat today, but games like this won’t decide our season, it’s home games at the Reebok that will prove crucial. Our form there has got to be maintained.”
Huddersfield though will be in good spirits after their 2-1 victory against table-topping Burnley on Saturday.
The Terriers are searching for their third consecutive league victories and currently sit 12th in the Championship table four points above Bolton.
Bolton though will be hoping for a repeat of last season’s result when a Chris Eagles goal was enough to give the Trotters all three points.
Huddersfield have never won at the Reebok but Freedman knows his side need to address their problems in front of goal if they are to continue this record and get back to winning ways.
“We need to make sure we take the opportunities when we create them,” Freedman pointed out.
“We had been conceding too many goals, but we seem to have addressed that issue somewhat.
“In modern-day football you need to be able to defend really well to set attacks in motion.”
This was evident on Saturday when Bolton had a great opportunity to avoid defeat when they were awarded an 87th minute penalty but in-form striker Jermaine Beckford failed to take advantage of the spot-kick.
The Trotters have only managed 17 goals in 17 league games this season so on-loan striker Joe Mason might be given a full debut as the Trotters aim to improve their goal tally against their rivals from across the Pennines.
Image courtesy of BWFC Official via YouTube, with thanks.
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