The Valiants final away fixture of the season sees us make the trip to the Toughsheet Community Stadium to take on Bolton Wanderers.

Gaffers Thoughts:

Here’s what Darren Moore had to say ahead of Saturday’s fixture:

“We all know the magnitude of the game, it’s a big game and despite what’s gone on over the course of the season it all falls down to Saturday in terms of where we’re concerned and what we need from the game. We’ve come back in and discussed it today, done some preparation today and tomorrow we’ll get ready for another interesting and tough game on Saturday”

“Let’s concentrate on what we do, let’s make sure that we are the best version of ourselves, let’s make sure that when we travel to Bolton all areas of the game that need to be taken care of we are at our upmost best to get those areas covered. That’s us with the ball, that’s us without the ball and that’s us making sure that we’re competing to 100% on Saturday in all areas of the pitch.”

The Opposition

Bolton currently sit in 3^rd place in the league, three points below Derby County who occupy the final automatic spot.

They come into the game in indifferent form with just two wins in their last six games. On Tuesday night they were held at home to Shrewsbury Town after the Shropshire outfit ground out a 2-2 draw to hinder the Trotters' promotion hopes.

The Shrews went ahead twice in the game before Paris Maghoma levelled the scores in the 71^st minute in what was a frustrating evening for Bolton.

Who’s in charge?

Bolton are currently managed by Ian Evatt who has been in the hot seat since he joined from Barrow in 2020. As a player, Evatt made over 500 professional appearances, including a spell in the Premier League when he played in all 38 games of Blackpool’s 2010/11 campaign.

Evatt has enjoyed a lot of success as in his short career as manager so far. He won the National League with Barrow in 2019-20 and then helped establish them in the football league.

Since joining Bolton in July 2020 he has picked up three manager of the month awards, won the EFL Trophy and guided Bolton to a play-off spot last season. However, they were beaten by Barnsley. He will be hoping to help his side go further this season and gain promotion from Sky Bet League One.

Player to watch – Aaron Collins

After joining from Bristol Rovers in January, Collins has made an excellent start to life in the North West. In his 17 appearances for the Trotters, he scored seven goals and got two assists. He comes into the game in fine form with five goals in his last five games, which includes a hat-trick in a 5-2 victory over Reading at the beginning of April. Collins has stepped up to the plate whilst top scorer Dion Charles has been injured and even though Charles could return at the weekend, Aaron Collins will be hard to drop.

Another player to watch is midfielder George Thomason. Despite playing in the heart of midfield, Thomason has still got 13 goal involvements this season which come in the form of seven goals and six assists. In that 5-2 win against Reading, Thomason assisted two goals to show that he can do the dirty work but also help his side in the attacking third of the pitch.

Fixture Throwback

Bolton Wanderers 3-6 Port Vale, Saturday 5th December.

It’s exactly three years since the Vale last won at Bolton Wanderers and what a win it was! The sides met during the infamous “COVID season” and the game was played behind closed doors which was the only negative on what an exceptional afternoon for the Vale.

Manny Oyeleke gave Vale an early lead when he turned home Christian Montano’s cross after six minutes. Vale’s lead was doubled three minutes later when Leon Legge headed home David Worrall’s deep cross. The frantic start to the game continued when the hosts pulled one back in the 11th minute through Gethin Jones. Just before half time Vale regained their two-goal advantage when Tom Conlon dispatched a penalty in the 42nd minute.

The Vale started the second half on the front foot and immediately made the scores 4-1 when Montano calmly dinked the keeper after being played through on goal. The Vale were flying and added a fifth goal in the 50th minute when David Worrall thundered home a low near post effort. Nathan Smith then rounded off the scoring for the Vale in the 62nd minute with a header at the back post. At 6-1 the game was over. However, Bolton didn’t give up and added consolation goals from Eoin Doyle and Lloyd Isgove to make the score line a bit more respectable.

Match Officials

Charles Breakspear will take charge of Saturday’s fixture, he will be assisted by Darren Williams and Paul Newhouse. Matt Corlett will be in fourth official duties.

Breakspear has refereed 33 games so far this season, 17 of which have been in League One.

The last time he was in charge of a Vale game was way back in August 2022 when he was in charge of away fixture against Exeter City.