Bolton Wanderers vs QPR Betting Pick | English Premier

English Premier

2012-03-10 - Bolton Wanderers vs QPR

A Sports Betting Pick by Auls

Bolton Wanderers v QPR
Football: English Premier League
Saturday 10 March 2012 - Kick Off 12:45pm
This game is live on TV

Bolton Wanderers

Owen Coyle has maintained his position that his Bolton Wanderers side were not too far away from hitting a run of winnable fixtures that could help ease their relegation worries. They have now reached that stage with relegation rivals QPR and Blackburn Rovers visiting the Reebok Stadium over the next couple of weeks and it will be interesting to see how the players respond to the expectations the manager has placed on their shoulders.

Bolton are 19th in the Premier League and are only off the bottom of the table thanks to a superior goal difference over Wigan. They are well aware that they are only 2 points from the positions of safety and can actually move out of the relegation zone with a win to leapfrog their opponents. The Trotters are just 2-2-9 at home this season, scoring 15 goals and conceding 27.

While the team have moved through to the Quarter Finals of the FA Cup, they have lost some momentum in the League where they have lost 4 consecutive matches after picking up 8 points from the previous 15 available. Bolton were beaten 1-2 here last time out against Wigan, but they had been unbeaten in their previous 5 games at the Reebok Stadium in all competitions. The team have won just 1 of their last 7 League games here.

Kevin Davies should be involved in some capacity for a Bolton side that have been struggling for goals recently. Joe Riley will need a late fitness test to determine his availability for this game.

QPR

Mark Hughes was brought into Loftus Road in a bid to arrest the slide QPR had begun taking down to the Championship, but his arrival has failed to spark the kind of results that would have been expected. Rangers are probably under the most pressure out of the teams in the bottom 5 as they are still to face the best clubs in the League in their final games, making games like these even more important.

QPR picked up a point last week at home against Everton and that keeps them outside of the relegation zone as they moved up to 16th in the table, although they will be dropping a place with a defeat. The team have the same number of points as Blackburn Rovers and Wolves, and are only 2 points clear of the bottom club Wigan. They have a 3-2-8 record away from home where they have scored 14 goals and conceded 24.

Rangers have failed to win any of their last 6 games in all competitions and they have picked up just 5 points from the 21 available since Mark Hughes took over as manager. They have failed to win any of their last 7 Premier League games away from Loftus Road and they have lost 5 of those games, including a 3-2 loss at Blackburn Rovers last time out.

Adel Taarabt is going to need a late fitness test on a hamstring injury ahead of this game. Fitz Hall and Federico Macheda remain out, but Djibril Cisse is back from a domestic suspension to aid in getting the goals to keep the team up along with Bobby Zamora.

Head to Head

Bolton Wanderers beat QPR 0-4 at Loftus Road on the opening day of the season, but that does seem a long time ago now.

Talking about a long time ago, this will be the first meeting in Bolton between the two teams since the 2000/01 season when the home side won 3-1.

If Bolton are looking for a confidence boost, they have won their last 4 at home against QPR.

Prediction

How else can you describe this game but as a 'relegation six-pointer' with victory perhaps providing the momentum for one of these teams to stay in the Premier League.

Bolton Wanderers have come off the boil in recent weeks, outside of FA Cup games, and they will be desperate to secure the three points here and get their team moving out of the relegation zone. They have struggled at home all season, while the loss to Wigan would have really hurt, but they have generally performed well against the teams struggling at this end of the table.

On the other hand, there will be a bit of pressure on Mark Hughes to get a result here as he knows that 6 of the last 11 games his team play are against teams currently occupying the top 7 of the Premier League. They do look like a team that has goals in them with Zamora and Cisse up front, and they have actually recorded more wins away from home than at Loftus Road this season.

One thing I have noticed is that both sides are making a lot of defensive mistakes at the moment so I think the best way to get involved in the game is to pick the Overs.

While Bolton have struggled for goals, I think they will create chances against this QPR defence that is still trying to get used to a couple of new pieces that were signed in the January Transfer Window. With QPR scoring 2 goals and conceding at least 2 in their last 2 away games in the League, that could be the best way to get involved in this game.

The Statistics :

BOLTON LAST SIX HOME FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2012-02-11	L	1-2	H v Wigan
	2012-02-01	D	0-0	H v Arsenal
	2012-01-21	W	3-1	H v Liverpool
	2011-12-31	D	1-1	H v Wolves
	2011-12-26	L	0-2	H v Newcastle
	2011-12-10	L	1-2	H v Aston_Villa

QPR LAST SIX AWAY FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2012-02-11	L	3-2	A v Blackburn
	2012-02-01	D	2-2	A v Aston_Villa
	2012-01-15	L	1-0	A v Newcastle
	2011-12-31	L	1-0	A v Arsenal
	2011-12-27	D	1-1	A v Swansea
	2011-12-10	L	1-0	A v Liverpool