Bolton in the Championship

So despite Manchester City's dramatic late turnaround to beat QPR 3-2, Bolton finished just below QPR after drawing 2-2 away at Stoke, and thus Bolton were relegated. So how will the team I support fare in the Championship?

Within a week of being relegated, the sinking feeling was made all the worse for the fans. as Bolton were faced with the need to significantly cut the wage bill to cope with the sudden drop in income. 16 players either left or were released, including Jussi Jaaskelainen, Ricardo Gardner, Gretar Steinsson, Ivan Klasnic and Nigel Reo-Coker. Not only had some reliable first team regulars gone, there was also little or no squad depth left in several positions.

Bolton have lately brought in two players to begin to add more options, with Matt Mills added to their defence and Keith Andrews in midfield. To me these are strong signings at Championship level, and strong battling type players will add a backbone to the team and perhaps replace the likes of Nigel Reo-Coker and David Wheater (still with Bolton, but recovering from a major ligament injury).

The hope with Bolton is they have more luck with injuries this time round - with all the players to pick from, I'd be confident this team would be right near the top of the table all season. But another series of unlucky injuries would expose the gaps in squad depth.

Last time round, both Chung Yong Lee and Stuart Holden (arguably two of Bolton's best players) were pretty much out all season long with major injuries. Various other smaller injuries disrupted the team throughout the season, and of course I don't even need to say what happened to Fabrice Muamba. The hope is that Bolton were dealt such a bad hand in terms of luck last season, surely they're due some fortune this time round?

Anyway fixtures were announced a few weeks ago, and of all the games they could possibly start with, incredibly Bolton begin away at Burnley - a bit of a local rivalry to start with, but lately much more so since Owen Coyle moved from Burnley to become Bolton manager. Burnley, having started so well in the Premier League, went on to plummet down the table to relegation without Coyle, and have been stuck mid-table in the Championship since.

Burnley was an away trip I was pondering before the fixture announcement, but the home fans will be wound up given the circumstances and it being the opening fixture, and thus the idiots may also come along looking to cause trouble (and that's in both the home and away ends). I'm not sure if I'm looking into it too much or whether I'm just best giving this one a miss!

Whatever the result in this I feel the most important thing in the start of the new season will be the next two matches - at home to Derby County on Tuesday evening, and then Nottingham Forest on Friday evening (live on Sky). I say this as in previous seasons, the Reebok Stadium was widely seen as a difficult away game for many teams - there was a confidence that Bolton had at home that meant even major sides like Arsenal and Tottenham were intimidated into regularly losing/drawing there.

For once this didn't happen for Bolton last season, with just 4 wins from 19 home games. A poor start at home seemed to take away the confidence they'd built up over the seasons. But they've got the chance, in these difficult but potentially fairly attack-friendly opening home games, to make a statement to the other Championship clubs that the Reebok Stadium will be a really difficult away day for everyone. And of course some good early home performances can also lift the crowd to build up a big, noisy and potentially intimidating atmosphere for all visitors!