Cherries To Bulldoze Past Bolton

The season’s thrilling race for the Championship title is coming to an end with both automatic promotion places also still up for grabs; Bournemouth can get within touching distance of the Premier League if they beat Bolton on Monday.

Form

Despite suffering a cruel blow when an injury-time penalty denied them victory at Sheffield Wednesday last weekend which resulted in a 2-2 draw at Hillsborough, Bournemouth’s fate remains in their own hands as they lie in second spot in the table thanks to a vastly superior goal difference to Middlesbro in third, who are also on 82 points with two league games to play.

Eddie Howe’s side are unbeaten in eleven games, including seven wins, are the division’s top scorers with an impressive 92 goals and two more victories will see them reach the Premier League for the first time in the club’s history.

Callum Wilson is his side’s top scorer with 19 league goals but Yann Kermorgant, Brett Pitman and Matt Ritchie have all broken double figures for the Cherries too.

It’s now three games without a win for Bolton following their own 2-2 draw last time out, away to Brentford. Former Celtic boss Neil Lennon has done a good job in keeping the Trotters safe from the relegation battle they found themselves in when he took over but they have little more to play for now other than a marginally better final league position and professional pride, lying 17th in the table eleven points clear of the drop zone.

Lennon’s men have scored in each of the last six but kept only one clean sheet over that run and their record of 37 goals conceded away from home puts them 20th in the division in that regard.

Three goals in his last three appearances have taken Adam Le Fondre to the top of the club’s scoring charts this season, with his tally of eight in the Championship coming in just 15 appearances.

Team News

Simon Francis is suspended for the Cherries following his sending off in their draw in Sheffield last weekend but Howe has no new injury worries otherwise.

Defender Dean Moxey is a doubt for Bolton after he was forced off before half-time against Brentford while Josh Vela has been ruled out for the season and Matt Mills and Paddy McCarthy are both out of Monday’s game.

Head to Head

Wilson struck both goals for the away side in their 2-1 win at Bolton in the reverse fixture, with Jay Spearing levelling matters after Kermorgant was sent off in the first half. That was a first win in five against the Trotters for Bournemouth with Bolton winning on both of their last two visits to the Goldsands while their last victory in this fixture prior to last October’s result came in 1992 when both sides were in English football’s third tier.

Recommended Bets

The odds are stacked in the Cherries favour here as illustrated by the 2/7 on a home win and it looks as though only nerves would be their undoing against such a leaky rearguard, they’ve been involved in plenty of high-scoring fixtures of late too so the 4/5 on a home win with more than 2.5 goals looks a great punt.

21/20 on both teams scoring is well worth getting behind too while the 2/1 on a Bournemouth win with both teams scoring looks good for value.