Bolton vs Blackburn Betting Tips

It was a miserable Boxing Day for Bolton. They faced fellow strugglers Rotherham in a crucial clash at the bottom of the table. However they barely turned up, going down to a crushing 4-0 defeat at the New York Stadium, their heaviest of the season against one of the few sides they might have fancied beating.

The result leaves Bolton in even more dire trouble. They’ve won just once all season and are now 5 points behind 2nd bottom Charlton and 8 points shy of safety. They’ve had just 48 hours to recover from the nightmare in South Yorkshire and although they’ll have had little chance to change much from a tactical perspective, Neil Lennon and the Bolton fans will at least be demanding more fight and passion in this game against local rivals Blackburn.

To make matters worse for Bolton, they face a Rovers side that didn’t play on Boxing Day due to the postponement of their game with Middlesbrough so they should be much the fresher of the two sides. They were beaten for the first time under Paul Lambert last time out though, going down 1-0 at Reading so the Scottish boss who has made a bright start will also be keen for a response.

There should be a few tasty challenges in this game which is always a passionate affair. There were 10 bookings when these sides met at Ewood earlier in the season, two of which went to Dorian Dervite who was subsequently sent off. Blackburn have had 7 players booked in their last two matches but will know if they can go a goal up, Bolton may start to get frustrated and make rash challenges. Therefore it’s likely the referee will be busy here and there is real value in backing there to be over 4.5 cards at 6/5.

In terms of the result, you’d have to favour the visitors even though they’ve failed to score in their last two matches. They have more quality, more confidence and given their day off on Boxing Day should have more energy. Therefore consider backing a 2-0 away win at 8/1.