Bolton Wanderers started the season under Forest's manager Dougie Freedman. It was a pretty poor start to the season which ended up with Freedman being sacked in October of last year. Freedman managed to last the first ten games of this season and in this time managed to achieve one win, two draws and seven defeats. This was a pretty shocking start to the season which ended with a 4-0 drubbing against Fulham at Craven Cottage. Freedman was swiftly replaced by former Celtic boss Neil Lennon. Under Lennon, Wanderer's form has drastically improved. He has so far achieved nine wins, five draws and six defeats. This form has managed to steer Bolton to 15th in the Championship and seven points clear of danger which is remarkable achievement considering the position Bolton were under when Lennon took charge. In comparison, Dougie Freedman seems to be having much better look at Nottingham Forest than he did in his time in charge at Bolton Wanderers. He has so far achieved two wins and a draw in his time in charge. These include a 3-2 win away at Brighton, a 3-0 win at home to Wigan Athletic and more recently a 4-4 draw at Blackpool. The latter also should've been a third win on the bounce considering Forest conceded in the last minute of injury time after only taking the lead moments before. However, Freedman and his Forest side will be looking to wipe this out of the memory by claiming all three points against his former club at the City Ground.
Gary Gardner celebrates his equalizer to make it 2-2 at Bloomfield Road last weekend.
Jack Hobbs went off injured in the game against Blackpool last weekend and will therefore miss out on this match. Freedman went on to blame the state of the pitch at Blackpool as the cause for Hobb's injury. It is still unknown exactly how long Hobbs will be out of action for. Forest will also be without Andy Reid, Chris Cohen and Britt Assombalonga as they all continue to recover from long-term injuries.
My score prediction for this game is Nottingham Forest 2-0 Bolton Wanderers. I feel that Forest are playing very well at the moment and were unlucky not to make it three wins out of three under Dougie Freedman last weekend. However, I think that Forest will have too much in attack for Wanderers to handle and will go on to achieve a relatively comfortable home victory.
