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Battles at both ends as Spurs travel to Bolton

Owen Coyle and Harry Redknapp have very different aims when Bolton and Tottenham meet on Wednesday evening © Getty Images

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Bolton manager Owen Coyle feels his recent encounters with Tottenham in the north-west show why his team should go into their Barclays Premier League clash with the Londoners at the Reebok Stadium full of confidence that they can claim a vital victory.

Although Wanderers have been beaten five times at White Hart Lane in all competitions since Coyle was appointed as manager in January 2010, at home they have held Spurs to a 1-1 draw in the FA Cup and pulled off an impressive 4-2 league win over them.

Those experiences have given Coyle plenty of encouragement that Bolton can put fourth-placed Spurs to the sword as the Trotters look to climb out of the relegation zone.

"Spurs are a different proposition away from home than they are at White Hart Lane,'' Coyle said. "I have had two encounters with Spurs at the Reebok Stadium - a fifth-round FA Cup tie which we drew and should have won and then when we beat them last season in the Premier League.

"So we go into this believing that if we are at our best, we can take points from the game, and that is what we will look to do.''

Bolton are 18th in the table, separated from 17th-placed QPR by goal difference alone. Wanderers have three matches left, with this one being their game in hand over the rest of their relegation rivals.

They had another last week, triumphing 2-1 at Aston Villa, and Coyle - whose team then went on to draw 2-2 at Sunderland on Saturday - wants to see his men make the most of their opportunity once again.

"What we have to do now is, as we did last week against Aston Villa, capitalise on our game in hand. We have had to sit for a few weeks and play catch-up in terms of games, while opponents picked up some huge results that were probably not expected. But now they would have to say Bolton are on a terrific run of form.

"Now we have three games left, knowing that we need to take the points to make sure we have at least one more than three teams below us. We know we are capable of doing that.''

Harry Redknapp believes results are so erratic at this stage of the season that he cannot be sure whether his Spurs side will miss out on fourth place or snatch third. With the Football Association opting to employ Roy Hodgson as the new national manager, Redknapp - the bookies' overwhelming favourite for the job - has had a hard lesson in the unpredictability of football in the last few days.

"You can't predict results,'' Redknapp told Spurs TV. "Manchester United had an eight-point lead after [Manchester] City got beat at Arsenal, you thought that was the end of them, you thought it was all over. You just can't tell.

"You look at Wigan's games and they had no chance [of survival]. They had to go to Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, play United, Newcastle, five of the top six, and they go on this incredible run. You just can't predict results.

"You never know. You just have to keep going. That's all we can do. We've two tough away games this week and then a tough home game against Fulham to finish with. That's three hard games.

"Newcastle have three tough games, for sure. Chelsea might have the best fixtures. We have to keep going and if we play well, we can do it.''

Key battle: Rafael van der Vaart will look to open Bolton up and it will be down to Nigel Reo-Coker to try and keep the Dutchman quiet.

Player to watch: With his future to be decided once the season has concluded Luka Modric will be aware of admirers observing his form for Spurs.

Prediction: 2-3

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