NIGEL Clough says that Bolton Wanderers are a completely different prospect now than they were at the start of the season.
Facing a financial catastrophe and having been docked league points, back in August Bolton were forced to field youth team players and conceded five goals in four consecutive League One fixtures.
By contrast, they have now won one and drawn two of their last three league games and have conceded only eight goals in six games in December.
The Brewers manager said: “Bolton are vastly improved in the last couple of months and I only wish we had played them in August because any team who did had an unfair advantage.
“They brought good experienced players in after August and any team who played them before that played youth or under 23 players so there is no semblance of fairness about it.
“Most teams at the start of the season were beating Bolton 5-0 but that hasn’t happened since they brought in players and got a team together.
“There are a lot of League One clubs questioning the fairness of it I think. The injustice won’t truly be felt until April and May when the five goals might make the difference between someone going up or down.
“When you get experienced players like Luke Murphy and Chris O’Grady out there on the pitch that makes a big difference. They are a much-improved team and it will be a battle for us on the back of the very busy Christmas period.
“But it’s a lovely stadium to go to and one we are looking forward to and we want to try and get three points against Bolton and put Accrington behind us.”