Bolton Wanderers Football Club News

• Nickname:Wanderers
• Founded:1874
• Manager:Owen Coyle

• Ground:Reebok Stadium
• Capacity:28,000

Megson focused on survival

07 Mar 2008 - 07:29:32

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Bolton Wanderers manager Gary Megson insists Premier League survival remains their priority despite a 1-1 UEFA Cup round of 16 first leg draw with Sporting Lisbon.

The Trotters maintained their impressive form in Europe with a stirring performance at the Reebok Stadium on Thursday night which gave them a solid chance of reaching the last eight ahead of next week's second leg in Portugal.

However, Megson insists that won't come at the expense of league results with Wanderers currently languishing just one place outside the relegation zone.

"The result here is going to make absolutely no difference to the team that will be going out at Lisbon," he claimed.

"Whatever we did tonight, we have one eye on the Wigan game on the Sunday.

"Most of the teams that we have played this season have regarded us as underdogs and indeed, in the Premiership, most of the time we are seen as the underdogs.

"But we went to Bayern Munich with ten enforced changes and got a decent result, we went to Belgrade and made the changes by choice and won 1-0.

"I then made ten changes when we came back and won a game in the league that weekend.

"We've at times played people from the squad who have come in and done very well and we'll be doing the same again."

Meanwhile, Megson played down an injury concern surrounding Jussi Jaaskelainen after the keeper was replaced in the starting line-up by Ali Al-Habsi.

"Jussi felt a pain in his lower back in the pre-match warm up and with a lot of games coming up we couldn't take any chances," he added.