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There will be no room for sentiment tomorrow night as Dean Holden looks to dump the club which gave him a rote into professional football out of the FA Cup.
Assistant to Lee Johnson at Bristol City, the Salfordian has developed his reputation as one of the brightest young English coaches outside the Premier League during two successful years at Ashton Gate.
He is best known to Bolton fans as the home-grown right-back whose star was cruelly shot out of its ascension because of a broken leg sustained against Sheffield United, days before an FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa in 2000.
Sam Allardyce had tagged the teenage Holden as a future first-teamer before his injury and though he battled back to play for Bolton again, the vast majority of his 400-plus appearances were made elsewhere in a varied career.
That disappointment has never dented Holden’s enthusiasm for Bolton – and as his Robins side prepares to face them for the second time in a fortnight, the 39-year-old looked back fondly on breaking through the youth ranks to make his debut against Fulham in 1999.
“I was there when I was 12-years-old,” he recalled. “I was there for probably 10 or 11 years of my life and it’s a wonderful football club.
“It’s difficult to see the position they’re in at the minute but I think they’ve come back from periods like that in the past.
“I’ve got some great memories of course. When you come through a football club like that, Big Sam Allardyce gave me my debut there. I played with some incredible players now that I think about it.”
Little scouting will be needed from either side tomorrow night, with Bristol City having earned a 2-1 win in the Championship just a couple of weeks ago.
Wanderers had frustrated their hosts and snatched a shock second-half lead through Will Buckley, only for a quick change from the bench to pay dividends - Matt Taylor and Kasey Palmer scoring the winning goals.
Holden doesn’t think the outcome of the previous game will have any bearing and expects Phil Parkinson’s side to once again be stubborn opponents.
“We know each other, of course, and we watched the game against West Brom,” he said.
“They’ve been in pretty much every game they’ve been in. Even the 6-0 loss to Hull City, they were in the game for long periods, and they capitulated towards the end.
“They’re proving to be a tough nut to crack; they’re not scoring as many goals as they would like in games. But for us, it was a tough game at Ashton Gate not too long ago.
“You can’t dismiss Bolton. They’re fighting for everything at the moment. For us, we concentrate on ourselves. If we get our performance right, we keep our standards as we’ve done in previous games, it gives us a chance of getting through.”
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Assistant to Lee Johnson at Bristol City, the Salfordian has developed his reputation as one of the brightest young English coaches outside the Premier League during two successful years at Ashton Gate.
He is best known to Bolton fans as the home-grown right-back whose star was cruelly shot out of its ascension because of a broken leg sustained against Sheffield United, days before an FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa in 2000.
Sam Allardyce had tagged the teenage Holden as a future first-teamer before his injury and though he battled back to play for Bolton again, the vast majority of his 400-plus appearances were made elsewhere in a varied career.
That disappointment has never dented Holden’s enthusiasm for Bolton – and as his Robins side prepares to face them for the second time in a fortnight, the 39-year-old looked back fondly on breaking through the youth ranks to make his debut against Fulham in 1999.
“I was there when I was 12-years-old,” he recalled. “I was there for probably 10 or 11 years of my life and it’s a wonderful football club.
“It’s difficult to see the position they’re in at the minute but I think they’ve come back from periods like that in the past.
“I’ve got some great memories of course. When you come through a football club like that, Big Sam Allardyce gave me my debut there. I played with some incredible players now that I think about it.”
Little scouting will be needed from either side tomorrow night, with Bristol City having earned a 2-1 win in the Championship just a couple of weeks ago.
Wanderers had frustrated their hosts and snatched a shock second-half lead through Will Buckley, only for a quick change from the bench to pay dividends - Matt Taylor and Kasey Palmer scoring the winning goals.
Holden doesn’t think the outcome of the previous game will have any bearing and expects Phil Parkinson’s side to once again be stubborn opponents.
“We know each other, of course, and we watched the game against West Brom,” he said.
“They’ve been in pretty much every game they’ve been in. Even the 6-0 loss to Hull City, they were in the game for long periods, and they capitulated towards the end.
“They’re proving to be a tough nut to crack; they’re not scoring as many goals as they would like in games. But for us, it was a tough game at Ashton Gate not too long ago.
“You can’t dismiss Bolton. They’re fighting for everything at the moment. For us, we concentrate on ourselves. If we get our performance right, we keep our standards as we’ve done in previous games, it gives us a chance of getting through.”
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