BOLTON Wanderers will be playing for glory and not for cash when they take on Aston Villa in Tuesday night's Carling Cup semi-final decider.

Sam Allardyce's team, who beat Villa 5-2 at the Reebok in the first leg last Wednesday, are just 90 minutes away from booking a place in a major final for the first time in nine years.

But, even if they go one better than at Wembley in 1995 and win the competition, they expect to bank just £1.2 million -- less than they earn from two televised Premiership games.

Prize money in the Carling Cup -- the country's secondary knockout competition after the FA Cup -- is small change compared to the fortunes earned by Premier League clubs these days.

The winners collect £100,000 with the runners-up taking £50,000 and the two beaten semi-finalists picking up just £25,000 each.

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Far and away the biggest benefit comes from ticket sales, with the two finalists each taking a 45 per cent share of the Millennium Stadium gate receipts, after expenses. But there was little to be made in the first two rounds of the competition when games against Walsall and Gillingham drew attendances of just over 5,000 and left Wanderers, who slashed admission prices, with little more than £20,000 from each tie to cover the £10,000 cost of opening the stadium, plus the players' win bonuses.

Even television payments, although substantial compared with Nationwide League figures, are dwarfed by the fees commanded when Premier League games are screened live. Wanderers are paid more than £500,000 each time they feature in one of Sky TV's live Premiership shows, whether they are playing at home or away, but they will earn just £100,000 from eachoftheirtwo semi-final clashes with Aston Villa and a further £100,000 if they appear in the Cardiff final.

Apart from the glory of winning a major trophy, which they have not done since Nat Lofthouse lifted the FA Cup aloft in 1958, Wanderers have the added incentive of qualifying for a place in the UEFA Cup next season.

Sam Allardyce has repeatedly said the Premiership is his priority but he has made no secret of his ambition to be the first manager in Wanderers' history to lead the club into a senior European competition.

Nevertheless, Manchester City's experience of Europe's secondary club competition, for which they qualified on their fair play record, suggests there are no cash guarantees there, either.

City were looking good after beating Welsh minnows TNS in the qualifying round then the Belgium qualifiers Lokeren in the first round, but they then crashed out to the little known Polish club Groclin in a UEFA Cup campaign that failed to live up to expectations on either the football or the financial front.

"We are not turning our noses up at the the Carling Cup," Wanderers secretary Simon Marland stressed today. "Our two games against Villa will bring in £200,000 from TV money alone and this is a competition we haven't won before. We want to win it.

"But if we were to win the Carling Cup, the whole competition would probably be worth about £1.2 million to us. Yet, for every place we finish higher in the Premiership, we get an extra £500,000."