TWO glorious play-off triumphs have given Mike Whitlow a greater appreciation than most of what it takes to get into the Premiership. Wembley wins with Leicester in 1994 and 1996 qualify the experienced left-back to give an informed opinion on Wanderers' prospects . . . and there's no-one more confident.

Whitlow, who revived his career with Leeds after being released as a teenager from his first Bolton spell, isn't alone in discounting Sunderland from the equation - even more so since Peter Reid's men went 10 points clear with their midweek victory over Crystal Palace. But he has no hesitation in declaring: "We will be there or thereabouts at the end of the season, whatever anybody else says.

"Fingers crossed, we can get second spot; if not, it will be the play-offs."

Why the confidence? "Because we've got a great bunch of lads here," he explains, looking around the Euxton training ground at his fellow Wanderers.

"It's the best squad of players I've ever been involved with . . . and that's the truth.

"In terms of talent and ability, I've been with nothing better and we've just started hitting it off really well again." Whitlow, who is tipped for a recall at left back against Portsmouth tomorrow, highlights the impressive and consistent form of Per Frandsen and the succesful integration of Jon Newsome and Paul Warhurst for having helped Wanderers over the spell which had the critics writing them off and the fans worried.

"Per's exceptional," he says in praise of the Dane, "If he's ever out it's obvious we're going to miss him badly.

"And I have to say that big Jon has come in and done a fantastic job and we all hope he's going to stay. He's really hit if off well with Paul and they've both fitted in well with the rest because they are good mixers, which is important. There are no prima donnas here.

"We'd been conceding quite a few goals earlier on but we haven't been doing of late. We've had a few clean sheets and only conceded the odd goal. The lads have been doing really well and now we've got to make sure that continues to the end of the season. "But when you weigh everything up, it was only a spell of four games when we had problems and everybody jumped on the bandwagon and hammered us.

"But it takes time to get used to this division after the Premiership. It's more hustle and bustle and a bit more of a fight. But we are up to it, I'm sure of that."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.