Wanderers will begin life in the new Reebok Stadium just as they ended 102 years of football at Burnden Park ... the stars of live TV.

With a strong sense of history, the FA Premiership have selected the first home game, the visit of Everton, as one of next season's top attractions to be screened in full by BSkyB.

Fixtures released this week served up a remarkable coincidence - Everton having provided the opposition for the first league game at Burnden in 1895.

That and the fact that Wanderers have given assurances that their £35 million super stadium will be ready for football convinced the Premier League and Sky to select the August 30 fixture, which will be switched to either the following afternoon or Monday, September 1.

Sky, whose influence on the game grows in direct proportion to their ever-increasing financial input, captured the emotion of the occasion with impressive coverage of Wanderers' final Burnden fixture - the dramatic 4-1 victory over Charlton on April 25.

Wanderers historian Simon Marland said: "It's a fitting coincidence that Everton will be the first visitors to the Reebok Stadium since they were the opponents for the first league game at Burnden Park.

"But the connection goes back even further because Bolton were the first side to visit Goodison for a league fixture in September 1892."

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