Wanderers are ready to make their first change for six games if midfield ace Alan Thompson is ruled out of tonight's home game against Reading.

The Geordie boy is a major doubt with an ankle injury - the legacy of a crunching challenge in Friday night's 2-2 draw at Barnsley.

Gerry Taggart and John McGinlay have given Colin Todd the thumbs up that they will be fit but the Wanderers boss has drawn up contingency plans in case Thompson fails a late fitness test.

The manager confirmed: "Having Tommo doubtful has given me food for thought as to how I might change things in midfield but we'll just have to wait and see what the verdict is.

"In any event it will be another challenge - a challenge we'll take on with confidence, knowing we have a chance with two successive home games, to give ourselves a cushion of points above the other teams at the top." Wanderers were bitterly disappointed to drop two points at Barnsley after leading 2-0 but they take on the Royals on the back of an unbeaten 12 match run and with just one defeat - the aberration at Southend - in 17 games this season.

"That's a tremendous run in anybody's book," Todd said. "It's a run we want to keep going and which we are capable of extending if we can live up to the standards we have set so far."

Wanderers, two points clear of second placed Norwich, are aiming to take maximum points from their two home games this week - Huddersfield are at Burnden on Saturday - but they know Reading are on a roll, having had three wins and two draws in October, rising from 23rd to 13th in the table.

Less of an influence, according to both camps, is the memory of their last meeting - the dramatic 1995 play-off final when Wanderers came from 2-0 down to secure their place in the Premiership.

Both sides are likely to start with just five survivors each from that Wembley thriller and Todd says: "It's of no significance as far as I am concerned", while Reading joint-boss Mick Gooding was also playing it down when he remarked: "I expect Bolton fans will be ribbing ours but all that's water under the bridge now."

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