KEVIN Nolan is bracing himself for a rough ride in Burgas on Thursday after infuriating Wanderers' Euro rivals.
Lokomotiv Plovdiv players accused the young midfielder of gamesmanship at the Reebok a fortnight ago, when he helped the Whites take a 2-1 lead in their UEFA Cup first leg tie. But Nolan is undeterred.
"I'm really looking forward to the reception I'm going to get after what I did to them last time," Nolan said as Wanderers prepared for the second leg.
"A couple of them are saying I'm going to get harmed by God because of what I did.
"But I can take a kick as long as they can take a kick. I don't mind a little boot here and there as long as they can take it back."
Nolan, whose introduction as substitute helped Wanderers come from behind to take a first leg lead, angered the Bulgarians when he played on as Georgi Iliev lay on the ground asking for treatment. He launched the move that led to El-Hadji Diouf scoring the equaliser.
Plovdiv also claimed Jared Borgetti was offside, when he scored the injury-time winner that tipped the tie significantly in Wanderers' favour, but it was Nolan who bore the brunt of their anger.
"The major talking point was because we scored the goal right after the Plovdiv guy went down," he said. "But he went down feigning injury. I didn't touch him, so I told Ricardo to give me the ball . . . and we went up the other end and scored.
"A lot of the Plovdiv players weren't happy but they know, more than me, that he went down and wanted to roll around and waste some time because in European games that's what you do. Maybe we should get used to doing things like that, but with us only being in our first season in Europe, we won't do that.
"Maybe, in the next five years, you'll see me rolling round trying to waste time at Inter Milan or somewhere like that."
Regardless of the row, Nolan has a healthy respect for the Bulgarians, who warmed up for Thursday's game (kick off at 5.55pm local time, 3.55pm in the UK), with a 2-0 victory over Cherno More Varna on Saturday.
"Everything was heated on the pitch and after the game we had a bit of banter," he said, "but I thought they were fantastic.
"They did really well here. A lot of people had written them off but they are a good side and it's not going to be easy over there.
"We've got a tough job but, hopefully, we won't do anything silly, just get the job done and get back here and look forward to facing Wigan on Sunday."
Sam Allardyce, who has lost Ivan Campo and Nicky Hunt with fractures in the past week, is hoping Gary Speed (back), Abdoulaye Faye (groin) and Radhi Jaidi (hamstring) will be available but fears he may have to go into the Plovdiv game with a severely weakened squad.
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