Shrewsbury boss Paul Hurst reckons Wanderers will be “right up there” again in League One this season.
Hurst admits Bolton have more options at their disposal but is optimistic his side can still “hurt” the Whites in the final third.
“Bolton changed the team round quite a bit in the first game and looking at their line-up and bench (on Saturday), they have got a lot more options available to us than we do so I am not quite sure what team Ian will pick”, he told the club channels.
“They had a defeat at Charlton, a tough place to go, but I am sure they will be right up there this year as well. We know what Bolton are and that they are one of the favourites to win promotion.
“I can’t get into Ian’s mind at this stage with how he will approach it, but what I do know is there will be some good players on the pitch that we will have to try to contain but also hurt them going the other way.”
Salop enter the game on the back of a 1-0 defeat at Huddersfield, with Callum Marshall getting the decisive goal in the first half.
“I am never happy losing a game of football but I thought we performed well and there wasn’t much in the game,” Hurst added.
“I think Huddersfield kind of looked like they had run of out ideas in general but admittedly they got that all important goal.
“In terms of us putting a gameplan together, nothing surprised us and I think we negated a lot of what they want to do and have done well in the games to date.
“It was just frustrating to lose by that single goal, we hit the crossbar and had another good chance where the keeper has made an excellent save with his studs to deny John Marquis.
“Toby (Savin) made one really good save first half and one second half that was offside, but we weren’t peppered.
“They had quite a bit of the ball but the lads stuck to what we asked them to do well, we just didn’t quite get our reward.”
The Shropshire club have had a tough start to the campaign, also losing against Stevenage and Peterborough in the league.
Hurst’s side beat Notts County on penalties in the first round following an eventful 3-3 draw against the League Two outfit.
Wanderers ran out 2-0 winners at Croud Meadow in the league last term thanks to goals from Paris Maghoma and Aaron Morley.
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