DRAWING first blood will be more important than ever for Wanderers at Luton Town today, predicts head coach Steven Schumacher.
The in-form Whites head to Kenilworth Road in a league game for the first time in more than three decades knowing a win could propel them into the automatic promotion spots.
Despite conceding five against Barnsley last weekend, big spending Luton have kept more clean sheets than anyone else in the division and moved to the edge of the play-offs with a hard-fought win at home to Huddersfield Town on Tuesday night.
Schumacher expects a tight encounter where the first goal is likely to be crucial.
"It's probably as tough a game as you can get away from home," said the Bolton boss, whose side have conceded first in every away game so far this season.
"It would be nice to score the first goal, wouldn't it? Psychologically, it obviously has a massive effect on the game. It's always important in any game of football but I think particularly against a side that are going to play the way we think Luton will.
"It is a tight pitch and it isn't easy to score when you can camp people in front of your own goal. It's difficult when there's no pressure on them to take the ball and come out.
"If you score first away from home, the opposition have got to come, which then leaves you a bit more space to counter-attack into. We haven't managed to do that yet this season but hopefully that will be the case on Saturday."
Luton sacked Matt Bloomfield last month and handed former Bolton loanee Jack Wilshere his first permanent managerial role.
Other than the heavy defeat at Barnsley the former England and Arsenal midfielder has made a fine start to life in the dugout, and Schumacher believes he has a squad that will be challenging for the top two at the end of the season.
Another sell-out allocation of 1,342 away fans will travel down to face Luton (Image: PA)
"They paid big money for their goalkeeper, Josh Keeley, who is a good player, and even more for some of the defenders they have got," he said. "They have a really good squad on paper and invested in some quality attacking players in the summer too.
"Their results haven't gone exactly the way they would have wanted, I'm sure. And that is why they changed the manager. But there has been an upturn in results of late - a bad one last weekend, but they responded straight away - and so it's a really hard game but we go into it with confidence."
Wanderers won their first game away from home this season with a thrilling comeback at Huddersfield Town last month and with some key games on the road to come before the end of the year, Schumacher is keen to keep up momentum.
"There's pressure on the game, a requirement to go and get points but we know we have been playing well," he said.
"We know that we could have done slightly better in certain areas on Saturday against Bradford. We know there are areas of the game that we still need to iron out and improve. But we're confident that we can go and get results against the better teams in the league.
"We think our performances have been pretty consistent. We went away to Stockport and played really well and should have got a result in that one. Went away to Huddersfield again against the team who were up there and managed to come out with all three points in that game.
"So we should go to Luton with confidence that we can get the result and the points we need."