COLIN Todd has praised his Reebok bosses for bankrolling his bid to turn Wanderers into a Premiership force.

The Bolton board have backed the manager with £11 million for new signings, smashing the club's transfer record three times in the space of five months.

Despite their current position - fourth from bottom of the table with just eight points from nine games - Todd says the investment will pay off.

"It's still early days and the belief is there," he explained. "It won't be easy but, as the season goes on, we'll see there is no reason for despondency.

"Supporters can see for themselves the improvement that has been made to the quality of the squad.

"The chairman and his board deserve credit for giving us the money to spend. They've shown how ambitious they are to have a quality team as well as a quality stadium.

"With the players we have, we can't fail."

New £3.5million record-signing Dean Holdsworth made his debut in Saturday's 1-0 home defeat by Aston Villa but Todd had £6 million worth of defenders sidelined - Robbie Elliott, Neil Cox and Mark Fish - and top scorer Nathan Blake starting a three-match suspension.

Wanderers, who haven't won in the Premiership since the opening day of the season, are still looking for their first victory at the new Reebok Stadium and will be hit by another three-match ban when Andy Todd serves an automatic suspension after being sent off along with Villa's Stan Collymore, who traded punches in an injury-time flare-up.

The manager's son will be subjected to the same internal discipline as previously doled out to Blake with Todd Snr making no excuses: "I believe Stan threw the first punch but if you react and raise your hands as Andy did then the ref has no alternative but to send you off."

Collymore will face similar disciplinary action from Aston Villa as Brian Little dropped a strong hint that he would act when admitting his striker had "no defence" after studying a video of the end of match incident.

Although Little will keep internal any possible punishment for his £7million signing, a heavy fine seems on the cards for Collymore in the latest episode in his unhappy start at Villa.

Little said: "Stan has got no defence. He threw a punch and must now accept the consequences."

There was better news on the fitness front when Cox was pencilled in for a game in tomorrow night's friendly at Rochdale.

The right-back, a £1.5million summer signing from Middlesbrough has been out for six weeks with a hamstring injury suffered in his second appearance at Coventry.

Holdsworth is also expected to play in the game which is being staged to celebrate the opening of the new East Stand at Spotland.

Todd said of Holdsworth's performance against Villa: "Dean was maybe trying too hard. He was trying to get into every position and then would not be in the right one. But he'd only had one training session to get to know the other players."

Simon Coleman is due back from a loan spell at Wolves but Molineux boss Mark McGhee wants to keep the Bolton defender as cover for a second month.

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