League One: Stockport County vs Bolton Wanderers - Betting Tips, Odds & Prediction

The Bolton Wanderers will make the short trip to Edgeley Park to challenge their local rivals Stockport County in the first match of the 2025/26 League One season. 

Stockport County were close to achieving back-to-back promotions last season, but they narrowly lost out to Wrexham in the league standings before Leyton Orient ended their Championship dreams in the playoffs. BettingTop10-approved bookies are backing them to make a strong run again. 

Bolton will look to improve on last season’s midtable finish with Steven Schumacher preparing for his first full season with the club. A success in this fixture will be an early massive boost for both sides, so this should be an entertaining match with plenty of betting angles. 

Read on for our Stockport vs Bolton prediction, as well as a breakdown of the best punts to make this weekend.

Stockport County 

Stockport came close to matching Wrexham’s double-promotion success last season, but a third-place finish ended in heartbreak during the playoffs.

Leyton Orient held the Hatters to a 3-3 draw on aggregate over two legs. Dave Challinor’s men could not keep their nerves during the shootouts and managed to score only once from the spot. Unsurprisingly, that wasn’t enough. 

They will look to bounce back from that near miss with a convincing win against local rivals Bolton and start another promotion push. 

Team News: Challinor could deploy Barnsley loanee Corey O’Keeffe as an advanced full-back in this game.

Predicted Lineup: Addai; O’Keeffe, Oluwo, Pye, Connolly; Mee, Edun, Camps; Norwood, Diamond, Mothersille.

Bolton Wanderers

The Bolton Wanderers showed a pure statement of intent by bringing in Steven Schumacher, who led Plymouth Argyle to League One glory in the 2022-23 season. But football betting sites are not convinced by their reshuffling, or the lack thereof, this summer. 

The Trotters have lost the likes of Aaron Collins and George Thomason, but they did little to fill the void. Bolton’s transfers fade in comparison to what their rivals are doing in the market, so it’s not easy to show optimism in them right now.

Team News: Bolton have brought in Sam Dalby from Wrexham to lead their line alongside John McAtee. 

Predicted Lineup: Sharman-Lowe; Toal, Forrester, Johnston; Simons, Erhahon, Morley, Sheehan, Dempsey; McAtee, Dalby.

• Bolton lost both legs against Stockport last season.
• Stockport scored six goals against Bolton across the two legs and conceded none.
• Bolton could not beat Stockport in a league match since their 1998 League Division 1 meeting.

Bolton Wanderers were beaten both home and away against Stockport last season. Schumacher will hope to get better results this time around, but the lead up to the game paints them as the underdogs across betting apps.

Wanderers did add more width in attack by signing Thierry Gale from Rapid Vienna and bringing in Amario Cozier-Duberry from Brighton. But Schumacher might not throw them in right away and choose to give his 3-5-2 another try. 

Stockport showed last season that they are well equipped to neutralise Bolton’s system and they have grown even stronger this season. They’ve retained the core of the side that pushed for the title last season. So, we expect Stockport to win this one. The scoreline, however, should stay below the 2.5 goal mark. 

Malik Mothersille to Score First @ $6.50

Malik Mothersille has traded Peterborough for Stockport this season after an impressive stint with The Posh. The left winger made 21 goal contributions for his team last season and will be hopeful of improving his numbers even further with a promotion chasing team. 

If he can beat the Bolton wingbacks and run into the spaces behind them, he should find some good scoring opportunities in the game. We expect the Jamaican to open the scoring for his new side, with this punt paying $6.50 at Bet365.