Bolton defenders Gretar Steinsson and Andy O'Brien say the club are desperate to start the season on winning ways when The Potters travel to the Reebok Stadium in just ten days time.

City's first ever opposition in the Barclays Premier League endured an abysmal start to their campaign last season, winning just one of the first thirteen games, which eventually saw Sammy Lee sacked as boss of The Trotters.

Former Stoke manager Gary Megson was brought into the club and turned their fortunes around, with Steinsson stressing the importance of a good start to the season this time round.

"It is really important to start well," said the Icelandic international (pictured).

"When you look back at last season we didn't start as well as we wanted to and ended up struggling for the rest of the season.

"We have to start better and keep the consistency in the season to make it a good one.

"Our target is to do better than last season but we just have to take one game at a time, starting with Stoke and moving on from there."

Bolton are currently in the middle of a pre-season tour of Greece, where they drew 1-1 with Aris FC last night before facing Rivaldo's AEK Athens side on Friday for their final match of pre-season.

Fellow defender O'Brien believes strength at the back could be crucial to achieving their aims and with today's £2,000,000 arrival of Watford defender Danny Shittu it will certainly strengthen a defensive line that conceded 54 goals last season.

"We haven't been beaten in pre-season and haven't conceded many goals - that breeds confidence," the ex-Portsmouth and Newcastle United said.

"We've got Friday in Athens to come now, and that will be our final preparation before the Stoke game, where we have to get it right."