Gareth Ainsworth’s team could not have asked for a better start to the new season than the 3-0 demolition of Burton Albion, but now comes their first real test with a visit to former Premier League club Bolton Wanderers.

That the two clubs now lock horns in the same division tells the remarkable story of their contrasting fortunes over the last decade.

When season 2011/12 got underway, they seemed worlds apart.

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Back then, Bolton were a highly respected Premier League club having enjoyed a glorious spell under Sam Allardyce when they finished in the top eight in four successive seasons and qualified for Europe.

Wycombe had spent the majority of that period in the bottom division, struggling to make ends meet.

As Bolton began their 11th consecutive season in the top division with fixtures against Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United, the Chairboys faced the less glamorous prospect of opening games against Scunthorpe United, Colchester United and Leyton Orient in League One.

It was to be a miserable campaign for both clubs, Bolton being relegated from the top-flight and Wycombe suffering the drop back into League Two.

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However, while Wycombe began moving up the divisions in the ensuing decade, Bolton went in the opposite direction and came close to financial disaster.

In the space of just eight years, they fell from the Premier League to League Two and suffered several winding-up petitions that threatened the club’s future.

As recently as the 2020/21 season, they looked in danger of going out of the EFL altogether when they sat a lowly 17th in the table at the halfway stage.

Their form since then has been truly remarkable, as good as almost any team in the country.

They rose from just above the relegation places to finish third and gain automatic promotion and then began this campaign with an impressive draw at Ipswich, who are highly fancied to win the League One title.

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Wycombe have won all four previous meetings without conceding a goal, but this promises to be a much tougher test against a revitalised Bolton team the bookmakers rate as promotion contenders.

Bolton have come a long way in ten years – but so have Wycombe.