• Defender set to play first game since John Terry scandal broke
• Hull striker also admits surprise over Rio Ferdinand ban

The Hull City forward Craig Fagan has vowed not to “cross the line” by taunting Wayne Bridge about his recent off-field turmoil should the pair go up against each other today.

The England left-back Bridge is expected to return to the Manchester City side for the visit to the KC Stadium following a spell out injured, during which allegations surfaced of an affair between his former partner and ex-Chelsea team-mate John Terry.

Should he play on Humberside, Bridge could well be up against Fagan, provided the Tigers’ forward keeps his place on the right wing. Fagan, however, says he would not dare use the recent off-field headlines to gain a psychological advantage over the defender.

“At the end of the day he’s going to be in the spotlight but I’m sure his manager wouldn’t put him in if he wasn’t 100% right,” said Fagan. “Obviously I don’t want to get involved in any of that.

“I wouldn’t even dare mention it to the guy, to be honest. I think that’s crossing the line a bit. If he does play, then fair play to him.”

Fagan also argued Rio Ferdinand’s case after the Manchester United defender’s suspension for elbowing him recently. Ferdinand is serving a four-game ban by the Football Association for apparently lashing out at Fagan at Old Trafford but the Hull striker doubts the England centre-half was being malicious.

“I was blocking him from marking Anthony Gardner and at the time I didn’t think it was an elbow, I thought I just got pushed,” said Fagan.

“It wasn’t until the next day that I heard he was going in front of the FA so it was a bit bizarre. He gave me his shirt after the game and stuff like that, so I don’t think there was any malice in it.”

Fagan’s role is one of a number of selection headaches for the Hull manager, Phil Brown, today, with the recent signing Amr Zaki pushing for a start up front and Seyi Olofinjana returning from the Africa Cup of Nations.

Brown is delighted to have a selection headache, however, particularly concerning the form of the 19-year-old midfielder Tom Cairney.

Cairney made his debut in last weekend’s 2-2 draw with Wolves and impressed sufficiently to keep his place for Tuesday’s game with Chelsea.

The Nottingham-born youngster produced another excellent performance in the 1-1 draw with Carlo Ancelotti’s side and can have high hopes of starting again despite growing competition for places.

Though the club currently sit third from bottom in the Premier League, Brown believes the emergence of Cairney and the steady progress of fellow youngsters Liam Cooper and Mark Cullen is evidence of a positive future for the cash-strapped club.

The Hull manager said: “Tom Cairney, in the light of Jimmy Bullard’s long-term injury and one or two falling by the wayside in terms of form and then Seyi Olofinjana going to the African Nations Cup, has grabbed his chance.

“It doesn’t look like Tom needs his feet keeping on the ground. He looks like he’s taking it all in his stride.”

Brown will be without the forward Geovanni today after he suffered a minor medial ligament problem, though the Brazilian could return for the midweek trip to Blackburn.

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Bolton have still not kept a clean sheet all season, and even though they held a two-goal lead in the 70th minute here, their efforts to break out of the bottom three were undone by two late goals from Stephen Hunt.

From being reasonably happy with what looked like it would turn out to be a hard-earned victory on a freezing night, the Bolton fans rounded on their manager again when Hull came back into the game, with chants of “Megson out” after Hunt scored his second.

It did not help that with the score at 2-1, Megson had enraged home supporters by withdrawing Ivan Klasnic, goalscorer and current crowd favourite, in order to shore up the midfield with Gavin McCann. The tactic backfired almost immediately, Hunt scoring from a narrow angle after heading in his first from Craig Fagan’s cross, and Bolton were left hanging on.

The game was as numbingly cheerless as the weather until Klasnic fashioned a goal from nowhere in the 20th minute to give Bolton the lead. Prior to that, just two optimistic attempts from Lee Chung-yong and Fabrice Muamba had brought murmurs of approval from the home crowd, even though both had sailed well over Boaz Myhill’s bar. There seemed no particular danger when Lee nodded a ball back to Klasnic on the edge of the D, which made his accurate low drive into Myhill’s bottom left corner all the more impressive. The Croatian looked up, shot early, and beat the goalkeeper’s dive for his fourth goal in four games, and his sixth of the season for Bolton.

Andy Dawson saw a free-kick turned around a post by Jussi Jaaskelainen shortly afterwards, though the Bolton goalkeeper survived a scare when he came for a cross and failed to collect, leaving Stephen Hunt a free header that Gretar Steinson managed to deflect awat from goal for a corner. Hunt was a lively presence on the Hull left wing, even if his crossing was erratic. He dispossessed Lee in the closing minutes of the first half to set up an attack from which Jozy Altidore won a free-kick, only to put a shot well wide of Jaaskelainen’s goal after a laborious dummy routine had successfully fooled the Bolton wall.

Matt Taylor put a free-kick wide at the start of the second half, then put an even better opportunity into the crowd from one of Kevin Davies’s knock-downs. At the other end Kamil Zayatte went close with a header from a corner. Not that close, actually, but just being in the Bolton six yard area was nosebleed territory for Hull. It was significant that Hull’s chance should fall to a defender, and more significant still that when Brown tried to beef up his attack he could only turn to a pair of veterans in Nick Barmby and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink.

By the time the latter arrived Bolton thought they had made the game safe through a Kevin Davies goal. Considering Bolton have a reputation for scoring from set pieces, and this wasn’t even a slick routine but a route one, straight down the middle free-kick, Hull’s defending was slack. It was obvious Paul Robinson would aim for Davies, yet everyone including Myhill stood off him, and by the time the goalkeeper tried to reach the ball the striker had stretched to nod it past him.

Premier LeagueBolton WanderersHull CityPaul Wilsonguardian.co.uk