Benny The Ball

Was totally unaware of this - looks fantastic - must make a trip to see it next time i am in Bolton Its such a shame that it is tucked away in such an out of the way place and not widely known about Be good to see it maybe loaned to the club and put on display for all to see Hard to believe that his paintings at one time divided opinion and were dismissed by many as irrelevant modern art. Used to go in Sam's Chop House on a regular basis which in his latter years was apparently Lowrys local and where not many years ago they put a lifesize statue of him sat at the bar on display - worth a quick trip inside to see if passing.

Following on from the discussion after the Barnsley game about our excellent defensive record v our poor goalscoring record these diagrams popped up on twitter earlier today - not telling us anything we dont know about BWFC but quite useful in showing where other teams in the division are relative to us (1) Attacking Effectiveness - Shots taken per match v Shots taken per gal scored (2) Defensive Effectiveness - Shots faced per game v Shots faced per goal conceded (3) Expected Goals - xG Created per match v xG allowed per match (4) Attack v Defence - Shots taken per match v shots faced per match

Correct 13 games in and we have kept 5 more clean sheets (7 :2) than at the same stage last season But we have only won one more game Fact is If League one table was based on goals scored we'd be in a relegation spot right now as just Morecambe Cheltenham and Fleetwood have scored fewer

Well Anstey Nomads who are a tier 9 club and might well be the smallest club left in this seasons competition only have a capacity of 1,000 They host Chesterfield tomorrow and have given them an allocation of 250 Chesterfield have done a ballot amongst season ticket holders cannot really see an alternative in such circumstances ? Anstey is in Leicestershire BTW If anyone is interested - i googled them as I had never heard of them - their match is also live on BBC apparently

Quick question - am sure someone on here will know - came up in a recent conversation Apart from Liam Richardson (Wigan ) what other ex Wanderers players are current Managers in English football and indeed in other Leagues internationally ?

With so many games moved for TV I agree will make little difference Be interesting to see how this evolves and if any of the smaller clubs start talking of moving evening Kick offs to the afternoon In a way Reminiscent of the three day week in 1974 when sunday games were first introduced to spread electricity demand and a few weeks later when we had to play Southampton in an FA Cup game at Burnden Park on a weekday afternoon Don't think so many people had ever before wagged school on the same afternoon Club were happy to cash in - had to pay full adult prices to get in as officially kids were banned from attending that day

Totally deluded Cant blame the Hemmings family for wanting to cut their losses and sell up 3 generations of PNE fans have had precious little to celebrate - the highlight of their achievements being watching defeats to us in 2001 and then again 4 years later to West Ham in Championship play off finals 12 million a year to keep the merry go round turning slowly round and round How much better the Roller Coaster ride of following BWFC Must be awful to look over to ALL your local rivals - Blackpool Blackburn Burnley Bolton and even Oldham and Wigan who all achieved Premiership Football and in some cases European Football, and finding all there is to look forward to is wearing a plastic bowler hat next time Gentry Day comes around.

Don't know If anyone is aware of this - a very sad story but worth a mention to set the record straight We all know that there were 33 victims in the Burnden Disaster Well - sort of Back in the day ( March 1946 ) there was no such thing as post traumatic stress and counselling - you just got on with things - or at least you were meant to - that was the way things were in the aftermath of the war Well sadly Robert Jones aged just 34 years old who lived in Bark Street was so traumatised by events at Burnden that day he did not get on with it - he gassed himself The Coroner recorded a suicide verdict on 15th March - 6 days after the disaster and said this "Without seeking in any way to minimise the tragedy at Burnden Park , it is difficult to understand why it should have had such an effect on this mans mind " To me he is the 34th Victim

Bobtail ( or )

The Americans who recently acquired Burnley stipulated that in the event that Burnley were relegated from the premiership - which they were , then a sizeable chunk of the monies that they had put into the club by way of loans would immediately become due for repayment , With interest the figure was circa £70 million, so Burnley are not quite at the same competitive advantage over other championship clubs as might be imagined and as some relegated clubs have historically been with parachute payments Securing additional debt on parachute payments may well be a model more clubs owners adopt going forward

Their chances of getting back into the Football League appear to be lengthening considerably Now bottom of the National League a takeover deal has fallen through and there is talk of them going into Administration which will bring with it a points deduction. https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/scunthorpe-united-at-risk-entering-7583710

Am sure any fan growing up as a fan of MK Dons would be gutted But for me its the principle - the League should never have allowed it to happen ( Am not even sure as to whether League rules actually now prevent what happened with Wimbledon/ MK Dons from happening again ? ) But they did allow it -and for me that wrong will only be rectified when that club folds And then I would say to those fans If you are really committed to the cause build your own club like AFC Wimbledon / Aldershot/ Newport County Etc have had to do then you will have earned the respect of the wider football community

That would mean Wednesday losing at home to Ipswich . Think at this stage of proceedings a Wednesday win or at least a draw suits us better . Ipswich next 3 games are Sheff Weds (A) Plymouth (A) and Portsmouth (H) A couple of draws in those could really tighten up the situation at the top

Lets hope they cannot The owner stole a club from under the noses of its very supporters, moved it 60 miles north and renamed it No true football fan will ever lose sleep were MK Dons to fold Because of their origins they will forever top my list of Tin Pot Clubs

Is that our Sharon in the Edinburgh Queue last night ?

This would be right up there

Apologies if this has been posted before ... I dont recall seeing this previously Interesting to hear Franks views

He has reinstated his twitter account and issued what is supposedly an apology Too late for that Trevor

Her first football match as Queen was indeed the 1953 Cup Final , her first match was Millwall v Chelsea in 1945 Was reading that in 1950 there were only about 300,000 televisions in the UK but by the time the 53 Cup Final came along there were nearly 5 million, most of which were acquired in the run up to the Queens Coronation which was held a month after the Cup Final. So her Coronation certainly helped get the Bolton Blackpool Cup Final in front of a massive TV audience. Have family members who have recounted over the years crowding round tiny tv screens 10 deep watching the 53 final. In February 1952 - 3 days after her father George VI died we played our first game under her reign against Charlton Athletic, and coincidentally it was Charlton we played last week in what has turned out to be our last match with her on the throne.

No surprise there Thought Ipswich did a good bit of business on transfer deadline day signing their striker Ahadme ( scored 5 already this season ) Hell of a job for his successor keeping them in League One

Why am I not surprised by this Factional infighting going on now between the AFC Bury and the Bury FC groups With poor old Radcliffe Borough stuck in the middle https://fanbanter.co.uk/radcliffe-fc-cancel-kids-matches-as-bury-fc-fans-stage-protest-against-club-merger-proposals/ AFC Bury host North Shields in FA Cup qualifier at 1230pm - live streamed on BBC - demonstration going ahead against a merger by the anti AFC Bury brigade If these fans dont resolve their differences cannot see League football ever returning to the town

I agree that the current top 6 will take some shifting - expecting most if not all of them to be there or thereabouts come the end of the season. Last season we took 6 points from 36 against the top 6 (this season so far its 1 point from 9 ) With both Portsmouth and Peterborough to come this month we cannot be going into games such as saturdays and regarding it as tough - at home we ought to be capable of picking up 3 points. Main concern for me remains our lack of goals - in our League games so far this season we have scored 5 - only Morecambe Shrewsbury Forest Green and Cheltenham have scored fewer , that is where our problems are . Needs improving quickly - starting on saturday

Sheffield Wednesday & Preston - apart from when they play Blackpool Sheffield took 6,500 to MK couple of weeks back and 3,700 to Peterborough midweek Their average away following so far this season will be bigger than home crowds of half a dozen clubs in this league Such is the expectation from their support if we beat them today its not only 3 points, it fuels unrest in their camp COYWM

Great article "Evatt’s side are joyous to watch on a football pitch, boisterous and enchanting with possession of the ball, and hungry and ravenous without it." Before he joined us i remember reading the Barrowcelona article that was circulated on here, written by the same journalist in the same publication ( worth a reread - link below ) https://totalfootballanalysis.com/article/barrow-ian-evatts-barrowcelona-tactical-analysis-tactics 2 years on and you can see how his philosophy stays the same and his tactics evolve over time Little doubt in my mind he will manage a premier league club at some stage

Think I am right in saying that saturday should see the biggest crowd since FV took over. Whilst we are never going to compete head to head with the likes of Sheffield Wednesday for numbers - they after all have huge swathes of South Yorkshire Derbyshire and Lincolnshire etc to draw support from , and dont have three massive premiership clubs on their doorstep, i am already encouraged by how well our support is improving year on year and in particular how it is holding up against those other North West clubs who currently ply their trade in the championship. I know its only early days with just 2 home games played apiece , but if we can maintain the momentum on the pitch there are some good reasons for optimism with our crowds Average Home Attendances 22/23 21/22 1 Burnley 18,919 19,299 2 Bolton 17,291 15,439 3 Preston 15,148 12,608 4 Blackburn 14,643 13,478 5 Wigan 12,626 10,397 6 Blackpool 11,175 12,104 7 Stockport 8,919 7,126 8 Tranmere 5,763 6,872 9 Morecambe 4,507 4,333 10 Rochdale 3,499 2,914 11 Fleetwood 3,112 3,228 12 Salford 2,420 2,152 13 Accrington 2,382 2,915