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Wanderers Ways. Neil Thompson 1961-2021

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little whitt

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My stream was about 3 minutes behind, didnt realise until got text saying 'what a goal!' and was 0-0 on mine. Anyway saved me the squeaky bum time at the end. 

For the opposition view Southend commentators impressed with us first half, were glad to see Half a lion go off they rated him and said Declan John had "good engine'.

Looking forward to Tuesday now

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6 hours ago, Ros Coe said:
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Sports Day + Mobile Month Membership

£9.98 one-off payment
.

24-hour membership to catch the biggest events live and 5 months of Mobile Month Membership.

  • Stream 11 Sky Sports channels live for 24 hours with your Day Membership
  • You'll receive your Mobile Month Membership within 10 working days
  • 5 channels including Sky Sports Premier League, on your smartphone

Cheers Ros Coe 

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Good article, that

Quote

Back in September, things were looking bleak for Bolton Wanderers. Five consecutive defeats at the start of the League Two season had dispatched them to their lowest league position in 132 years of distinguished history. Here was the club that in 2008 was ranked the 47th best in Europe (at the time Manchester City were 86th and Borussia Dortmund 109th), seemingly on course for the National League. 

The sad thing was: nobody could be surprised. As football stories go, Bolton’s recent times are bleak. An asset-stripping owner had projected them to the lip of destruction: players went unpaid for months, administration was a more frequent occurrence than victories, and at one point the manager had to pull them out of a league fixture because he only had four senior pros available. In the summer of 2019 they were within a day of going out of business altogether. 

And the hangover from that time lingered. When the pandemic curtailed the League One season last March, Bolton were 21 points from safety; relegation was a formality.

Worse, the new League Two season did not immediately suggest an imminent turnaround. Faced with not so much a blank canvas as a patch of scorched earth, new manager Ian Evatt, recruited from National League champions Barrow, had been obliged to build an entire new squad; one which was soon floundering. 

"This is a big ship to turn around," says Evatt, speaking from the club's training ground via Zoom. "It was a strange, challenging start. But if I’m honest, the recruitment we did in the summer wasn’t good enough."

He is being tactful. When he first arrived, transfers were not his domain. They were conducted by the director of football Tobias Phoenix. And according to Ian Bridge, secretary of the Bolton Wanderers Supporters Trust, several of the players Phoenix brought in were "not fit for purpose". Evatt, trying to institute the ball-playing style that saw his previous team dubbed Barrowcelona, faced an uphill struggle. 

"It probably helped us in those early days playing behind closed doors," he admits. "Not having the fans there to react emotionally when things were going wrong took some pressure off. It gave us time to get our act together."

And the act started properly to come together when Evatt took control of recruitment after Phoenix left the club. In the January window he made a pair of critical signings, the midfielders Kieran Lee and MJ Williams.

"Kieran should be playing at a much higher level than this," he explains. "We were able to sign him because he was out of contract because clubs are struggling to keep big squads together in the pandemic. Covid has undoubtedly brought a tight money situation. But also there are opportunities."

 

The other thing Evatt did was replace his young goalkeeper Billy Crellin with the veteran former Blackpool player Matt Gilks, who was on his coaching staff. It was a particularly tough decision as, back in October, the manager had been obliged to apologise to the youngster after publicly telling him to "man up" after a mistake-littered performance. But it proved a wise move: Gilks’ experience is a sizeable boon.  

"He is so vocal," says Evatt of his keeper. "Speak to our centre-backs and their ears are probably ringing at the end of the game. His organisation on the pitch has been a huge part of our turnaround."

And what a turnaround it has been. Since Bolton beat Leyton Orient on Jan 30 they have won 10 of their last 12 games, moving from 19th in the division to fifth; they boast the longest unbeaten run in the EFL. Now, with 10 games to go, the talk around the University of Bolton Stadium is of promotion. It is some change.

"Anybody that knows me will say I’m not a man of self-doubt," Evatt says. "I’m a confident guy, I have huge belief in myself. When things were going badly it was a case of believing in the process and knowing things will turn.

"Actually the best time to show your belief is when things are going wrong. If you are happy to change at the drop of a hat after a bad result, then you don’t truly believe in what you are doing. The fact I stuck with our methods really said to the players this is something to get on board with. They did and now we see the fruits of it."

The fruits are significant. For the first time in an age, Bolton can no longer be described as a crisis club. Management, directors and players are united. After being routinely sneered at by the previous owner, the Supporters Trust is in fruitful communication with the new chair Sharon Brittan. And the fans are flocking back, if not yet in person then to watch games online: Bolton have the fifth highest number of subscribers to the iFollow service in the entire EFL.  

"A football club can only be successful if things are going right on the pitch," says Evatt. "I know what a successful team can do for a community. We’re seeing that growing here. I’m ambitious. This is a club that belongs in the Championship at least. But first we have to finish the job in hand. There is still a lot of work to do."

 

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4 minutes ago, MickyD said:

Indeed but who will be in the top four spots?

Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Stoke, Wednesday, 

 

Could be clubs you wouldn’t think of like us nobody would’ve thought

anyway thought most bolton fans had firesticks😀

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1 hour ago, MickyD said:

Indeed but who will be in the top four spots?

Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Stoke, Wednesday, 

 

3 of them don't do ifollow 

Those that don't are: 

AFC Bournemouth, Birmingham City, Bristol City, Cardiff City, Charlton Athletic, Derby County, Forest Green Rovers, Harrogate Town, Leyton Orient, Middlesbrough, QPR, Salford City, Stoke City, Sunderland, Swansea City, Watford and Wigan Athletic.

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