Eddie

Guaranteed good song too To the heartbeat theme tune “Ruben, Ruben Rodrigues please score a goal for me. Do do do do do, do do do do do” He’s also 5ft 11 so if he’s going to be our no.10 has a bit of size compared to other options there. Some signing this

Done a bit of research. He loves a nutmeg, is two footed and is a goal scoring midfielder. My favourite part though has to be this gem: 8. Change of Number Now sporting the number 27 shirt, Rodrigues follows a tradition of notable players who previously wore it, including Chung-Yong Lee and Franck Passi. He can’t fail!!

I’m realising just how little I know about players from other teams in this league. Plenty of people buzzing about this signing - I couldn’t have told you he’d played against us before! I’m now buzzing cause you lot are 😂. What position does he play?

Exactly! One day these sitters will go in and it’s a whole different game - why not tomorrow!? Hard work being a Bolton fan if you can’t cling onto the hope

I love this kind of post. We know full well the reality that we don’t tend to do well away from home, we don’t score in the first half and we don’t win by more than 1 goal when we do… but fuck all that, this time it’ll be different, we’re going to batter them and have won it by half time. My kind of blind optimism 👍🏼

We can’t go back to 1 up top and it be Dalby - it’s unfair on him more than anything else

You didn’t say that. You said he’s been poor all season. Can we win without him against poor opposition at home - clearly just about. Has he been poor all season - no, you’re just being daft.

Spent 93 minutes thinking I was mad, only to see a scrappy rebound go in and prove it was the right decision all along - stupid game. Another game where it looked like sitters would cost us. GJ’s wasn’t just bad, it was terrible twice! Dempsey then does everything right on 2 occasions but has to have some composure and finish it off - the second kills the game. I was completely wrong on Dalby. Pretty harsh on him before he got this run of games and in hindsight it was stupid. Bits of games here and there playing as a lone striker with wingers cutting inside was never going to make him look anything other than a carthorse. Play to his strengths with players up around him and give him a run of games and he’s showing he can be very effective in this league. Even without the goals he was MoM again. Hold my hands up on a poor call. Final thing of interest. EE was running about like he was in 2 leg braces for the last 10 mins - he then gets the ball and manages to swivel on it and hit a beaut of a ball over the top to Gale who was completely free which set him away and was the start of the move for the winner. I thought he had a decent game overall but that pass when he was crippled with cramp was a proper piece of skill in an otherwise turgid battle of a match. Onwards we go.

Your obvious stubborn bias against him is making you look very silly. You’ll be calling him bang average next

From my Derby mate ”He’s rubbish. Head down, daft as a brush” He’ll fit in well 🤣🤣

Sun out by 3pm, wind dying down by 8pm, pitch nice and slick from the rain this morning - perfect conditions under the lights!

7 points from 9 says it’s not… yet

Wheater’s the one that comes to mind for me. Didn’t he go to turn and just crumpled into a heap when his knee gave way

I’m going, on my own, straight from work with a 45 minute drive home And I’m looking forward to it Must be mad

Imagine being Michael James, lifelong fan, knowing what you’ve done for the club and then hearing of this shit (hopefully he doesn’t). I wouldn’t be able to help myself, I’d be arguing with delinquents for hours a day. And these fuckers get to vote 🤦🏻‍♂️

Why? Because we’ve had an injury? Cesspit of a place

Assuming ACD is out and Sheehan is on the bench at best, I’d go Bonham Tutu Toal Forino GJ Conway Erhahon Simons Dempsey Burstow Dalby Maybe harsh on McAtee and I was saying he should get a run, but not knowing whether his fitness means he can start 2 games in 4 days and with Burstow hopefully getting some confidence from his goal, I’d start him alongside Dalby. edit - I’d also have a shoot on site policy. Lincoln’s first was a good shot from 20 yards out and 2nd was a shite bit of keeping that they put in after he spilled it. Don’t try and play perfectly through them every time, get round Dalby, get some shots off and get following in on the keeper.

Fair enough, hard done to probably the wrong wording. I suppose I just don’t think those extra couple of games are a massive factor in us looking a bit shit. And if they are, we should have used our squad better. Anyway, regardless of number of games, I think we’ll win on Tuesday and by a couple at least.

Burton’s 5 included Reading, Plymouth and Lincoln away and Huddersfield at home. We’ve had a squad that has been so big, with so many not able to fit even in the match day 17 that we’ve been happy to trim it down - I can’t imagine Burton have that luxury. We’re 3rd and they’re 20th I accept there needs to be patience and to be honest, any win will do, but this idea that we’re hard done to with the number of games is a bit overly defensive of the team / performances. We weren’t shit on Saturday because we’d played 2 more games since Boxing Day compared to Orient - we couldn’t have wished for a better / easier run over the traditionally hardest part of the season. We were just a bit shit, but we won.

All fair points - maybe rose tinted glasses for the last half an hour with 5 at the back because we went onto win it, but I did think we looked better (it was hard to be worse than that first half). I just think the fundamentals work in the favour of our personnel. More solid at the back, less emphasis on defensively poor full backs to defend and more people round the big man up top meaning it’s easier to get out. Completely agree on Forino, although I don’t think he’s as strong in a 2. All 3 of them have weaknesses that are more obvious in a 2 (and having to deal with poor full backs), whereas all 3 have a strong part to play in a back 3.

Completely agree on all of that. We’re getting a bit thin in a few places, but if we could only bring one player in in the next week then it would have to be a proper striker who can play off a big man, preferably with a record of scoring previously. They’re not cheap though so god knows whether it’s achievable.

That’s not what you were saying though. You said it was because ACD had gone off and Tutu was stretching the game because he’s right footed on that side. As for Gale going on the outside - I think everybody agrees that the wingers would be better doing it more often to add that variety, but to suggest it’s the first time in the whole season that Gale has gone on the outside of a full back either means that today is the first game you’ve watched this season, or you’re massively over exaggerating to make your point - I’d imagine it’s the latter. I generally agree with your point that the 451 wasn’t working, I just think you’re trying too hard in trying to prove why and how you know so much better.

Or. Dalby won a scrappy header when they weren’t set, their defender then weirdly missed the ball when also trying to head it, that then meant that Erhahon had an obvious ball to Gale, he went outside for the first time in the game and created half a yard for a good finish. It was nowt to do with ACD vs Tutu. There was no switch of play, there was no stretching of the width, it was a good header and an Orient mistake that opened the opportunity up.

He’s not a 10 though. He’s simply not good enough at football to play as a 10. He tries hard and I think he can see what he wants to do, he’s just not good enough to execute very often. If he’s anything, from what I’ve seen at him since he’s been with us, is a striker playing off the shoulder - probably as one of two up top. He makes some semi intelligent runs and has shown a few times that he can finish, but he looks generally poor the longer he has possession of the ball. This isn’t me defending him as being a really good player just out of position (he’s generally been shit and occasionally moves towards average/good, but it’s rare) - I just think if we are to ever see him at his best then it’s alongside Dalby as a 2, rather than trying to link between midfield and the forward.

I turned it on just as he was leaving the pitch - 14 minute delay, leg brace, breathing mask thing, didn’t look good. I didn’t see the challenge but given the level of grievance in the Cardiff crowd aimed at the ref, and then the booing of Stockport’s centre back for the rest of the game, I assumed he’d clattered him. No yellow card of note either - sound familiar?