paulhanley

I really hope he gives McAtee a run today. It feels like he is keen and eager and might just provide the spark we need. I would give Burstow a little rest. He is badly out of goalscoring form but he runs himself to a standstill and probably deserves a little spell of rest.

Has to be the win. Do not care how. Many is the time over the years we have beaten these 1-0 at home with a second half goal. First I can remember was a Mike Carter winner on a wet and windy day in the early 80s after another typically bad start to an old Div 2 season for those days. I can also remember David Reeves getting a very late winner against them in the early 90s and Andy Walker another in the Bruce promotion season. Same again would do. Given our recent form and the history of this fixture a scoreline featuring 1s and 0s must be favourite.

It will have to do. Without that bad run of results before Wigan this would have been a welcome point. With the occasional blips like Posh, Burton, Northampton we are defensively pretty sound but all year we have tended to lack that clinical edge at the other end.

As much as I would like us to realise some value on him I find it hard to want anybody to do well for that shower of shit.

There is a great irony to these last three results v Wigan from their perspective. With every fibre of their being they have craved a rivalry with Bolton Wanderers since getting in to the league in 1978. In the 2020s they have achieved it. What more evidence is required than SS saying the other day that games v them are "the biggest of the season". The fans got the message a bit sooner than the club - but it is in our culture now. ... the result of this Wigan achievement? We treat them seriously and we have had a hat-trick of very enjoyable wins. Phrases like "you reap what you sew" and "be careful what you wish for" spring to mind.

I think there would very quickly be some "questions asked" if someone had been in the MNR filming. The device doing the filming may have very quickly found itself down on the running track. The person doing the filming may have followed.

It would be something else. Can you imagine a vlog from the MNR any time between 1979 and about 1989? GMP would be all over it the minute it was published. I like them too. That chubby little Wigan lad Cozby always does good ones and I end up feeling sorry for him while enjoying the disappointment of the Lonsdale wearing desponds sitting around him in that side stand near the away end.

We just need to support the guy. He has not done a 100 per cent perfect job since arriving but one year is not enough. If this time in 12 months we are still in League 1 and looking like staying there - we can start having this conversation. It is not the time now and it wasnt even before today.

Well done SS and all concerned. What a way to end a shit run of results. Some bottle shown there today. Second season running where we have given the pie men a gut punch of a late winner in their own backyard. You will all know that is three out of three against them now. I think that is the first time we have ever done that v them re league games. However did you know it is only the second time we have done the double over them? (92/3 Rioch promotion year was the other). Just what was needed in the context of the season, especially given it has come away from home. However for now let us just dwell on this result in isolation. Wigan 0 Bolton 1 - a pleasure to type it out. As I said last year, right back where it all began in the first ever fixture v them in 1983. We are making up for the Evatt years in this fixture.

That just about sums it up. Anyway Evatt had a habit of signing decent League 1 players who were only ever going to take us so far. JDC is an example and at 29 it is good we have got a fee for him. He will probably do a decent job for Stockport but only if they play a way that suits him.

Tough to see there is much for us in this. Our away form since August has been pretty hopeless and obviously our form overall since that shambles at Swindon has been awful and, if anything, worsening. The overall mood is very down. However it just has to be put to one side for this fixture. The 4500 present have an important contribution to make. Clearly the team have to up their game to a huge degree after some of the recent no-shows. However it is also clear that confidence is low and we still have a team without any real natural leaders. The comments of Cyrus Christie were quite revealing the other day. If Wigan are on top in the game, if we go a goal down, or even if we just make some mistakes, it is important the away end just shrugs if off and creates relentless noise, encouragement and impetus - right through the game. If it is another poor performance the time for a moan is after the game. Tub-thumping rallying cries of this nature on a forum are a bit cringeworthy if I am honest but all of the above is unquestionably true. Even if the fans only have influence over 10 per cent of what goes on from 1230 on Saturday, we have to be maximising that full ten per cent.

I would have a good belly laugh at United if we weren't rapidly turning in to their equivalent in League 1

Its all gone to total rat-shit very quickly. A month ago we'd beaten Exeter 2-1 at home and lost just three of our first 19 games. All seemed set with a reasonable set sequence of fixtures to follow. All was not rosy in the garden to be fair. Our away form was very unconvincing and we were not scoring anywhere near enough of the chances we were creating. Not sure any of us were 100 per cent convinced. Undoubtedly our system has been observed and teams are setting up to combat it. But I think there is more to it than that. It is not quite the Evatt soft underbelly any more. But it is still a problem with attitude, unity and grit and determination. The going has got tough and our squad has not responded. As much as Burstow, ACD, Gale and co are talented young players they have not changed the character of the side. You need certain attributes to get out of this league. Did the appearance on the horizon of the transfer window affect things in some way? Pie-men away next. We need to go there and work hard, dig in and show some cohesion, concentration and willingness to battle. Basic minimum. With our away form it is hard to do anything other than fear the worst. To add: As much as the focus is on SS I think this is now where Fergal has to earn his corn.

Had not noticed our opponents today have loaned out Lolos to Crawley. Another weak Evatt signing.

Forrester was very capable but injury prone as hell and a bit diminutive for a central defender. Losing Evatt signings allows SS to move us on as a club in terms of mentality as well as the shape and profile of the squad. It looks like Victor may be out of the door shortly. We still need to toughen up. The soft underbelly is not as evident as under Evatt with appalling derby capitulations and an inability to beat teams at the top end. However we still lack players who have gone course and distance for League 1 promotion. Experienced, street-wise professionals who have a spot on mentality week in week out. Blokes who can arm-wrestle a game drifting at 0-0 in our direction. I hope the January window can be a further transition to that status. We need a few out before we get a few in as everybody knows. As a side note the modern trend of "undisclosed" fees is frustrating. I would like to know how much we got for Forrester.

We did that a lot with Simon Rudge. Micky Droy was as much of a thug as most of their away following that day.

Aye "one man went to mow". I had an uncle at that game who was a fairly infrequent visitor to Burnden having been loads in the 70s. For months afterwards he was singing "one man went to mow". Meanwhile our fans were singing it for two years afterwards as we "settled" in Div 3.

Clive Walker scored against us every single time he pulled on a shirt against us. That was a grim day. Despite being early May (I think it was Bank Holiday Monday) it was dull, wet and cold and so much was riding on the game. I think it was our penultimate league game. Loads of sides in the Div 2 relegation dogfight including us and Chelsea. The game got quite a way in to the second half at 0-0 before Walker scored his winner. Sickener - but it didn't relegate us and we still had a chance at Charlton the following weekend, which we blew. As for the trouble, my main memory is the same as Jeep - the Chelsea loons who suddenly appeared in the Manny Road North Stand at the back of all the regulars, who were themselves (as always) up for trouble. There were pockets of Chelsea all over the place. Notably they were in the Burnden Stand hurling seats down to the BWFC fans in the paddock. Definitely not a massive following - maybe not even 2000. But most of them were there for the off-field activities every bit as much as those on the mudbound pitch. Of course at Burnden they found the mither they were after. I also have a memory that given segregation had broken down it was chaos outside afterwards amidst the usual dystopian scenes and sounds of police dogs and riot vans up the Manny Road. If the technology existed to do vlogs in those days this day would have had millions of views. The thing that was always so odd about days like this was that the bloke on the Burnden tannoy often just completely ignored the general atmosphere of threat and intimidation while making cheery birthday announcements and playing chart music. Not many comparisons to be made with BWFC of late 82/3 and of December 2025/January 2026 but one is valid - scoring a goal was/is a rare thing!

It needed to be 10-12 points from the four fixtures from 26 Dec to today. Five is a paltry return given the opposition. But given the way we are playing I end up actually being quite grateful we drew the last two. All this with virtually no injuries in the squad and a side with real attacking pedigree. Now that there is a pause before the next league game there needs to be some serious thought this week about the system we are playing and the tempo we often play at. Right now, play offs looks like being the very best we can hope for.

That was quite late in the season too I think

If you are losing half way through the second half and end up winning it is a better feeling than a routine 2-0/3-0. What is good about that is we've shown some character in the face of adversity. Six points from six was just what we needed and it is all in the bag now with the Christmas period ahead. That league table looks healthy and it is a seventh league game unbeaten. On a historical note, the last time I remember us getting this deep in to a season unbeaten at home was in the big season under Todd, 1996/7. It was around about now we lost our only home game that year v Ipswich. The only other time I have known us lose just once at home was in 77/8 and the home defeat that year was the first fixture of the new year. Little landmark for the team to achieve and plough on further up that table in doing so.

I think most folks are chuffed with a 0-1 away win and will be every time we achieve it. It is fair to say though that any win v 10 men, especially when it is for 80 minutes, is downgraded just a little. Not so much the delight in the immediate aftermath but more in terms of building longer term belief in the team. We are all on the lookout for evidence of us toughening away from home and being able to grind out results. We got a decent point at Luton, we lasted the course at Huddersfield. There is some good stuff there in the mix. But before last night it was W1 D4 L3 away and that is the difference between 6th/5th and 1st/2nd. Our ambition is top two. We need rock solid away form to add to very impressive home form. Lets hope we keep up the latter v Exeter on Saturday and then it is Wycombe away - another typically League 1 hurdle to clear. Work in progress. Six league games unbeaten but still making up ground on those top two positions.

Its a brilliant win that and we would have taken that scoreline before a wall was kicked all day long. A second away win of the season - but we know there are niggly question marks in the backs of our minds because of the ten men and the average performance. Still, six unbeaten in the league and a home game on Saturday that they must win to get pressure on that top two. Still only sixth ... but worth noting a tidy little gap down to seventh and the rest and a game in hand over the chasing pack as well.

Stuart Ripple-y Nicky Brookman Jamie Pollock Jimmy Floyd Stickleback.

On the face of it the league campaign benefits from lack of cup complications but this is shocking. Indeed our overall away form is concerning and this is not wholly out of keeping with some previous performances on the road. Tuesday night at Mansfield is what counts now. Big reaction needed. I would pair Erhahon and Simons with Dempsey ahead of them, bring back the first choice full backs and perhaps even give Forss a chance as central striker. For today though - hang your heads in shame BWFC.