massive game this Saturday. Hoping for a really good performance (4-0) to get us very much in the driving seat 

4 hours ago, noxid said:

Saw them at their place when we won 3-0 and they were toothless and naive but they were on top when the game was sadly postponed and for large parts of the game last night. They seemed stronger, taller and fitter and I put that down to the two Luton matches where we were brilliant but draining. But we would have lost that match two seasons ago. Hope Dempsey is ok and worried Santos is carrying a knock as he has been average since getting clattered in the Orient game. Still rather be in our position than any other team.

I made that comment during the game (it doesn't apply with Santos obviously), if there was a 50/50 they generally won it, and not just for the ball to bounce anywhere, but they controlled their winning of the ball so that a teammate got possession.  Sometimes Tomo or Iredale would win a ball but the next phase of play was to immediately cough up possession.  I was very impressed with Cheltenham and if they create those chances every week (at Derby hopefully) at least they won't be coming up against Baxter again.

13 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

I made that comment during the game (it doesn't apply with Santos obviously), if there was a 50/50 they generally won it, and not just for the ball to bounce anywhere, but they controlled their winning of the ball so that a teammate got possession.  Sometimes Tomo or Iredale would win a ball but the next phase of play was to immediately cough up possession.  I was very impressed with Cheltenham and if they create those chances every week (at Derby hopefully) at least they won't be coming up against Baxter again.

One thing very noticeable was that Cheltenham didn’t do much sliding in to try to win the ball. They didn’t really need to. It was as if whenever a Bolton player carried the ball forwards they just ran unto a Cheltenham player stood his ground, kept his foot in and the Bolton player carries on without the ball. 
Maybe folk my age(ish) have been spoiled in the past by watching skilled players who could either change expected direction or dink the ball past a defender and collect it again. 

We can’t go from looking so organised & composed to that overnight.

You don’t become so tired looking and bang average all of a sudden. 

Normal service will be resumed soon I think. 

Mind, we are in desperate need of a midfield enforcer. 
 

 

6 hours ago, CambridgeBWFC said:

Issue is our current registered players, I make it we only have one squad place free for someone 21+, can sign unlimited under 21s, and this may be direction. But we currently have 21 registered players, all 21 or over and not including GK. The league 1 limit is a squad of 22, not including GK and under 21s.

So whilst our squad is small, recruitment may not be what people expect if calling for experienced heads. Unless we get rid of some, or deregister any injured players (if we can) 

Can’t we deregister Johnson and Dan as they wont play this season.

17 minutes ago, Whitesince63 said:

Can’t we deregister Johnson and Dan as they wont play this season.

It seems like a good point and I don't know the answer but I would think IE won't have given up hope of them playing especially as the season can go on till about 20th May.

19 minutes ago, Whitesince63 said:

Can’t we deregister Johnson and Dan as they wont play this season.

Yes they can i think the only reason they left Johnston in at the beginning was because ashworth and Matherson were both 20 at the start of the Calander  year so didn’t count 

28 minutes ago, Whitesince63 said:

Can’t we deregister Johnson and Dan as they wont play this season.

I presume so, but if they return quicker than expected then they can't play and not sure what that says to a player. Tough call to make

1 minute ago, CambridgeBWFC said:

I presume so, but if they return quicker than expected then they can't play and not sure what that says to a player. Tough call to make

i think evatt makes that decision with the backroom and the players

maybe he hasnt thought about it, though

well done sincey

8 hours ago, Spider said:

Happy Clapper

Personally, I’m seeing a squad that’s been busy and is grinding out results when previously these are games we wouldn’t have won.

For me, that’s an improvement and when I look at the league table - which never lies - I see a team that’s won more games than any other.

Some of the criticism is batshit mental and deserves ridicule.

I love it when we win

More or less this. It's a long road being Bolton, and we can't be the team we want to be every week. Compare it to where we were a few years ago.

It's all about improvement. We all have our moans, and that's right.

 In IE and Sharon we trust. A cold,windy shit night like last night doesn't help, mind.

One other bright spot to emerge from last night was Derby's 1-0 defeat at Reading.

2 minutes ago, FrancisFogarty said:

More or less this. It's a long road being Bolton, and we can't be the team we want to be every week. Compare it to where we were a few years ago.

It's all about improvement. We all have our moans, and that's right.

 In IE and Sharon we trust. A cold,windy shit night like last night doesn't help, mind.

Fully agree, how can anyone really complain given where we are. Of course we’ll have bad days every team does but we obviously have less than the others😊

9 minutes ago, Whitesince63 said:

Fully agree, how can anyone really complain given where we are. Of course we’ll have bad days every team does but we obviously have less than the others😊

🚨🚨 hacked account 🚨🚨

 

☺️☺️

Whichever way you look at it we’re a way off our best form. We have good players at this level and we’ve seen them play better both individually and as a team.

I don’t buy this thing about good teams scraping a win when they’re playing badly because for every one of those there is a team that goes on a losing run - and hopefully that won’t be us even though we have a lot of away games against the better teams coming up. A dodgy disallowed goal gave us the points last night and we can’t depend on that.

But what can we do about it?

There is a case to look at bringing in players - and I suspect Evatt will try to - but will they be ready in time?

Or do we just crack on and hope we can find good form again?

I honestly don’t know enough about what’s going on behind the scenes or in the dressing room to speculate on an answer, but Evatt and Sharon have brought us a long way and I just have to trust they will get us over the line.

9 hours ago, MickyD said:

No way does Santos get the assist for that goal. It needed their defender to trip over the ball first.

No direct assist and they did indeed mess up but if Evatt ihad dentified that the centre of their defence was susceptible to that kind of pass from Santos, and set us up to pick up the loose ball, then it was a pretty savvy tactic I'd say.

 

Edited January 24, 20242 yr by whoareya?

6 minutes ago, whoareya? said:

No direct assist and they did indeed mess up but if Evatt ihad dentified that the centre of their defence was susceptible to that kind of pass from Santos, and set us up to pick up the loose ball, then it was a pretty savvy tactic I'd say.

The OP stated he couldn't understand why we were playing that ball.

Last night the centre of our defence was susceptible. He played that ball 5 or 6 times and one came off. And that due to a mistake by them.

We could have lost that 3 or 4 nowt if not for the keeper, and then being shit in front of goal.

1 hour ago, FrancisFogarty said:

Last night the centre of our defence was susceptible. He played that ball 5 or 6 times and one came off. And that due to a mistake by them.

We could have lost that 3 or 4 nowt if not for the keeper, and then being shit in front of goal.

We could have won 3 or 4 nowt if we'd finished other opportunities better and not given as many passes away...

Swings and roundabouts. 

3 hours ago, FrancisFogarty said:

Last night the centre of our defence was susceptible. He played that ball 5 or 6 times and one came off. And that due to a mistake by them.

We could have lost that 3 or 4 nowt if not for the keeper, and then being shit in front of goal.

That ball forward from Santos wasn't going to be a good one until the defender made a mess of it, was the latest in a series of big diagonals that invited pressure back onto us as they won almost all of them and countered. There was one that found JDC out wide but that was it. 

While they were waiting to kick off after the goal a delegation of four went to Santos and had what looked to be a pretty frank word. They did not appear to be saying 'great ball Rico, more of that mate'. 

We've lapsed back into the walking football again over last couple of games. If that's what Evatt's instructing Santos to do, fair enough, he's playing to orders, but I'm far from convinced it adds any value and, if anything it makes us easy to defend against. It's also dull to watch and hardly engages the crowd

 

5 hours ago, Spider said:

🚨🚨 hacked account 🚨🚨

 

☺️☺️

Cheeky. 😇

9 hours ago, Wanderlust said:

Whichever way you look at it we’re a way off our best form.

I gave up there. Unless I am mistaken, we were playing in rough conditions after a sickening result. I didn't expect 1963 Real Madrid.

Any win. Back on track. Ignore the doubters.

3 hours ago, bolty58 said:

I gave up there. Unless I am mistaken, we were playing in rough conditions after a sickening result. I didn't expect 1963 Real Madrid.

Any win. Back on track. Ignore the doubters.

Not difficult to understand mate. We can play a lot better than we have done recently…
 

…..unless you don’t think we can…..

42 minutes ago, Wanderlust said:

Not difficult to understand mate. We can play a lot better than we have done recently…
 

…..unless you don’t think we can…..

We played great against Luton 

I think the players just need a day or two off or a mid season break to dubai

1 hour ago, Zico said:

We played great against Luton 

I think the players just need a day or two off or a mid season break to dubai

They can go straight to Blackpool for a few days on the way back from Carlisle. Close enough. 

1 minute ago, Leyther_Matt said:

They can go straight to Blackpool for a few days on the way back from Carlisle. Close enough. 

Marginal gains 

1 hour ago, Zico said:

We played great against Luton 

I think the players just need a day or two off or a mid season break to dubai

I find that a bit worrying on one level having watched loads of Wanderers sides who get up for “the better teams” but struggle against unfancied sides - makes me wonder if there’s a motivational/psychological factor at play. 
Luckily we have a load of games against “ the better teams” coming up.

I see Cheltenham have been dipping into the transfer market ahead of their game with Derby. If they play as well as they did against us they’re in with the chance of an upset.  If Lincoln can get their traditional home draw it could be a good weekend for us providing we step and put the record straight with the Cumbrians.

23 hours ago, Wanderlust said:

Not difficult to understand mate. We can play a lot better than we have done recently…
 

…..unless you don’t think we can…..

I know that we can (and will). Just don't see the point in harping on about what some would consider to be a sub standard performance when we got the points anyway and are sitting (very) pretty.

No team in the world maintains outstanding standards for any great length of time. The key is accumulating points from dour situations.

Couldn't be more satisfied with where we are. Onwards and upwards.