Still buzzing and am not worried about 2.5k seats disappearing.

I'm sure I read someone on here suggesting we'd been flagged by GMP as one of the clubs in the region with the highest proportion of crowd trouble incidents and it was impacting the costs the club was having to pay for lolicing

I think it was the reason Neil Hart brought in that grassing line

I imagine that is having an impact

Edited 14 hours ago14 hr by Lt. Aldo Raine

Not usually a reader of The Observer but here goes. A match report that concentrates more on BWFC finances/Championship finances than the match itself.

Low-spending Bolton return to Championship in style to ea...

The police numbers yesterday were way over the top for a game with little potentialfor trouble....an early kick off against opposition with no history of trouble.

I wondered if they were using it to practice their "tactics" for some of the future games where there is a chance of disorder, though going back to Burnden, the police were always hopeless in assessing which games were flashpoints, meaning the',d turn out in numbers like yesterday for Exeter at home but be missing for the likes of the Chelsea games.

Separately....a big plus was the "special" train direct back to Bolton after the game. The differing KO times might make it difficult to organise, but a quick, direct train back after each match would be great. Standing outside Horwich Parkway for up to an hour in winter is miserable !!

Great result ,3 points in the bag still I remember beating QPR away first game of the season 4-0 in the PREM and getting relegated that season sold Cahill to Chelsea for £7 mill that season too

53 minutes ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

I'm sure I read someone on here suggesting we'd been flagged by GMP as one of the clubs in the region with the highest proportion of crowd trouble incidents and it was impacting the costs the club was having to pay for lolicing

I think it was the reason Neil Hart brought in that grassing line

I imagine that is having an impact

Bill are gonna have kittens when West Ham & Millwall turn up .

19 minutes ago, bolton va va said:

The police numbers yesterday were way over the top for a game with little potentialfor trouble....an early kick off against opposition with no history of trouble.

I wondered if they were using it to practice their "tactics" for some of the future games where there is a chance of disorder, though going back to Burnden, the police were always hopeless in assessing which games were flashpoints, meaning the',d turn out in numbers like yesterday for Exeter at home but be missing for the likes of the Chelsea games.

Separately....a big plus was the "special" train direct back to Bolton after the game. The differing KO times might make it difficult to organise, but a quick, direct train back after each match would be great. Standing outside Horwich Parkway for up to an hour in winter is miserable !!

All kinds of bother between Bolton and PNE in the 1980s but that was in the days when there was all kinds of bother one week in every two. I get what you mean. Bolton v Preston is a proper old derby game. However it is not a situation where the two sets of fans hate each other and there's going to be simmering undercurrents of nastiness.

2 hours ago, boltonboris said:

Some of Larrazabal’s passing too… Beautiful. He’s a very good footballer

That little chipped ball I go Dalby over the defenders head 😍

I've not seen composure like that for years.

7 minutes ago, kent_white said:

That little chipped ball I go Dalby over the defenders head 😍

I've not seen composure like that for years.

That's the one.

If Dalby manages to take that in stride, he's walking it in.

Was a superb pass.

extended highlights here

16 hours ago, Cheese said:

Properly enjoyed Forino celebrating a goal-denying challenge like he'd just scored. Him and Famewo were superb today. What a fucking start.

2 hours ago, Hoppy said:

Great result ,3 points in the bag still I remember beating QPR away first game of the season 4-0 in the PREM and getting relegated that season sold Cahill to Chelsea for £7 mill that season too

He scored @ Everton in his final appearance. The game where Tim Howard scored .

3 hours ago, Hoppy said:

Great result ,3 points in the bag still I remember beating QPR away first game of the season 4-0 in the PREM and getting relegated that season sold Cahill to Chelsea for £7 mill that season too

Also battering Stoke under Megson and it looked like we'd signed a world beater in Elmander. Pretty sure last time we got relegated from the Championship we beat West Brom and Reading away to start the season too.

Doesn't say much about how the season will pan out generally. But our squad will likely never be weaker than it was yesterday and so to pick up all three points and play well should be a massive boost.

McAtee being penalised for the push was a shocker but apart from that the refereeing didn't seem as shit as we're used to

25 minutes ago, Tombwfc said:

Also battering Stoke under Megson and it looked like we'd signed a world beater in Elmander. Pretty sure last time we got relegated from the Championship we beat West Brom and Reading away to start the season too.

Doesn't say much about how the season will pan out generally. But our squad will likely never be weaker than it was yesterday and so to pick up all three points and play well should be a massive boost.

All of Brunt, Hardie and SIJ will get up to speed as the weeks go by. They'll probably benefit just this week. I am sure there are also at least a couple further signings to come. Based on McAtee's performance yesterday the only main outgoing we could anticipate is Randall. Then of course Simons and Rodrigues were absent.

We are probably going to have to have some luck with injuries but if SS can make us cohesive and tough to break down we can become resilient at this level. That resilience and stubborn cussedness are the qualities we will really need week in week out.

Might be in danger of getting a bit carried away with yesterday's performance, but just watching goals again and not seen mention of Dalby's first involvement in his goal.

Superb control and instant touch to free up McAtee.

I may have missed mention but it was good enough to bring up again if I did 😀

7 hours ago, Cheese said:

I had to check the score again when I woke up this morning to make sure I hadn't dreamt the entire day. COYWM 🤍

I know Marc Iles isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I like him, and he sums it all up superbly in this.

Don't you realise that to get cool status points you're supposed to call him Marc Lies and make derogatory comments about his looks or stature. And extra points for criticising his journalism.

7 hours ago, Stig said:

I agree. It'll be a combo of club deciding the configuration and then police advising on segregation required. Even then the club should have some challenge back as that segregation costs them potential income, especially as other clubs can have far smaller segregation

Its always been a slight bugbear of mine, going back to Burnden never mind the Reebok, that we seem to take segregation to the extreme. So many other grounds don't seem to have any "no man's land" at all, just a fence or a line of stewards.

Anyway here's a thing. The last time we were in this league, our first two attendances were 14.1k and 13.8k. So less than 28k.

If we hadn't restricted sales (and given PNE a few more hundred) we could have got 28k from one game this season.

We were all but top of the league that season after 4 games, we got 10 points (could have been 12 but blew a 2 goal lead v Bristol).

For our 5th game, top 2 or 3, we played Sheff U at home and got less than 15k.

And we only won 5 more games all season!

From the North end end .....

1 hour ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Its always been a slight bugbear of mine, going back to Burnden never mind the Reebok, that we seem to take segregation to the extreme. So many other grounds don't seem to have any "no man's land" at all, just a fence or a line of stewards.

Anyway here's a thing. The last time we were in this league, our first two attendances were 14.1k and 13.8k. So less than 28k.

If we hadn't restricted sales (and given PNE a few more hundred) we could have got 28k from one game this season.

We were all but top of the league that season after 4 games, we got 10 points (could have been 12 but blew a 2 goal lead v Bristol).

For our 5th game, top 2 or 3, we played Sheff U at home and got less than 15k.

And we only won 5 more games all season!

It’s because our fans can’t really behave themselves. GMP bod my mate knows said we’re the worst in the NW and if anybody is looking for it, Bolton’s generally the place to find it

One of the highest banning order rates in the country

dunno wether to be ashamed or immensely proud

7 hours ago, paulhanley said:

Not usually a reader of The Observer but here goes. A match report that concentrates more on BWFC finances/Championship finances than the match itself.

Low-spending Bolton return to Championship in style to ea...

Yeh, I saw that. Terrible report from someone who probably wasn't even at the match

50 minutes ago, boltonboris said:

It’s because our fans can’t really behave themselves. GMP bod my mate knows said we’re the worst in the NW and if anybody is looking for it, Bolton’s generally the place to find it

One of the highest banning order rates in the country

dunno wether to be ashamed or immensely proud

I'm not sure that over the years, allowing fans to mix so readily after a game helps.

Always likely to be one set somewhat miffed, and after covid it seemed to get stupid, with yoof walking around to the south stand, giving it the big un.

3 hours ago, Greg_BWFC said:

Might be in danger of getting a bit carried away with yesterday's performance, but just watching goals again and not seen mention of Dalby's first involvement in his goal.

Superb control and instant touch to free up McAtee.

I may have missed mention but it was good enough to bring up again if I did 😀

Perfect hold up play.

Just a poacher though

1 hour ago, boltonboris said:

It’s because our fans can’t really behave themselves. GMP bod my mate knows said we’re the worst in the NW and if anybody is looking for it, Bolton’s generally the place to find it

One of the highest banning order rates in the country

dunno wether to be ashamed or immensely proud

Presumably 95% of the banning orders were for offences either at away games or outside the ground, when rival fans are allowed to "mix" freely.

Futile splitting us up inside the ground more than necessary. Probably been 2 incidents of any note in the stadium in nearly 30 years.

Compared to about one a month in the 70s and 80s at Burnden!