A win, surely

Didn't we beat hem there?

When did we last do a double?

One for @MalcolmW

1st half was arguably the best I have seen us this season, just didn’t score. 2nd half was same old, poor from start to finish. Another set piece goal for the opposition and we looked exceptionally crap from set pieces as per normal. When do we start saying draws at home in league 2 isn’t enough. 1 win in 8 is poor in any division but in this league it is criminal. Said it before and I’ll say it again, we won’t go down with Evatt at the helm but we will never go up under his stewardship.

9 minutes ago, Biggish Dave said:

They’ve just given the go ahead for 4 new signings so won’t be any time soon

Weve just got two today! Not impressed!

25 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

We all see games differently but I thought they both played well, kept possession, on the front foot, not sure what they did wrong?

Crawford is a fraud, poncing around with all the menace of an effeminate butterfly passing to invisible team mates. For a bloke with the ability to play above this level his application is a disgrace. 

Those of a negative persuasion won’t like some of the positives below. But, here’s a selection from our posters, none are my words but plenty of which I agree with.

Jackson - good player, quick and good left foot. Impressive today. Happy to use his right peg too. Much better balance today with options on the left.

We deserved something

Played well in the first half but needed to score and didn’t.

We created more chances in the first half than Parky did in a month.

Half an hour up to half time was really good, should have gone in at least one up.

If Doyle's finishing or their keeper isn't as good, we may have won comfortably,

We got the ball to Doyle more in half an hour than we did in a couple of games combined, had 10 efforts on goal, 4 on target

Jones is a willing runner down the right and is often involved in our better passages of play down the right.

A couple of more bodies in and we’ll be different in the run up to the end of the season. 

We aren’t that far off. 

Amazingly were still only 8 points off being in the thick of the Play offs .

Today was a step in the right direction for home games - at long last 4 at the back, a real left back, an alternative to Tutte, a chance for Arthur and the first goal-that-meant-anything since November.

 

3 minutes ago, RONNIE PHILLIPS said:

Crawford is a fraud, poncing around with all the menace of an effeminate butterfly passing to invisible team mates. For a bloke with the ability to play above this level his application is a disgrace. 

He's never shown any of that ability in a white shirt 

12 minutes ago, RONNIE PHILLIPS said:

Crawford is a fraud, poncing around with all the menace of an effeminate butterfly passing to invisible team mates. For a bloke with the ability to play above this level his application is a disgrace. 

The most annoying one of the lot.

A complete shot show.

Weak, slow, easily knocked of the ball, can't tackle, and didn't exactly find his man all the time. Short, can't head it, can't get up and down the pitch. And Scottish. 

53 minutes ago, dusan nikolic said:

That marking at the corner . Regardless of how the corner was conceded you cannot stand ball watching like that . These moments change the whole course of matches and we went from being pretty much in control to then trying to break down an 11 man defence . 

Yes our marking on set pieces and corners have been a shambles all seaon

Anyone else think the pitch was a bit threadbare in places?

Plenty of players slipping too, seemed very wet.

38 minutes ago, Piemon said:

My old man has watched the Wanderers since March 25 1953 (PNE at home I’m told first game) anyway he’s said he’s never felt as discouraged with recent  home performances. The worst run of results in all that time! Cheltenham 1-1 Crawley 0-1 Tranmere 0-3 and Port Vale 3-6. 
 

How long before FV realise that IE isn’t the man the take this great club forward?

 

Bet at 3 nil up in the cup final he thought it was easy sailing being a Bolton fan before the wheels came off 😢
Hopefully like the rest of us he will see us on the up at some point 

Frustrating today, but I thought we should have been at least 2 up at half time and almost out of sight.  

Reading this thread, amazed at how many are throwing in the towel on the season.  I'll stick my neck out and take the contrary view.

Evatt is a decent manager and here for some time.  He has lots to learn but I think he has the same energy, drive and determination (bloody mindedness) as Allardyce. I think he will sort it out.

We will go up this year probably without the need of the playoffs.  Need to turn draws into wins but I think we will get stronger and better as the season goes on and will finish at least 3rd.  Another 23 games to play for.

Just checked the front door no men in white coats coming for me.

 

2 minutes ago, Ray said:

Yes our marking on set pieces and corners have been a shambles all seaon

Despite my above post to offer some balance there’s some clear areas for improvement and this is one of them.

Another one is Delaney. He was better today, but losing his man so easy was non-league at best

1 hour ago, Underpants said:

Seriously does anyone think we will make the playoffs? We are an average team in this league, and it's a shit league, at best.

Depends if he gets the right 2 players he’s on about signing, if we do we can reach play offs. 

7 minutes ago, Mounts Kipper said:

Depends if he gets the right 2 players he’s on about signing, if we do we can reach play offs. 

Come on, Mounts. Phoenix might have thrown a spanner in the works but IE has been building a squad with the "right" players since day 1. If average is what IE is looking for then he has indeed got the right players.

Contrary to some on here I thought Cheltenham were decent hardworking & organised they seemed to have more players on the pitch at times.

Plus they had the little annoying twat that most teams in this league seem to have playing up top.

Add to that ours is a decent pitch to play on unlike the usual shitheaps they are used to week in & week out , it gives them a bit of a lift.

Whenever we attacked even at our ‘quickest’ they had men behind the ball.

Anyway it was the best home 45 minutes that we have played , mixture of bad luck good goalkeeping & bad final pass meant 0-0 at HT.

Their goal as bad as it was came against the run of play.We definitely lost our way after that even the belated entrance of Arthur failed to galvanise the team & Isgrove switching didn’t work.

At the end of the day the tenacity of Arthur saved the day , why he wasn’t starting baffles me after Tues nights effort.

Young  left fullback gave us some balance but the other loanee guy shouldn’t have started ahead of Arthur.

Can’t figure Evatt out , he is a contrary individual.Then again a lot of managers are.

We need a result next week to get some momentum.

Edited January 16, 20215 yr by Take Hunt Off
Shit grammar

9 minutes ago, Underpants said:

Come on, Mounts. Phoenix might have thrown a spanner in the works but IE has been building a squad with the "right" players since day 1. If average is what IE is looking for then he has indeed got the right players.

I just think we’ve been unbalanced virtually all season, add to that bad keeper and no one holding the ball up top and a formation that doesn’t suit the players and that’s why we are where we are, couple of decent signings and tweeks here and there and it won’t take much to shoot into the play offs. The next 2 signings are massive for us. 

35 minutes ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

Anyone else think the pitch was a bit threadbare in places?

Plenty of players slipping too, seemed very wet.

Yes, noticed that, think a lot have suffered though with this weather, Blackburn's looked like a farm field on Soccer Saturday

1 minute ago, Mounts Kipper said:

I just think we’ve been unbalanced virtually all season, add to that bad keeper and no one holding the ball up top and a formation that doesn’t suit the players and that’s why we are where we are, couple of decent signings and tweeks here and there and it won’t take much to shoot into the play offs. The next 2 signings are massive for us. 

Where I am really, this season has a sort of whiff of that one with Freedman when we were bumping along in relegation zone at end of Jan, Dawson and Juke sorted two big problem areas and we were in for play offs by May. We could still do that but we definitely do have to get that physical, hold up player to work close to Doyle though. Evatt's wasted half a season thinking he could tiki taka out of this Division, which is just not on

1 hour ago, Farnywhite said:

I don’t think we have seen any were enough of darcy to see how he would fair in league 2 . 
Is energy in midfield would be a bonus compared to sarc drifting in and out of the game 

What we know we don't need is a vanilla midget who is as weak ac a kitten. Darcy would be overwhelmed in this division. 

47 minutes ago, Farnywhite said:

Bet at 3 nil up in the cup final he thought it was easy sailing being a Bolton fan before the wheels came off 😢
Hopefully like the rest of us he will see us on the up at some point 

Was it 3-0, or 3-1?

1 minute ago, boltondiver said:

Was it 3-0, or 3-1?

Wasn’t born but still fucks me off we lost because our fullback got injured & no subs allowed. 🤬

7 minutes ago, Kane57 said:

What we know we don't need is a vanilla midget who is as weak ac a kitten. Darcy would be overwhelmed in this division. 

Like Crawford?

 

4 minutes ago, Mr Grey said:

Obviously you don't rate Darcy, but he would have no problem in this division, I am pretty sure if he the lad had been given as many chances as Crawford & Sarcevic he would have had a better impact on games and results and would have performed better than those 2, taking in to account on games played so far, that doesn't take much considering they have both been shite at best.

I agree, certainly on Crawford. Robbing a living that mon.

17 minutes ago, Kane57 said:

What we know we don't need is a vanilla midget who is as weak ac a kitten. Darcy would be overwhelmed in this division. 

Coped well enough in the division above

Can only think IE doesn’t rate darcy or something has happened behind the scenes the lad certainly did ok in L1

I listened to todays game on Bolton FM. Was sure they kept mentioning Helpless Eddy, turns out it was that new lad from Lincoln.