3400 on

1600 Bolton 

Just now, radcliffe white said:

3400 on

1600 Bolton 

Top effort.

Beer was decent in the ground, easy enough to get away from. 

4 minutes ago, Rudy said:

Top effort.

Beer was decent in the ground, easy enough to get away from. 

Didn’t drink in the ground pub served 2 pint glasses got in 5 mins ago

26 minutes ago, Ani said:

Do not forget Accrington. 

All five ✅ 

Not long since back. Too many changes in hindsight, but all were valid in their own ways. Really missed Morley and Charles.

The defending on the set pieces was inexcusable and IE really needs to take a look at that one and hold his hands up. To happen three times in one game, never mind such a short period, is ridiculous at this level.

Knew we were on to a loser when we got in the ground not long before kick off and weren’t allowed down any of the gangways because the terrace was full! After 5-10 minutes of arguing with various stewards, finally one of the supervisors (same one who was giving first aid to the fan in the second half, in fact) came over and walked us round the front of the stand and told us to watch from the disabled area. Top bloke, and no idea what happened to the few hundred who were still downstairs when we went up!

Hopefully get a win on Saturday and it’s just a blip rather than developing in to a bad run of form.  

7 minutes ago, Not in Crawley said:

Fair enough, but don't you think its a bit after the Lord mayor's show tonight? Two big away matches on the bounce? 

 

Think any of the games could have circumstances that contributed. But we have been blown away easily by 4 or 5 bang average teams with very obvious and worrying similarities. It is not a case of abandon all hope and give up everything Evatt is building but needs addressing. And I think IE will do it 

2 minutes ago, Ani said:

Think any of the games could have circumstances that contributed. But we have been blown away easily by 4 or 5 bang average teams with very obvious and worrying similarities. It is not a case of abandon all hope and give up everything Evatt is building but needs addressing. And I think IE will do it 

Yeah it does make total sense. It's almost as though against certain teams it's just, make us big.

Perhaps it's just better playing his way?

God knows, he has a tough enough job as it is.

Evatt treated that like a cup game 

One or two have mentioned their long-throw tactic. Thing is, if the linesman did his job, he’d notice that every single one in first half was a foul-throw given that the thrower had half of his boot over the line. Apparently, none of the boot can be on the playing surface. Linesman wasn’t even looking.

 

4 hours ago, Marc505 said:

Has it really only taken a proper dreadful 45 mins to make people revert to the "we're fucking shit, he's shit him, fuck off shit cunt" type stuff to come back? Hahahaha ace club

Yeh there were a few of those. Thankfully they are in the minority as the large majority were very good today and backed them till the end.

2 hours ago, Eddie said:

Sorry, thought you meant on here where I thought the comments were pretty fair (annoyed but balanced in the wider scheme of things).
I couldn’t get there tonight so can’t comment on the crowd but it sounded like there was some decent backing in the last 20 minutes or so and most were staying to clap off at the end.

You’re right, it’s not defining, especially if we win on Saturday and Tuesday 💪🏼

I think we’ll come back stronger after that. You always learn more in a defeat - and still plenty to learn at defending balls into the box to the big men. 

Traffic, closed junctions and lane closures made it a shocker of a journey back and to top off a poor night I’ve set a camera off on the 62 😤

Just back & that was a bit grim. Bod & Baka together didn't work at all, couldn't hold the ball in attack & no help at all in defence, Gethin Jones desperately missed again, but worst was the weak as piss defending against the long throws & corners that we knew were coming.  And just to make it a really crap night, the road out of Burton was closed & the motorway turning into Bolton was closed !!!!

Trying to find positives.......Too late but we improved 2nd half & stopped being bullied, Dempsey struggled early on but got a lot better as the game went on - I think he'll be good when he settles in - & the big positive was Deon Charles who was tremendous when he came on.

A bad night, move on.

This kind of result was going to happen sooner rather than later as our style of play requires us to swap players around and rest some during the run in.   IE has to see who’s up for it and who isn’t, has to see who can reorganise when things need jiggling about to steady the ship.  It’s a learning curve and the lads will take it on the chin and know in future how to better deal with certain set plays.   I hate losing, but unless things like this happen now and then we don’t learn, we’ve got a very good team indeed and blips occur during the season, we go again.

6 hours ago, Leyther_Matt said:

All five ✅ 

Not long since back. Too many changes in hindsight, but all were valid in their own ways. Really missed Morley and Charles.

The defending on the set pieces was inexcusable and IE really needs to take a look at that one and hold his hands up. To happen three times in one game, never mind such a short period, is ridiculous at this level.

Knew we were on to a loser when we got in the ground not long before kick off and weren’t allowed down any of the gangways because the terrace was full! After 5-10 minutes of arguing with various stewards, finally one of the supervisors (same one who was giving first aid to the fan in the second half, in fact) came over and walked us round the front of the stand and told us to watch from the disabled area. Top bloke, and no idea what happened to the few hundred who were still downstairs when we went up!

Hopefully get a win on Saturday and it’s just a blip rather than developing in to a bad run of form.  

It's been going on for too long.When Rotherham scored a soft goal from a corner at the Reebok earlier in the season i said "Bolton need a manager who organises a defence better" That should be the more straight forward, basic stuff for a manager.

IE picked a team that could do a job he said in the interview 

they didn't  you can blame the pitch  Mud bath  

most of our Players are L2 L1 players they should be used to playing on them 

HMS piss the League  will be back sailing again sat 

 

8 hours ago, Take Hunt Off said:

Don’t think you can blame Evatt for his team selection , it was logical given the circumstances.We had enough height in the team to repel the arial bombardment but didn’t compete in that area, all the tinpot teams exploit this weakness .We got off to a bad start & they smelt blood.

Maybe we need a Taggart type CB next season to play alongside Santos or Johnston & take that  main responsibility of seeing off the the arial threat.Santos is quality but if he’s isolated by the other teams shithousery no one else seems to be able to win a challenge , although I thought they got lucky with the opening goal.

Three points from two aways is good , hope we can get back in gear Saturday.

I’m thinking similar. We either need a no nonsense centre half alongside Santos or if we want to keep the same shape with GJ and Jones, then instead of Santos.

Ill probably get shot down for this too but while MJ is crucial to the way we play, he doesn’t protect the defence enough and never chips in with a goal or 2. There must be players out there who can offer us a bit more than he does. Not my job to identify them.

I’m nitpicking because we are very close to being a top team in the division. Very small improvements now will make a big difference 

4 hours ago, bolton va va said:

Just back & that was a bit grim. Bod & Baka together didn't work at all, couldn't hold the ball in attack & no help at all in defence, Gethin Jones desperately missed again, but worst was the weak as piss defending against the long throws & corners that we knew were coming.  And just to make it a really crap night, the road out of Burton was closed & the motorway turning into Bolton was closed !!!!

Trying to find positives.......Too late but we improved 2nd half & stopped being bullied, Dempsey struggled early on but got a lot better as the game went on - I think he'll be good when he settles in - & the big positive was Deon Charles who was tremendous when he came on.

A bad night, move on.

Agree with all of that.

Baka had been outjumped just a few minutes before their first goal and didn't heed the warning.

For all the parking and pub info how come no bugger thought it worth mentioning that the junction out of Burton was feckin closed?!!

Chip barms were a triumph though. One for Neil to sort out.

Must say Bods hold up play is superb him & Charles are a must for me this would be a great partnership

 

11 hours ago, paulhanley said:

Think of that 96/7 season. Great football - but on a night like tonight you had Taggart, Fairclough, Pollock, Bergsson, Todd etc. It's that type of thing that we need to add in the summer.

That type don't exist anymore.

The modern player is too busy mincing around in £300 t-shirts. With the above playing we'd be down to nine men in ten minutes.

Evatt out!

Get Joey Barton in, with a big pack of Havana Cigars.

Edited February 16, 20224 yr by Youri McAnespie

1 minute ago, Youri McAnespie said:

That type don't exist anymore.

The modern player is too busy mincing around in £300 t-shirts. With the above playing we'd be down to nine men in ten minutes.

I know what you mean but we have a soft underbelly even by the standards of the modern-day. There are teams in this league who out-muscle us. We just need more physique and know-how in central defence and we need better competition for MJ Williams. Ultimately with Championship football in mind we'd probably need an upgrade on him (which sounds harsh because he's been a good un for us, no question). 

We've done a magnificent job of sorting out the top end of the pitch this January. A similar job is now required defensively. If hes going to stick with three central defenders we need to sign more than one this Summer. If we can achieve that then we're fit for purpose re a promotion challenge. Intrigued to see what business we do in May, June and July.

Think IE anticipated worse weather and a worse pitch. The thinking behind putting a big side in to combat their aerial and set pieces only works if you win your headers and second balls. Which we didn’t for for a long time. 
Morley starts if fit for me, as does Charles.

Bod was probably our best player last night. Put a real shift in. 

1 minute ago, paulhanley said:

I know what you mean but we have a soft underbelly even by the standards of the modern-day. There are teams in this league who out-muscle us. We just need more physique and know-how in central defence and we need better competition for MJ Williams. Ultimately with Championship football in mind we'd probably need an upgrade on him (which sounds harsh because he's been a good un for us, no question). 

We've done a magnificent job of sorting out the top end of the pitch this January. A similar job is now required defensively. If hes going to stick with three central defenders we need to sign more than one this Summer. If we can achieve that then we're fit for purpose re a promotion challenge. Intrigued to see what business we do in May, June and July.

I agree but Evatt doesn't do ugly. It takes the piss 6' 6" players built like Lennox Lewis but at times play like Leona Lewis. We need more grit and guile and sly kicks up in the air in the first few minutes, but I can't see it happening. I can't recall when we had a few shithouses in the side...

Jones was a real miss last night a left footer bringing the ball on that side is just not as effective.

The fact is that we have on 4/5 occasions this season gone to grounds where the weather and/or pitch has meant the flair players have been ineffective. Add onto that our awful delivery from set pieces - especially compared to the quality put in last night by Burton - and we are on the back foot. Evatt said in his interview he tried to match their physical edge but it meant we had no control or outlet up front. Burton just played balls into our left side and were happy winning long throws. They did a good job of what they do so fair play to them.

Every corner you thought they would score, we kept taking short ones. 
 

I know a few people have said folk were moaning but I was amazed how many stuck it out. We left just before our goal and ended up walking back in their end and watching a couple of minutes there. 
 

Thought the set up at the ground was quite good we were in seats and easy to get served and chips with curry sauce were quite nice. Not sure I doing any more 5 hour round trips for midweek games this season though. 

21 minutes ago, Youri McAnespie said:

I agree but Evatt doesn't do ugly. It takes the piss 6' 6" players built like Lennox Lewis but at times play like Leona Lewis. We need more grit and guile and sly kicks up in the air in the first few minutes, but I can't see it happening. I can't recall when we had a few shithouses in the side...

You can do ugly & still play

wasn’t Parkinson’s biggest fan but in L1 wheater & beevers did the ugly work and scored a few (beats me how santos hasn’t scored yet) and we still had players who could play

i can think of 4 CBs who have scored against us this season and that’s not including the lad who bagged 2 last night

 

Edited February 16, 20224 yr by radcliffe white

7 hours ago, Leyther_Matt said:

IE really needs to take a look at that one and hold his hands up

 

1 hour ago, Roger_Dubuis said:

basic stuff for a manager

TBF Evatt has come out and accepted some responsibility

"I'm my own biggest critic. I look at myself, I look at the team I picked and maybe I got it wrong."

We have to continually remind ourselves that Evatt isn’t always going to get it right. He’s young and learning too like a lot of his players.

As for set pieces being basic stuff, I’d disagree. I’d say it’s mightily complex, otherwise him and plenty of other managers before him would have it nailed by now. 

And even if you’d have spent the last 3  days just defending set-pieces against your reserves, taking into account the millions of combinations of dynamics, movements and sequences, you still couldn’t have predicted or expected Fossey to leave his marker or that Bod would get out-jumped.

Yes, we can accept it’s an issue. Yes it’s an area for improvement. He’ll know this more than any of us. 

But this is a new, fresh youthful squad with bags of talent, a great, self-critical and self-reflective manager, who sometimes is over-confident, but works hard to address any problems which are evident.

This squad have spent the last 7 games getting a whole lot more right than they have wrong, remarkable really. Every credit to the coaching/scouting staff for first of all identifying the right players and then embedding them into our philosophy, that can’t have been easy. I’m glad that was the initial priority.

 

 

4 minutes ago, desperado said:

 

TBF Evatt has come out and accepted some responsibility

"I'm my own biggest critic. I look at myself, I look at the team I picked and maybe I got it wrong."

We have to continually remind ourselves that Evatt isn’t always going to get it right. He’s young and learning too like a lot of his players.

As for set pieces being basic stuff, I’d disagree. I’d say it’s mightily complex, otherwise him and plenty of other managers before him would have it nailed by now. 

And even if you’d have spent the last 3  days just defending set-pieces against your reserves, taking into account the millions of combinations of dynamics, movements and sequences, you still couldn’t have predicted or expected Fossey to leave his marker or that Bod would get out-jumped.

Yes, we can accept it’s an issue. Yes it’s an area for improvement. He’ll know this more than any of us. 

But this is a new, fresh youthful squad with bags of talent, a great, self-critical and self-reflective manager, who sometimes is over-confident, but works hard to address any problems which are evident.

This squad have spent the last 7 games getting a whole lot more right than they have wrong, remarkable really. Every credit to the coaching/scouting staff for first of all identifying the right players and then embedding them into our philosophy, that can’t have been easy. I’m glad that was the initial priority.

 

 

100% agree, lose one game and some fans seem to want to go for the managers jugular, no manager gets it right all the time.