First things first, i hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas and thanks to tmp for stepping into the breach and do the rotherham thread. Speaking about rotherham, that performance was a new low for this season and the blackburn game is a tough ask for the bolton players to bounce back from with less than 48 hours recovery time against opponents who will be fresh from having their boxing day match called off. One encouraging stat i spotted was bolton have won the last 5 fixtures v blackburn at the Reebok/macron but the last time it was 6 wins was 1894! Team news. Emile heskey is a doubt with a hamstring, ameobi out with a groin injury, max clayton out long term. The fitness of josh vela and mark davies is unclear at this stage. I am expecting several changes. Gary madine to replace heskey, possible recalls for prince or derik for dervite who had a nightmare against rotherham and was badly at fault for the last 3 goals, maybe jose manuel casado to replace the rumoured on his way to wolves or bristol city dean moxey and wellington silva could make his first start since October. Lets hope for a big crowd, 3 points and a bit of a better effort on the match thread than the last 2 games please. Early kick off 12.45 bank holiday monday. Live coverage on sky sports 1.
posted on 28/12/15
Bristol losing 3-0 so thats 3 of the 4 teams immediately above bolton losing.
posted on 28/12/15
Huddersfield losing too
posted on 28/12/15
Results have definitely gone our way today. Just need Fulham to do us a favour tomorrow against Rotherham.
posted on 28/12/15
Good result today.
posted on 28/12/15
Okay so now that I've calmed down a little bit here's a few thoughts on today:
-Pratley is a liability and the weakest element in our side. For every nice touch or pass he puts in there are 5 moments that are utterly dire. He scares me in possession.
-Our defence today were brilliant. Okay Prince had the odd moment but he also put in some good blocks and overall he did well. It was very noticeable that they were defending as a unit and the midfield were getting back well to support them.
-Madine took his goal well. I'd recommend that everyone watch his post match interview with the Club youtube channel. He's refreshingly honest about the performance against Rotherham and seems to be his own biggest critic.
-The ref was PANTS!!!!
-If the lads show that level of fight and desire for the rest of the season we are in with a chance of escaping trouble.
posted on 28/12/15
Was that the Real Wanderers today on TV? Or did they put up a 'Come and get me' performance, for a potential new club.
posted on 28/12/15
Your guess is as good as ours mate!!
posted on 28/12/15
Was that a Bolton win?
You see, I've been in such a stupor for what seems like a month, I'm not sure whether we just beat Blackburn or I had a visitation from the ghost of Christmas past.
Either way, much more pleasant than the speedy downward spiral we've been on. Maybe just a blip, but could it be a candle light at the end of an unimaginably long, dark tunnel?
posted on 29/12/15
I didn't go but watched it on Sky so some of my words of wisdom includes a critique of their performance.
Wheater was immense - the ball looked to be magnetised to his head even when he slipped he still won a header. Prince also back to some sort of form.
Midfield still needs a bit of work and we did seem to make things difficult for ourselves after we'd scored in dropping off too deep.
For a Premier League official to have such a performance is a disgrace. The first Bolton penalty shout was dubious because I've seen replays and I don't think Madine fouled his man. The second Moxey is clearly fouled and the referee is not even watching. The third (after Blackburn's own blatant penalty shout), is worse. By his rule any defender can charge down a shot like superman if they're too close.
Sky's commentary was appalling. Jordan Rhodes I thought went off due to having sore dangly bits after vigorous pulling off from the pundits - even though he did nothing of note.
All in all a decent day.
posted on 29/12/15
Highlights https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FapHavk7RHo