If we can't find our tackle, we live like a Monk. Bolton v Boro 9/9/17.

[officer_dibble]

I think Dervites been better than Beevers, but getting Wheavers back together makes sense. Argument for both really but I think Wheater should start.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Hmm. Looks like Ameobi might not be playing, considering he's just been announced for a meet-the-players with Josh Vela at Bolton Central, 1.30pm Saturday.

[bristol_Wanderer3]

Hmm. Looks like Ameobi might not be playing, considering he's just been announced for a meet-the-players with Josh Vela at Bolton Central, 1.30pm Saturday.

Yeah sounds like he won't be in the 18. I wonder if he is going through pre season like work with Allamby to get him Parky fit before he is selected??

[TANGODANCER]

Hmm. Looks like Ameobi might not be playing, considering he's just been announced for a meet-the-players with Josh Vela at Bolton Central, 1.30pm Saturday.

Which makes me ponder on why such an event coincides with an important home game which you might think Vela and anyone else might be interested enough to want to watch? Just wondering...?

[officer_dibble]

They can though? The idea is to do something before kick off to get the kiddies in I imagine? Did you see it was at 130pm?

[TANGODANCER]

They can though? The idea is to do something before kick off to get the kiddies in I imagine? Did you see it was at 130pm?

Ah, I didn't realise Bolton Centreal was at the Macron, thought it was in Bolton itself. My error.

[bristol_Wanderer3]

http://the4thofficial.net/2017/09/4-1-2 ... wanderers/

^^ Some information on how Middlesbrough might line up. That looks a good team, personally I would prefer the 6ft4in Gestede to be fit and playing up against our central defenders, given our biggest weakness appears to be stopping the opposition's attacking midfielders and wingers. Hopefully switching to 4-5-1 will help with that...

[Peter Thompson]

Bolton 1 - Boro 3

[TANGODANCER]

Bolton 1 - Boro 3

Thanks for that bit of good cheer P.T. I'll take your 1-3 and reverse it. 3-1 Whites...

[Bruce Rioja]

Bolton 1 - Boro 3

Thanks for that bit of good cheer P.T. I'll take your 1-3 and reverse it. 3-1 Whites...

[BWFC_Insane]

If we are to start taking points off teams like Boro we need to be nasty. Compact, hard to break down. We aren't going to outfootball these sides. We need to take an Allardyce/Megson approach. Our only hope is to frustrate them, physically match them and hope we can nick a goal from a set piece. I think the team needs selecting on that basis. We can't go into these games carrying anyone not able to do that.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

The constant battle between Peter Thompson's relentless negativism and Tango's unremitting positivity is giving me psychological trauma: PT-TD PTSD...

Anyways, per BN, PP's ready to toss his new No.12 straight into the XI – perhaps. “He’ll go straight into the squad and we’ll make a decision on whether that’s in the starting 11. He’s been training at Cardiff all the time and has been involved in pre-season so we’ve had a look at him and been pleased with what we’ve seen.”

Also sounds like it's back to a back four: “We said right at the start of the season that when we lost Sammy (Ameobi) and Josh (Vela) that it made it difficult to go 4-2-3-1. They were key players to lose. Bringing Craig in and having Sammy not far away, making good progress, means we have better options, good pace and energy in the wider areas. Those players tend to cover the most distance and at the highest intensity as well, so at 60-70 minutes the fresh legs can be the difference between winning and losing.”

Sammy's not back yet, though: according to Iles (not a direct Parky quote), "Sammy Ameobi is still a couple of weeks away from getting involved."

In another BN story, Iles says Karacan could be back. PP: "He has trained well this week. He was outstanding against Sheffield Wednesday. He’s a complete modern day midfielder with terrific energy.”

Parky also noted that referee's chief Dave Allison has apologised and admitted David Meyler should have been sent off for the Karacan-knacking kick: “It was a very reckless challenge and Dave phoned me up on the Sunday to say they had got it wrong, it was a straight red. But thankfully the injury wasn’t that serious, it was just soft tissue damage."

But more generally, we need to show that sort of snarl. PP:

We are an underdog on Saturday against Middlesbrough, we’re one of the underdogs in the Championship, so we need to start acting like it. We need to show more bite and make sure we give ourselves a chance.

In patches we have shown we can compete but we have to be at our very best. I believe we have got players capable of getting results at this level but we need to improve areas in our game. I think decision-making has got to get better, there has been a bit of a lack of desire around the penalty box. All those little bits of detail are important.

Yes, we’ve come up a level and we’re playing against better players but the lads are honest enough to have sat through the footage with me and hold their hands up and say ‘come on, let’s improve’ - it’s all we can do.

[Bijou Bob]

I dislike myself for being so negative, but I can only see an absolute hammering tomorrow. 1-4 and the beginning of a crisis.

[CrazyHorse]

0-0.
The tide it is a-turning.

[malcd1]

I dislike myself for being so negative, but I can only see an absolute hammering tomorrow. 1-4 and the beginning of a crisis.

Me too but I was thinking 0-4. I'm hoping Boro have a really bad day and we can scrape a 0-0 draw.

[BWFC_Insane]

I dislike myself for being so negative, but I can only see an absolute hammering tomorrow. 1-4 and the beginning of a crisis.

A crisis? After what we've been through the past few years I'd have thought that losing a few games would be in perspective. But clearly not. We're in a division where we knew it would be tough. We've picked up some bad injuries at the start to make it tougher. We've been well beaten in 3 games if we're honest and scrapped two draws. We're now playing one of the richest teams in the league. Should we lose, it will be disappointing. But crisis? Crisis is when you're looking at your club not existing anymore.

This isn't close.

Frustrating maybe. But when coming up everyone knew it was going to be extremely difficult.

[Peter Thompson]

Ok I've read some of the comments and I'm willing to change my opinion in regards to the score tomorrow....

Bolton 1 Boro 5

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Per BN, PP checking on the readiness of Josh Cullen after his 10,000-mile round trip to Azerbaijan to skipper the Republic of Ireland's U21 team to victory.

We didn’t want him to go because he had a dead leg but the Irish insisted he went and he proved himself fit. Obviously, as captain, they wanted him to play, which is absolutely fine.

He came in and did a recovery session on Thursday but we’ll assess him again today (Friday) and tomorrow to see whether he can play against Middlesbrough. It is a long trip and we’ve got quite a few games coming up so we will have to be careful.

Meanwhile, Vela is "a number of weeks" off: “Josh is making good progress. If anyone can reduce the time scale of coming back from injury, it’s him, because he’ll be determined to get back in. He was a big part of what we did last year and I think he’s a player with a big future.”

[LeverEnd]

Ok I've read some of the comments and I'm willing to change my opinion in regards to the score tomorrow....

Bolton 1 Boro 5

you won't out-negative me you bastards!

[LeverEnd]

1 nil us, with boro hitting the woodwork 6 times, having 2 sent off and 3 clear penalties denied.
Monk's perfectly coiffured side parting to be ruffled by a grinning Parky at the end.