The Trotters vs Mighty Russian Empire (Chelski away)

[BWFC_Insane]

Typical

Whats that you can see? Bolton bending over and taking one up the shitter. Expect more of the same on Saturday.

We looked a million times better when we passed it to feet down the wings. Too much punt up to Davies and Elmander.

Oh and can someone tell me when the last time Elmander actually won a header?

Ermmm to create our first goal on Sunday against West Brom?

[Prufrock]

3 handballs in 2 years in that penalty box by John Terry then.

Played the offside trap very well all game..... Except once. Chelsea played well for about 10 minutes and scored their goal in that period, we didn't get enough on goal - Holden's two efforts, Ricketts should've put his at least on target but something had to go in first for us.

Don't think Moreno let us down at all with his first full start against one of the best, in fact you saw Cole start to attack us when the lad was subbed off.

Looks like New Years' Day is an easy 3 though eh.

AHAHAHA pah, it's fecking more than that. It's three in two years against us. Makes himself big like a keeper and that's somehow ok.

'against us' is what I meant. Couldn't keep count weekly...

Edited for you.

[TANGODANCER]

Drogba is SUCH a c*nt. Jumps into people with arms flailing and actually gets a freekick for himself whilst, stealing TD's standard thunder, at t'other end Davies gets nowt. .

He never will as long as he plays for Bolton. If he played for Tottenham he'd get frees and penalties weekly. Too honest, but if Drogba's a hard man, give me Davies every time.

[Ianmooreslovechild]

Didn't really get going today except for a short spell in the first half,not a poor performance but not much spark and when the cavalry came on the horses had been doped.Chelsea goal was onside,Terry handball,pointblank and arms by his sides,he does usually cheat and get away with it but this time I think it would have been incredibly harsh to give as a pen.All in all 1 0 right result,didn't do enough to deserve more.We'd have been in ecstacy with a result like that a year ago so not all bad.

except the arm was not by his side....

I'll have to take another look,was watching on laptop surrounded by my slightly excitable kids. Looked upper arm and fairly point blank to me.First impression was not likely to be given unlike previous years where I was yelling at the conning payola sucking men in black. Didn't get that feeling today.

[thebish]

Didn't really get going today except for a short spell in the first half,not a poor performance but not much spark and when the cavalry came on the horses had been doped.Chelsea goal was onside,Terry handball,pointblank and arms by his sides,he does usually cheat and get away with it but this time I think it would have been incredibly harsh to give as a pen.All in all 1 0 right result,didn't do enough to deserve more.We'd have been in ecstacy with a result like that a year ago so not all bad.

except the arm was not by his side....

I'll have to take another look,was watching on laptop surrounded by my slightly excitable kids. Looked upper arm and fairly point blank to me.First impression was not likely to be given unlike previous years where I was yelling at the conning payola sucking men in black. Didn't get that feeling today.

I too will look again - but on the replays I saw the ball seemed to travel quite a way before hitting him - and his arm moved away from his side and behind him to deflect the ball - as someone else said - making himself big like a goalie...

[Ianmooreslovechild]

Watched MotD still not a pen for me.It may just be that terry has reached a level of professionalism whereby I can no longer tell when he's cheating.Mind you watching without distractions we played pretty well and looked the more likely until they scored.Obviously a big lift for them and we didn't really do much in the latter part of the game. lost momentum with the subs and went out with a whimper for the first time in a good while.

[William the White]

Not offside. Not a pen. Not cheated in any way by officials. Owen entirely wrong to make that claim.

A couple of chances we should have made pay for a draw we might - just - have deserved...

Liverpool away (with the obvious, glorious exception) always sends a shiver through me... But if there was ever a time...

[TANGODANCER]

Watched MotD still not a pen for me.It may just be that terry has reached a level of professionalism whereby I can no longer tell when he's cheating.

If you're trying to block a shot and you do it with an arm it's a penalty. It wasn't a ricochet, a ball deflected off a body part etc. He blocked the ball with his arm. Goalies can make themselves big with arms, other players can't. Being very, very, very kind, he may not have meant it, but he did it. If you still think it wasn't a penalty just wait till a Bolton player tries it. Mike Riley, Dean, Clattenclunk etc will soon prove you wrong. Terry is used to getting away with it; he did again tonight.

[Mar]

We were unlucky not to come away with a point today. Chelsea are a shadow of a side they once were and it showed. It was all Bolton in the first half and Chelsea were lacklustre. The shot by Ricketts was the defining moment had that gone in i'm sure we could've gone on and secured the points.

Once again a refereeing decision could've made the difference. John Terry getting a free ride with the referee's once again. It's hardly swings and round abouts with those sort of decisions against the top 4.

At the end of the day we've left with our heads high.

[TANGODANCER]

Not offside. Not a pen. Not cheated in any way by officials. Owen entirely wrong to make that claim.
A couple of chances we should have made pay for a draw we might - just - have deserved...

An away draw against the one of the richest Champs League clubs in the Premiership is always deserved if you play well enough to get it WTW. We nearly did. I won't claim the officials cheated, just got it wrong. It was both an offside and a penalty for me. In the replays the match commentators thought so too.

[Mar]

As an aside this is the only match this season that i've not seen a great improvement at the end of the match in terms of our attacking impetous. We trailed off at the end today and it seems evident that our players are feeling the impact of the congested fixture list.

Hopefully we can find the extra mile against Liverpool on Jan 1st.

[Ianmooreslovechild]

Watched MotD still not a pen for me.It may just be that terry has reached a level of professionalism whereby I can no longer tell when he's cheating.

If you're trying to block a shot and you do it with an arm it's a penalty. It wasn't a ricochet, a ball deflected off a body part etc. He blocked the ball with his arm. Goalies can make themselves big with arms, other players can't. Being very, very, very kind, he may not have meant it, but he did it. If you still think it wasn't a penalty just wait till a Bolton player tries it. Mike Riley, Dean, Clattenclunk etc will soon prove you wrong. Terry is used to getting away with it; he did again tonight.

If a Bolton player had done it and it had been given I'd be moaning like a hoor on babeworld.
The rule is deliberate handball, the interpretation is shall we say variable at best.On this occasion Terry's goalkeeping was less blatant than on previous occasions.Bearing in mind we were at Stamford Bridge and playing John Terry rules football it's obvious it was never going to be a penalty.
Can't get wound up over it as it never felt like we'd get anything tonight even though it was a reasonable performance against a poor Chelsea team.

[Eire_Trotter]

Is it just me or do all of us get frustrated when we come up against the BIG teams that are on a bad run of form and still manage to beat us? That's Liverpool and Chelsea now. We have taken a point from the Manc game and none from Chelsea, Liverpool, City, Arsenal. Ok we beat spurs convincingly, that was nice.

But if you look at teams like Newcastle, West Brom beating Arsenal, Blackpool and everyone else beating Liverpool, Sunderland and Birmingham beating Chelsea and Everton and Newcastle beating City.

Now this frustrates me as I think we have the players to upset some of these teams and get the odd 3 points but it hasn't happened in a very long time .

[HMX]

Not an offside but I still believe we had a damn good shout for a penalty.

[Prufrock]

Not an offside but I still believe we had a damn good shout for a penalty.

[jonnybwfc]

I think the substitutions let us down tonight.

Would have liked to see Rodrigo and Taylor stay on. Was quite surprised when Rodrigo was subbed.

Our poor last 10 minutes started with Holden going off ... no coincidence in my book.

Thought we were pretty poor from about the 30th to 60th minute, and then from the 80th minute.

[FaninOz]

Home town decisions for a top 4 side yet again, marginal but both could easily have been given the other way. Terry often spreads his arms and gets away with it and Drogba was miles offside with respect to the nearets players to him and it was only Rickets on the far side who could have just played him on, but it was very very close and most linesmen would have given it offside. But then at Chelsea ......

Most reports give us good marks for effort and we had chances to get the draw, but as "usual" against the top 4 sides we were not quite good enough yet again. Liverpool will be up for making amends for the loss against Wolves and often don't lose two at home on the run so .........

[SonsOfThunder]

Is it just me or do all of us get frustrated when we come up against the BIG teams that are on a bad run of form and still manage to beat us? That's Liverpool and Chelsea now. We have taken a point from the Manc game and none from Chelsea, Liverpool, City, Arsenal. Ok we beat spurs convincingly, that was nice.

But if you look at teams like Newcastle, West Brom beating Arsenal, Blackpool and everyone else beating Liverpool, Sunderland and Birmingham beating Chelsea and Everton and Newcastle beating City.

Now this frustrates me as I think we have the players to upset some of these teams and get the odd 3 points but it hasn't happened in a very long time .

Yet our table position proves that consistent performances against the 'lower' teams will take you much further than beating the big teams once in a while but dropping points to everyone else.

Also, I'm not sure why Holden was taken off for Davies instead of Muamba, as is usually done. He did have the best scoring chance of the entire game after all (the header that Cech one-handed over the bar).

Drogba was played on by Ricketts; the far more controversial decision was Terry's handball in the box. Just because he turns his head the other way doesn't mean he can stick his arm that far out from his body and claim innocence. Should have been a penalty for SKD to bury, and on the balance of things a point apiece would have been the fair result.

Oh and now that we've gotten the 'never scored in Merseyside' monkey off our back, let's beat Liverpool at home. It will be just the way to start the new year!

[irie Cee Bee]

We played well. Cant fault any of the players who gave it their all. I thought Taylor, Cahill, Robo, Ricketts and Knight did very well and Moreno looked very promising. Another couple of games to come to terms with the pace of the English game, and we will have a match winner on our hands.

Drogba may have been slightly offside on the goal, and Terry would not have been able to get out of the way of Holden's shot as he was very close to him, so they got the breaks. Best chance for us was Ricketts shot which would have given us a deserved equalizer.

We lost the plot a bit when Taylor, Moreno and Holden went off with the Liverpool game in mind, but all in all, we put up a good show. There were a lot of tired legs out there in the last 15 mins., and I hope we will be able to freshen up sufficiently for the next game.

[H. Pedersen]

Here's what pisses me off about the Terry handball: he does it all the time. Now officials obvious compare notes and have decided that Davies backs in too much, Diouf goes down too easily, etc. so why haven't they similarly conspired to award handballs against Terry?