Semi Final Match Thread

[thebish]

We wouldn't have been in a semi-final 18 months ago.

We'd have been setting out to draw at home.

Context is everything.

I've never felt worse than Sunday.

Contextualise that!

the context is that you have led a very sheltered life!

[HMX]

I guess it's a drop in the ocean compared to the poor Stoke chap who apparently died on the trip back (?)

[Raven]

Seen a lot about Klasnic on here saying we should not start with him and not make him play all the match and just bring him on as a bit part impact player, in other words a part time player...does the useless plank get part time wages then?

Off for a bit now this is not doing me any good, yes am a moaning minnies and still seething about the lact of effort, off days I can put up with, the odd bad perfomance too is expected but not actually trying is a disgrace.

Take care

[Lord Kangana]

Actually, I think he does. I recall that was why it took so long for him to put pen to paper in summer.

[BWFC_Insane]

We wouldn't have been in a semi-final 18 months ago.

We'd have been setting out to draw at home.

Context is everything.

I've never felt worse than Sunday.

Contextualise that!

the context is that you have led a very sheltered life!

I obviously meant in relation to watching our 11 men kicking a ball around!

[TANGODANCER]

The pain's subsiding just a litte. Might be the weather or maybe that funny unreal feeling that it never actually happened. Might even be the mental excercise of trying to remember a Bolton player running at an opponent in an effort to beat them instead of turning around and knocking it backwards. One thing I can clearly remember is Robinson keep getting the ball back from Petrov twice as fast as he sent it. It's all gradually fading away though like a bad nightmare. Just so glad I no longer work in Manchester.

[P.O.S.]

The pain's subsiding just a litte. Might be the weather or maybe that funny unreal feeling that it never actually happened. Might even be the mental excercise of trying to remember a Bolton player running at an opponent in an effort to beat them instead of turning around and knocking it backwards. One thing I can clearly remember is Robinson keep getting the ball back from Petrov twice as fast as he sent it. It's all gradually fading away though like a bad nightmare. Just so glad I no longer work in Manchester.

Not had it too bad in Manc the last couple of days, although everyone's more sympathetic than anything. Actually, having City fans feeling sorry for me isn't the best.

At least the Reds are quiet, very quiet.

[BWFC_Wyles]

Heartbroken. Demoralised. Embarrassed. Ashamed. Did I mention heartbroken??

That was the lowest point of my BWFC supporting career, and I've been going since 1985. Putting that into context by saying with the expectation, the quality we have in the squad and this being our best chance in decades of an FA Cup trophy, I've never seen one team bend over and get shafted so much in all my life. Reliable squad members like Robbo, CY Lee, Davo, Cahill, Elmo and Jussi just didn't perform as we'd expect them to at Wembley Stadium in an FA Cup Semi Final.
Stoke City scored 5 without reply against us?! Now I'm all for the "proud to be a Wanderer" and "proud of the players for getting us there" talk, but I wasn't proud on Sunday, and getting to the semi final would have been a massive achievement to be proud of had we not been hammered by Stoke City of all people. It's not the defeat, it's the manner of the defeat!

That result can send our season one of two ways..... 1. We pull ourselves together and push on to win no less than 4 of our remaining 6 games or 2. We fizzle out and end in the bottom half.

Sorry for the rant which I'm sure many people have heard on several occasions, but Twitter was awash with Bolton fans saying how we should be proud of the players for getting us there. I couldn't disagree more. Pick all that apart how you will, but I don't know how I can to the Arsenal game this weekend with a smile on my face and look at the players who embarrassed the club on Sunday.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Actually that may be the most lasting damage. We fools will still attend in roughly the same numbers - there's lots of folk saying they had the worst day of their lives, but I've seen nobody saying "never again" - but there were also up to 15,000 floating voters at Wembley who'll need a fair few (more) glowing reports to be tempted back to a seat. Put it this way: if that was the only game you'd seen all season, would you be heading the queue for a season ticket?

[BWFC_Wyles]

Actually that may be the most lasting damage. We fools will still attend in roughly the same numbers - there's lots of folk saying they had the worst day of their lives, but I've seen nobody saying "never again" - but there were also up to 15,000 floating voters at Wembley who'll need a fair few (more) glowing reports to be tempted back to a seat. Put it this way: if that was the only game you'd seen all season, would you be heading the queue for a season ticket?

Perfectly put. I've heard tickets are selling fast for Arsenal. Is that because it's Arsenal, or because fans want to see the reaction from our wounded soldiers?

[TANGODANCER]

Heartbroken. Demoralised. Embarrassed. Ashamed. Did I mention heartbroken??

Always look on the bright side of life, dee dum, dee dah,dee,da,dee dum dum.

[BWFC_Insane]

Actually that may be the most lasting damage. We fools will still attend in roughly the same numbers - there's lots of folk saying they had the worst day of their lives, but I've seen nobody saying "never again" - but there were also up to 15,000 floating voters at Wembley who'll need a fair few (more) glowing reports to be tempted back to a seat. Put it this way: if that was the only game you'd seen all season, would you be heading the queue for a season ticket?

Saw a couple (hubby and wife) at Wembley who used to sit near me years ago but stopped going during the Allardyce years. Well stopped going regularly mainly because they had kids moved further away from Bolton etc etc. Anyways when I bumped into them with their kids (their first BWFC game) they said they'd been to a couple this season and were really hoping Wembley would give them such a kickstart that they'd buy season tickets next year.

Didn't see them at the end but can't imagine them purchasing can you?

[boltonboris]

Actually that may be the most lasting damage. We fools will still attend in roughly the same numbers - there's lots of folk saying they had the worst day of their lives, but I've seen nobody saying "never again" - but there were also up to 15,000 floating voters at Wembley who'll need a fair few (more) glowing reports to be tempted back to a seat. Put it this way: if that was the only game you'd seen all season, would you be heading the queue for a season ticket?

Saw a couple (hubby and wife) at Wembley who used to sit near me years ago but stopped going during the Allardyce years. Well stopped going regularly mainly because they had kids moved further away from Bolton etc etc. Anyways when I bumped into them with their kids (their first BWFC game) they said they'd been to a couple this season and were really hoping Wembley would give them such a kickstart that they'd buy season tickets next year.

Didn't see them at the end but can't imagine them purchasing can you?

feck 'em then.. We don't need fans like that

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Didn't see them at the end but can't imagine them purchasing can you?

feck 'em then.. We don't need fans like that

'cept we do
Well, we might not NEED them, but no club can afford to ignore extending their fanbase

[boltonboris]

I mean it.. Why the feck should anybody give a shiny shite about any 'fan' who thinks "If we win this game, I might.. Might.. start going. If we don't win the FA cup, screw 'em"

I don't want people like that sat near me.. They're the sort of know-nowt cretins who boo the team off at half time when we're not beating York 7-0. But hey.. They spend their money, so they can do what they like... (They think)

[TKIZ!]

Bit like the young lads walking out of Wembley telling all concerned that Coyle should get the sack

[CAPSLOCK]

Anybody who thinks they didn't try can fcuk right off too

They might have been shite...they might have let us down...they might have let themselves down

But didn't try?

Get to fcuk

[Prufrock]

Reading a couple of the links DSB posted in the Arsenal thread leads me to think BWFCi isn't talking complete bollocks. There's a lot of brilliant games in that season I didn't realise were then. Pedersen's fluke from the corner against Newcastle, dicking Leeds to relegate them. Youri's Everton masterclass. I remember all the games, but in my head they didn't happen in that season. That season was fcuking Middlesbrough. Even our highest league placing for about a million years isn't quite remembered coz of that game.

I'll remember the Newcastle game, the Spurs game, the Wolves game, but they won't clock as 'this year' I don't think. Brum is different, because it is so tightly linked with Stoke. Eurgh. It's been awesome, but the manner of Sunday is gonna be hard to forget.

[truewhite15]

Am I strange in that I can easily separate league from cup? Ask me what happened in 2003/2004, and I'll answer "we weren't struggling against relegation, we relegated Leeds, we changed to all white, we finished 8th...oh, and there was the CC Final as well".

[BWFC_Insane]

I mean it.. Why the feck should anybody give a shiny shite about any 'fan' who thinks "If we win this game, I might.. Might.. start going. If we don't win the FA cup, screw 'em"

I don't want people like that sat near me.. They're the sort of know-nowt cretins who boo the team off at half time when we're not beating York 7-0. But hey.. They spend their money, so they can do what they like... (They think)

I used to think like that I really did. But as I've got older I've realised its not the right way to see it. If you boil it down to the real hardcore that would go even if we were in division 2 and struggling and would go home and away you're probably down to 2000 at best. Probably not even that!

Most off here wouldn't. We're all to some extent more likely to go when the teams doing well apart from those few!

Also these "more casual fans" are the ones who were giving us bigger gates early doors when we came back up after beating Preston. In those first few seasons back up we had bigger crowds.

If we say "we don't want them sort back" then where is the line drawn?

Like it or not people who went who aren't regulars will have been put off and its not hard to see why. Hopefully with it looking like a decent show for the Arsenal game the players can put it right in front of what could be a near full house!