Wycombe in peace, Wycombe (A) 3pm 18/02/23

[Spartan2]

Always an ask to stay in touch with the top 2 as we were so far behind but the worry is 7th and 8th catching us

If we won today I think we could have caught Plymouth don't think so now. So frustrating, why did everyone play so shit.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Well, I'm afraid that has to go down as another failure to score against a promotion-seeking team.

Last time we didn't score? Home to Plymouth. Before that? Home to Derby, and at their place our only goal was an inury-time consolation.

It doesn't always happen - ask Peterborough - but I worry that we aren't asking enough different questions.

[TANGODANCER]

LOST OR ROBBED??? Which???

[DJBlu]

We’d take the position we are in now if offered in December. Every day.

I will tell thee sommat though. Wednesday has become absolutely mahoosive now. Lose that and things could derail very quickly. Huge, huge game.

Every game is massive. We need to stop cherry picking which ones we think are because today happens. They go in thinking this is massive and lose it before we even kick a ball.

[Bertie Wooster]

We’d take the position we are in now if offered in December. Every day.

I will tell thee sommat though. Wednesday has become absolutely mahoosive now. Lose that and things could derail very quickly. Huge, huge game.

Why is it massive, its a meaningless scraping the barrel competition ?

[BWFC_Insane]

We’d take the position we are in now if offered in December. Every day.

I will tell thee sommat though. Wednesday has become absolutely mahoosive now. Lose that and things could derail very quickly. Huge, huge game.

Why is it massive, its a meaningless scraping the barrel competition ?

Momentum. It’s a semi and a chance to go to Wembley. A game bolton fans scrambled for tickets for. I promise you that it’s a crucial one. After today. Lose to Wycombe followed by Accrington and again we start to have questions about tight grounds and physical teams. And also the fans will be unhappy.

Evatt has also clearly to some extent had an eye on it in team selection. Even if he denies it there is no way for me Lee wouldn’t play today were it not for that particular game Wednesday and the players we have unavailable for it,

[DJBlu]

Someone on twitter has explained today in a nutshell. Concentration on beating the opponent at their own game instead of playing ours.

[DJBlu]

We’d take the position we are in now if offered in December. Every day.

I will tell thee sommat though. Wednesday has become absolutely mahoosive now. Lose that and things could derail very quickly. Huge, huge game.

Why is it massive, its a meaningless scraping the barrel competition ?

Momentum. It’s a semi and a chance to go to Wembley. A game bolton fans scrambled for tickets for. I promise you that it’s a crucial one. After today. Lose to Wycombe followed by Accrington and again we start to have questions about tight grounds and physical teams. And also the fans will be unhappy.

Evatt has also clearly to some extent had an eye on it in team selection. Even if he denies it there is no way for me Lee wouldn’t play today were it not for that particular game Wednesday and the players we have unavailable for it,

Mentality of going into it as a season defining game is stretching it to say the least. It's not the FA cup, League Cup or a PlayOff final.

It's the first loss in ages and you're down the rabbit hole again.

If we win on Wed you'll say it's expected, lose and well we know how you'll pipe up.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

A moment's pause to think sympathetically of BoltonBoris, who chose to not see the Posh game in order to see this one

[BWFC_Insane]

We’d take the position we are in now if offered in December. Every day.

I will tell thee sommat though. Wednesday has become absolutely mahoosive now. Lose that and things could derail very quickly. Huge, huge game.

Why is it massive, its a meaningless scraping the barrel competition ?

Momentum. It’s a semi and a chance to go to Wembley. A game bolton fans scrambled for tickets for. I promise you that it’s a crucial one. After today. Lose to Wycombe followed by Accrington and again we start to have questions about tight grounds and physical teams. And also the fans will be unhappy.

Evatt has also clearly to some extent had an eye on it in team selection. Even if he denies it there is no way for me Lee wouldn’t play today were it not for that particular game Wednesday and the players we have unavailable for it,

Mentality of going into it as a season defining game is stretching it to say the least. It's not the FA cup, League Cup or a PlayOff final.

It's the first loss in ages and you're down the rabbit hole again.

If we win on Wed you'll say it's expected, lose and well we know how you'll pipe up.

Before I posted that you were saying Evatt would look silly if we lose Wednesday.

I wouldn’t agree with that.

I just think it’s crucial for momentum. We are in a scrap for a play off place now.

If you have me a choice of winning Wednesday or Dempsey being fit straight away I’d choose the latter because in reality that will be more significant.

However we don’t want to dip from here and a Wembley trip would be a boost.

[DJBlu]

Yes I said he'd look silly as it's a pointless game, always has been and always will be. The league is where the focus should be however he has to pander to the twitter morons and others who think a trip to Wembley is more important than 3 points at Wycombe in a push for promotion.

[DJBlu]

I'll agree with Insane on the fact I believe Bradley makes us a worse side going forward.

Before today the last two games we had 18 shots on target.

Before that the best we've managed was 8 against Charlton.

They might be outliers but we've managed 3 on target today.

[Bertie Wooster]

We’d take the position we are in now if offered in December. Every day.

I will tell thee sommat though. Wednesday has become absolutely mahoosive now. Lose that and things could derail very quickly. Huge, huge game.

Why is it massive, its a meaningless scraping the barrel competition ?

Momentum. It’s a semi and a chance to go to Wembley. A game bolton fans scrambled for tickets for. I promise you that it’s a crucial one. After today. Lose to Wycombe followed by Accrington and again we start to have questions about tight grounds and physical teams. And also the fans will be unhappy.

Evatt has also clearly to some extent had an eye on it in team selection. Even if he denies it there is no way for me Lee wouldn’t play today were it not for that particular game Wednesday and the players we have unavailable for it,

Seriously ? momentum, absolute bollocks BWFCI and you know it - its a nothing competition & we would only take 20k max to Wembley, there will be no scramble believe me - I've been to every Wembley final since Bristol City and if a win in the Papa Johns trophy means a lot to you & the club then perhaps its time to re evaluate the priorities of BWFC. If Lee was rested for Weds then I'm seriously struggling to understand both IE & FV

Torquay in 88/89 was a decent day out, decent weather from memory but it was like a friendly game. If we want the Papa Johns Trophy as a claim to fame then we really have gone backwards as a club & a town.

[LeverEnd]

We’d take the position we are in now if offered in December. Every day.

I will tell thee sommat though. Wednesday has become absolutely mahoosive now. Lose that and things could derail very quickly. Huge, huge game.

Why is it massive, its a meaningless scraping the barrel competition ?

Momentum. It’s a semi and a chance to go to Wembley. A game bolton fans scrambled for tickets for. I promise you that it’s a crucial one. After today. Lose to Wycombe followed by Accrington and again we start to have questions about tight grounds and physical teams. And also the fans will be unhappy.

Evatt has also clearly to some extent had an eye on it in team selection. Even if he denies it there is no way for me Lee wouldn’t play today were it not for that particular game Wednesday and the players we have unavailable for it,

I think it's bigger than it might be because evatt has made it so by talking it up and selecting strong teams.
I also agree with Bertie that it's a crap competition, but the management clearly doesn't see it that way. If we lose there with our strongest team there might be some grumbles and jitters, but nothing that can't be solved by a good win over Port Vale and a result at Portsmouth.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

If Lee was being rested for Accrington then he should be fresh as a f**kin' daisy considering he was also on the bench last midweek.

It's more likely that Evatt kept faith with Shoretire, who was generally acknowledged to have looked excellent in the last two (5-0) games. The fact he can't play in the cup might have helped, but it probably wasn't the prime reason.

I said on here just before the teams were announced that I'd have gone with Lee at 10 and Shoretire off Charles, but I guess Evatt wanted to keep the kid at 10 and give another start to Adeboyejo, who is hardly a six-stone weakling.

Conor Bradley's been one of our standout performers all season so it's a gimme to start with him. If Evatt got the Jones-at-LWB call wrong, he fessed up and switched it at HT.

Really really hope Dempsey is OK as the relatively shallow midfield is something I worried about all January. Sheehan is potentially a good player but is not a replacement for Dempsey. Thomason is closer, but is he fit enough to start?

[LeverEnd]

We’d take the position we are in now if offered in December. Every day.

I will tell thee sommat though. Wednesday has become absolutely mahoosive now. Lose that and things could derail very quickly. Huge, huge game.

Why is it massive, its a meaningless scraping the barrel competition ?

Its rubbish I agree, but they might be looking at the financial benefits as well, that might be why he's given it so much weight. That and getting binned out of the proper cups very early. The club isn't awash with cash.
Personally I'd go to a wembley playoff final but not this.

[BWFC_Insane]

If Lee was being rested for Accrington then he should be fresh as a f**kin' daisy considering he was also on the bench last midweek.

It's more likely that Evatt kept faith with Shoretire, who was generally acknowledged to have looked excellent in the last two (5-0) games. The fact he can't play in the cup might have helped, but it probably wasn't the prime reason.

I said on here just before the teams were announced that I'd have gone with Lee at 10 and Shoretire off Charles, but I guess Evatt wanted to keep the kid at 10 and give another start to Adeboyejo, who is hardly a six-stone weakling.

Conor Bradley's been one of our standout performers all season so it's a gimme to start with him. If Evatt got the Jones-at-LWB call wrong, he fessed up and switched it at HT.

Really really hope Dempsey is OK as the relatively shallow midfield is something I worried about all January. Sheehan is potentially a good player but is not a replacement for Dempsey. Thomason is closer, but is he fit enough to start?

I think he played Victor to keep Lee for Weds. I can’t think of any other reason. We had a formula for these games and he changed it. Unless it was with Wednesday in mind why wouldn’t Lee have played today? Before the game people had said no way will he not play Lee at Wycombe….

[Bertie Wooster]

What financial benefits ? I appreciate that we have had financial issues, but if FV & IE are so naive as to put a minimal Papa Johns winning cheque as a priority then I would be worried. Promotion is the priority, Weds is a friendly IMO.

Personally I'd be embarrassed winning the Papa Johns, I can't think of a more tinpot competition that that.

[GhostoftheBok]

Well, that was crap.

Should have had a pen and arguably deserved a point. Their keeper made all his saves, our lad fell asleep for one at his near post.

It happens. We lost the second hardest fixture in our run in, so whilst I'm disappointed with the performance I'm not shocked at the result.

The false weighting of Wednesday's semi is a bit daft, but obviously we really want to win it and go to Wembley. If not we'll just crack on with the league.

[BWFC_Insane]

What financial benefits ? I appreciate that we have had financial issues, but if FV & IE are so naive as to put a minimal Papa Johns winning cheque as a priority then I would be worried. Promotion is the priority, Weds is a friendly IMO.

Personally I'd be embarrassed winning the Papa Johns, I can't think of a more tinpot competition that that.

Sunderland reckon it made them about £1M in total with prize money and gate receipts.

We wouldn’t make that much but even half is a massive amount for the club.

But that aside you only need look at the Accrington semi. Huge virtual queues and people desperate for tickets. You are out of touch if you think that Bolton fans aren’t desperate for a trip to Wembley. Evatt will be too. Symbolically it’s a step back.