Wandering, Why come back home? Bolton v Wycombe - 13th Feb 2024 19:45pm

[BWFC_Insane]

For me we got away a bit with that one. But take the points and move on.

JDC was tremendous. Jones also very very good.

Coleman - I felt nervous at times with it at his feet especially.

Midfield got better second half but not totally convincing. Maghoma the pick for me. Morley did ok. Dempsey is still in and out and up and down.

Delighted for Jon!

But three points is all that matters. Now need to do it again Saturday.

[Prufrock]

Far from vintage, pretty dreadful game, but a win is a win. They're no mugs so it's a good win. Dion is a worry. He's obviously been off it recently but he's at important to what we do. Fingers crossed he's ok. Geth head and shoulders for me, JDC best of the rest. Need to back it up ahead of a tricky run. Looks like 5 might be becoming 3 to me.

Pretty shocking night for posh fans anyway!

[knobpolisher]

I believe that of all our strikers Bod is the only one who would have scored that, others would have attempted to control it and been shut down.

[boltonboris]

Poor game in a run of poor games. I'm delighted we won, but we're not looking in good shape on the pitch at the minute. Predictable, ponderous and to be honest, really feckin boring. I think Evatt has done and is continuing to do, a wonderful job for us but I just feel like we need a change of shape, or style.

I come out of games now thinking "imagine if I'd brought a mate to that" or "imagine that was my first time watching Bolton" - I wouldn't go back. Certainly not at £26 per ticket or whatever it was last night. The atmosphere is absolutely horrendous, to the point if you shout, or sing, people turn round and stare at you. It's awful. You can hear people cough in other stands.

Amyway.. Beatifully taken goal by the Bodfather last night. Delighted for him. He looked good when he came on. Scruffy, but comes out of duels with the ball in ways no other player in our side can. We're not playing to Charles' strengths at all and it shows. I hope he's not injured, but he's due a game or 2 looking on from the stands, or the bench.

Dacres-Cogley man of the match by a country mile. He's risen to the challenge of Ramsey coming in.

[boltonboris]

Someone on twitter says that Dion was holding his MCL which the gaffer also says "We'll have to wait and see"

"The medial collateral ligament (MCL) runs from the inside surface of the upper shin bone to the inner surface of the bottom thigh bone. This ligament keeps your shin bone (tibia) in place. The MCL is usually injured by pressure or stress on the outside part of the knee."

Make of that what you will.

Looked like the inside of the knee to me. Both went in with the inside of their feet and it made an almighty thwack. Proper 50/50 but it does open up the knee if you don't win it. Hopefully it's just jarred

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

We're clearly not firing on all cylinders but last night we were missing our sweeper-keeper, our skipper and our midfield lynchpin, while our star striker continues to try to fight his way out of a rut. Considering that, we did well to win. Hopefully it gives us the confidence to do so again on Saturday. I'd expect Sheehan back and possibly Ashworth over Ogbeta (who nonetheless showed attacking prowess suitable for a sub).

[dave the minion]

Poor game in a run of poor games. I'm delighted we won, but we're not looking in good shape on the pitch at the minute. Predictable, ponderous and to be honest, really feckin boring. I think Evatt has done and is continuing to do, a wonderful job for us but I just feel like we need a change of shape, or style.

I come out of games now thinking "imagine if I'd brought a mate to that" or "imagine that was my first time watching Bolton" - I wouldn't go back. Certainly not at £26 per ticket or whatever it was last night. The atmosphere is absolutely horrendous, to the point if you shout, or sing, people turn round and stare at you. It's awful. You can hear people cough in other stands.

Amyway.. Beatifully taken goal by the Bodfather last night. Delighted for him. He looked good when he came on. Scruffy, but comes out of duels with the ball in ways no other player in our side can. We're not playing to Charles' strengths at all and it shows. I hope he's not injured, but he's due a game or 2 looking on from the stands, or the bench.

Dacres-Cogley man of the match by a country mile. He's risen to the challenge of Ramsey coming in.

Kind of agree with most of this to be honest.

Atmosphere last night was weirdly flat - even by our own high (low?) standards. Not often you can hear all the players shouting on the pitch. And even though it wound me up all night, their eejit with the drum at least was making some noise, so good for him for coming along....

I sincerely hope Dion's not done anything too serious, but it might be a timely tweak that takes him out of the firing line for a couple of games and gives him some much-deserved rest. Happy with the alternatives now though, so him being out isn't the disaster it would have been a couple of months ago.

JDC - what a signing he has been. He - along with Jones - was superb last night. I'd love to see the stats as to how far he runs in a game - he was everywhere last night. Shout out to Iredale too - he gets a bit of stick and some of his longer distribution last night was poor, but dealt with everything he needed to defensively last night.

My challenge to you though would be about the change of style. Despite what you - and many others (esp near me in the stadium) - think, its hard to argue with the fact it is working. It might be nervy at times, and it might also be a bit slow (but thats modern football, sadly), but it is consistently bringing in the points this season. There's a clown in the row in front of me that always shouts for the ball to be punted long, and claps whenever it is, even if we lose possession immediately or it goes out of play. He would seemingly prefer to watch a game where the keeper kicks it to an opposition defender's head and its pinged about in the air for 90 minutes....

[dave the minion]

We're clearly not firing on all cylinders but last night we were missing our sweeper-keeper, our skipper and our midfield lynchpin, while our star striker continues to try to fight his way out of a rut. Considering that, we did well to win. Hopefully it gives us the confidence to do so again on Saturday. I'd expect Sheehan back and possibly Ashworth over Ogbeta (who nonetheless showed attacking prowess suitable for a sub).

This.
I said last night during the game that Ogbeta is lacking somewhat defensively - he lost practically all of his challenges and gave the ball away too much (although a fair few others were also guilty of this...). Also - in the first half particularly - thought he positioning was suspect and Dempsey and others were often sucked back into covering, limiting their own effectiveness.

However, going forward he looked much better - similar playing style to Maghoma - and a definite threat to come on from the bench if we need an extra spark in attack.

The patched up defence and keeper are performing admirably in the absence of both Santos and Baxter - there's clearly a lot of nerves around, but so far they've held their own (just....) and will only improve with more game time

[boltonboris]

My challenge to you though would be about the change of style. Despite what you - and many others (esp near me in the stadium) - think, its hard to argue with the fact it is working. It might be nervy at times, and it might also be a bit slow (but thats modern football, sadly), but it is consistently bringing in the points this season. There's a clown in the row in front of me that always shouts for the ball to be punted long, and claps whenever it is, even if we lose possession immediately or it goes out of play. He would seemingly prefer to watch a game where the keeper kicks it to an opposition defender's head and its pinged about in the air for 90 minutes....

I agree. It's bringing home the bacon and it's hard to argue against continuing. I don't want us to start banging it long. Whenever we do that it comes straight back. But at times last season, we were frightening. Pace, athleticism, underlaps, overlaps, fast one/two touch football.. But now, the number of touches we have of the ball before moving it is extreme. I get why we do it. We play possession football in a defensive manner. We only go and play when we're set up not to be countered, which is effective but it's feckin boring

[boltonboris]

And last night, being a case in point, the amount of times our midfielders, even the "advanced" ones, got the ball with their back to goal was mind-boggling. Good defending and good shape from Wycombe to ensure that, but any chance we can do something about it?

[TANGODANCER]

Poor game in a run of poor games. I'm delighted we won, but we're not looking in good shape on the pitch at the minute.

Can't be argued with because it's the truth. Trouble is, most agree on our style of play needing more precision and variation and, in truth, more care. We were never this sloppy in defensive errors, and we surely do make them, the keeper not the least. Easy to find fault from the stands and armchairs, but most supporters know their football and what we're playing right now doesn't shout "Championship". It doesn't even shout !Division One" . Back to the training ground lads, banana skins are everywhere.

[BWFC_Insane]

We're clearly not firing on all cylinders but last night we were missing our sweeper-keeper, our skipper and our midfield lynchpin, while our star striker continues to try to fight his way out of a rut. Considering that, we did well to win. Hopefully it gives us the confidence to do so again on Saturday. I'd expect Sheehan back and possibly Ashworth over Ogbeta (who nonetheless showed attacking prowess suitable for a sub).

Yeah a lot of changes. Biggest miss by a mile is young George though. Without him that midfield is very very unconvincing. I thought Morley did ok to be honest. He’s too static but we know that is his downside.


Feels like we have to refind our momentum with what is a new group of players. The core of our team, Baxter, Santos, Thomason and maybe Charles are missing Saturday. That’s tough for anyone to cope with.

[BWFC_Insane]

The thing about the style is teams have really optimised the press against us. Press high then drop off if we get comfortable possession out wide or in midfield. They aren’t being drawn out and the hybrid press is a) causing us issues from the back and b) making it very hard when we do manage to get control of possession.

I think we aren’t good enough on the ball in possession against teams who can do this and that’s different than the style is wrong or we are playing defensive football. I just don’t think we are generally good enough to beat the initial press or open the play up after that. Our ideas revolve around a 50 yard switch or a straight ball into the strikers feet. Neither work that well other than on the odd occasion.

General pattern of play I think we lack a lot of ideas for breaking a team down. We aren’t a get it wide and put it in side but we don’t have the midfield quality bar the inconsistent Maghoma to open the game up front a standing start. It’s noticeable how we looked very strong on the counter last night towards the end and that reflects I think where we are at. We have some punch but we need the spaces to open up.

[Mar]

Shout out to Iredale too - he gets a bit of stick and some of his longer distribution last night was poor, but dealt with everything he needed to defensively last night.

Glad I wasn't the only one to spot it. There was a point just after half time where I was thinking he hadn't put a foot wrong in the match, that was just before miss hitting a pass to Adeboyejo (not on the same wavelength).

[DJBlu]

If we're in a rut and keeping the ppg over 2 then that'll do for me as by hook or crook we have more cup finals.

[The_Gun]

I don’t feel great about our recent performances, but my gut feeling is we will start to get better and better as key men come back and the new lads come up to speed.

Right now we look very disjointed, as is to be expected given the amount of personnel changes we’ve been making from game to game.

Is the suggestion that Santos will be ready for Saturday? Whilst we desperately need him, I also don’t want him to be brought back too soon with an increased risk of re-aggravating his injury. I don’t think we’ll get promoted if he misses too many more games.

[boltonboris]

I don’t feel great about our recent performances, but my gut feeling is we will start to get better and better as key men come back and the new lads come up to speed.

Right now we look very disjointed, as is to be expected given the amount of personnel changes we’ve been making from game to game.

Is the suggestion that Santos will be ready for Saturday? Whilst we desperately need him, I also don’t want him to be brought back too soon with an increased risk of re-aggravating his injury. I don’t think we’ll get promoted if he misses too many more games.

From what I read between the lines, he's on the grass and could have been in contention last night, but we thought it was too soon. Whether Saturday comes around too quickly remains to be seen, but I expect him to at least be on the bench

[sonicthewhite]

I don’t feel great about our recent performances, but my gut feeling is we will start to get better and better as key men come back and the new lads come up to speed.

Right now we look very disjointed, as is to be expected given the amount of personnel changes we’ve been making from game to game.

Is the suggestion that Santos will be ready for Saturday? Whilst we desperately need him, I also don’t want him to be brought back too soon with an increased risk of re-aggravating his injury. I don’t think we’ll get promoted if he misses too many more games.

For me don't risk Santos on Sat. The back three that started last night is fairly solid and know the system. A bit of stability in front of Coleman should help his confidence as well. Get Sheehan back in the middle should again settle the midfield. The wingbacks should probably be JDC and Ashworth, again two players who know our system better than the new boys. The only variable that is going to give Evatt something to think about is who starts up front if Dion is out?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

∆ Evatt post-match: "The captain is back next week, which will make a huge difference to us, hopefully one or two more will be back from injury too.”

Main 'hope' is Baxter, with Randell also seeming to be recovering quicker than expected. Forrester is the other option – outside long-termers Nlundulu and Johnston – but frankly Forrester might find it hard to get on the bench once we're picking from Rico, Geth, Iredale, Toal, Taylor and him – with JDC also an option as cover if Ramsay settles in or Randell comes back firing.

[BWFC_Insane]

∆ Evatt post-match: "The captain is back next week, which will make a huge difference to us, hopefully one or two more will be back from injury too.”

Main 'hope' is Baxter, with Randell also seeming to be recovering quicker than expected. Forrester is the other option – outside long-termers Nlundulu and Johnston – but frankly Forrester might find it hard to get on the bench once we're picking from Rico, Geth, Iredale, Toal, Taylor and him – with JDC also an option as cover if Ramsay settles in or Randell comes back firing.

Forrester is versatile across back three. I think he gets a spot when fit. I’m surprised he’s not back tbh was in contention for Barnsley so Evatt said. What’s happened there?