Ram it home lads

[Worthy4England]

He's certainly injecting more fight into the crowd that turned up.

[TKIZ!]

The massive problem is that the fans have so completely turned that we'd have to win every single game from no on to undue all the damage

[Bruce Rioja]

How many shots on goal? I can remember only 2. It's awful.

Absolutely stunned that we had that much possession. I hardly remember us even having the ball in the 2nd half. Of those three shots on target, Mason actually managed to get in the way of two of them. A seriously dreadful afternoon after what was a really promising start. The thing is, I'm now past being disappointed, I'm just resigned now to the whole demise.

[Prufrock]

We're going down if he doesn't go.

[adamworthy2002]

I was expecting a pitch invasion at the end of the match.

I think the Stewards were expecting something too considering about 30 of them were stood around the dugout.

[wigan white]

In 34 years of watching the Wanderers, I have never seen a team so obviously "give up" as much as we did after 15mins of that 2nd half. Not even in the semi final against Stoke. I'm in shock at just how little the players seemed to care today. Fair enough Spearing (for all his poor passing) still tried to get stuck in but the whole team just gave up!!! Today is the day that my football team died, and it's down to both Freedman and Gartside.
I noticed Freedman on GMR saying the job is far bigger than he thought it was!!!! WTF, I thought he had a plan and we all know what it is?????
I'm genuinely hurting emotionally after today's performance.
Apparently there was a protest after the game at the front but only about 50 strong according to Jack Dearden.

[twilight]

I feel as though my club just stopped fighting and rolled over and died to accept the inevitable...I don't understand

[irie Cee Bee]

Sadly, enough is enough. This cant continue. Time for a change.

[bobo the clown]

I feel as though my club just stopped fighting and rolled over and died to accept the inevitable...I don't understand

He's completely sucked the life out of the place.

[Jugs]

In 34 years of watching the Wanderers, I have never seen a team so obviously "give up" as much as we did after 15mins of that 2nd half. Not even in the semi final against Stoke. I'm in shock at just how little the players seemed to care today. Fair enough Spearing (for all his poor passing) still tried to get stuck in but the whole team just gave up!!! Today is the day that my football team died, and it's down to both Freedman and Gartside.
I noticed Freedman on GMR saying the job is far bigger than he thought it was!!!! WTF, I thought he had a plan and we all know what it is?????
I'm genuinely hurting emotionally after today's performance.
Apparently there was a protest after the game at the front but only about 50 strong according to Jack Dearden.

We probably have witnessed a similar second half, but the present tends to obscure the past. But I do agree with the sentiment; the second half was shocking, the players gave up and that was the worst thing today. Freedman keeps saying his players will always give their all but today they didn't.

[TANGODANCER]

Freedman's presser being tweeted by the club.

"We tried to out-football Derby and that simply didn't work - I hold my hands up for that."
"That said, we can't keep making silly individual errors that end up costing us goals."
"Derby were the better side and deserved the win. They'll be right up there come the end of the season."
"We understand the frustration right now, but we still have the fight in us, make no mistake about that." More reaction: http://t.co/aem1rPTtcU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There were individual errors all over the park. Who wasn't guilty of waiting for the ball and seeing it nicked away? Who didn't get left for dead because they couldn't anticipate a bus coming? Who wasn't guilty of careless, half-arsed passes that gave the ball away, or hopeful flicks without being aware of what was around them? Their second goal was so obvious the minute they nicked the ball by good anticipation and set off at us. All in all it was a pretty awful display all round.

[EverSoYouri]

I've actually reached the stage where I think Freedman needs to be sacked for his own sake. This last week or so he's been looking dreadful and his press comments are now barely coherent. It may sound melodramatic but I really think he's on the edge of a breakdown.

Today's game was bizarre. For the first twenty minutes, we were the better team. Mason had two good attempts on goal created by neat moves. Then he got in the way of two other shots (not to mention Chung's decent shot from a corner, blocked by a defender). First half stats - 2 shots 1 on target - just plain wrong. They got a soft penalty: fine save by Lonergan. Looked for a while as though it would be our day.

Their goal was on the break but (as is often the case with teams in crisis) totally took the wind out of us.

The second half was, I'm afraid, typical of Dougie's tenure (first few months aside). Low energy performance, no threat. Once Mills had made the dreadful mistake that led to their second goal, all hell broke loose.

I have no time for tossers who invade the pitch (especially when one of them snatches up the corner flag and prances about on the pitch with it). Little men showboating. Even more the case with the later invasion (not sure if it was one of the original two - in which case stewards should be sacked). Lonergan was incandescent and virtually faced the guy off. Players thrown, and even Derby players looked nonplussed by it all. I don't see this as on a par with what McClaren endured at Boro (that was one really angry guy who was making a genuine protest). These struck me a glory-seekers. feck 'em.
I hate bullies and arseholes who play up to the mob.

Sad fact is. Dougie is working himself sick but just isn't up to it. Doesn't deserve this malice but does deserve ED's and PG's thanks for doing a dirty job and a polite reference when he exits - which ought to be now.

Sad day for BWFC. Time for Nigel Clough or Keith Hill.

[Jugs]

I've actually reached the stage where I think Freedman needs to be sacked for his own sake. This last week or so he's been looking dreadful and his press comments are now barely coherent. It may sound melodramatic but I really think he's on the edge of a breakdown.

Today's game was bizarre. For the first twenty minutes, we were the better team. Mason had two good attempts on goal created by neat moves. Then he got in the way of two other shots (not to mention Chung's decent shot from a corner, blocked by a defender). First half stats - 2 shots 1 on target - just plain wrong. They got a soft penalty: fine save by Lonergan. Looked for a while as though it would be our day.

Their goal was on the break but (as is often the case with teams in crisis) totally took the wind out of us.

The second half was, I'm afraid, typical of Dougie's tenure (first few months aside). Low energy performance, no threat. Once Mills had made the dreadful mistake that led to their second goal, all hell broke loose.

I have no time for tossers who invade the pitch (especially when one of them snatches up the corner flag and prances about on the pitch with it). Little men showboating. Even more the case with the later invasion (not sure if it was one of the original two - in which case stewards should be sacked). Lonergan was incandescent and virtually faced the guy off. Players thrown, and even Derby players looked nonplussed by it all. I don't see this as on a par with what McClaren endured at Boro (that was one really angry guy who was making a genuine protest). These struck me a glory-seekers. feck 'em.
I hate bullies and arseholes who play up to the mob.

Sad fact is. Dougie is working himself sick but just isn't up to it. Doesn't deserve this malice but does deserve ED's and PG's thanks for doing a dirty job and a polite reference when he exits - which ought to be now.

Sad day for BWFC. Time for Nigel Clough or Keith Hill.

Good post, lot of sense, but I question your choice of managers. Hill has done well in the lower leagues, he's a Bolton lad, and he talks the talk, but we've seen how this job is getting on top of Dougie. Hill has no experience of managing a club the size of Bolton, and with all the pressure that's gonna come with it, I don't think he'd be up to it.

[Worthy4England]

I've actually reached the stage where I think Freedman needs to be sacked for his own sake. This last week or so he's been looking dreadful and his press comments are now barely coherent. It may sound melodramatic but I really think he's on the edge of a breakdown.

Today's game was bizarre. For the first twenty minutes, we were the better team. Mason had two good attempts on goal created by neat moves. Then he got in the way of two other shots (not to mention Chung's decent shot from a corner, blocked by a defender). First half stats - 2 shots 1 on target - just plain wrong. They got a soft penalty: fine save by Lonergan. Looked for a while as though it would be our day.

Their goal was on the break but (as is often the case with teams in crisis) totally took the wind out of us.

The second half was, I'm afraid, typical of Dougie's tenure (first few months aside). Low energy performance, no threat. Once Mills had made the dreadful mistake that led to their second goal, all hell broke loose.

I have no time for tossers who invade the pitch (especially when one of them snatches up the corner flag and prances about on the pitch with it). Little men showboating. Even more the case with the later invasion (not sure if it was one of the original two - in which case stewards should be sacked). Lonergan was incandescent and virtually faced the guy off. Players thrown, and even Derby players looked nonplussed by it all. I don't see this as on a par with what McClaren endured at Boro (that was one really angry guy who was making a genuine protest). These struck me a glory-seekers. feck 'em.
I hate bullies and arseholes who play up to the mob.

Sad fact is. Dougie is working himself sick but just isn't up to it. Doesn't deserve this malice but does deserve ED's and PG's thanks for doing a dirty job and a polite reference when he exits - which ought to be now.

Sad day for BWFC. Time for Nigel Clough or Keith Hill.

A well considered post Youri and I'd generally agree. I'm not normally into folks invading the pitch but it did galvanise the (generally patient) crowd into giving an opinion. Which I think I'm at the point of rather seeing than rather not. All through Megson and others before him, I gave never hollered negatively during a match (after in the case of Megson). But something needs to be said n done now. That was probably the most inept I've ever seen us (pound for pound on what the players are getting paid).

I'm glad the "tossers" galvanised some response on this occasion.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Good post, lot of sense, but I question your choice of managers. Hill has done well in the lower leagues, he's a Bolton lad, and he talks the talk, but we've seen how this job is getting on top of Dougie. Hill has no experience of managing a club the size of Bolton, and with all the pressure that's gonna come with it, I don't think he'd be up to it.

Know what you mean but experience doesn't always help. Magath's managed much bigger clubs than Fulham.

Hill's far from ideal but we are very, very far from ideal. And I don't think we should even consider ourselves a big club any more. We're a club in big trouble, heading for the third division.

[Lord Kangana]

If we're not stupid (a stretch, I know) but surely, in our current predicament, you'd take all but the pressures of the first team off the new manager, wouldn't you? Surely? Especially if you feared that the "size" of the job would faze them.

[EverSoYouri]

Good post, lot of sense, but I question your choice of managers. Hill has done well in the lower leagues, he's a Bolton lad, and he talks the talk, but we've seen how this job is getting on top of Dougie. Hill has no experience of managing a club the size of Bolton, and with all the pressure that's gonna come with it, I don't think he'd be up to it.

Know what you mean but experience doesn't always help. Magath's managed much bigger clubs than Fulham.

Hill's far from ideal but we are very, very far from ideal. And I don't think we should even consider ourselves a big club any more. We're a club in big trouble, heading for the third division.

I can see the argument from both sides, here. Whoever comes in would have to get the best out of the players we have, though. When he was at Derby, Clough did the job Freedman has been forced to do, before being shown the door (unwisely criticising one of his own players in a way that suggested he hadn't wanted him at the club, if I remember rightly). Sheff United look reborn under him. Keith Hill's name was mentioned last time around - he lives in Bolton - and getting Rochdale up to 5th in League One suggests he can maximise resources.

First task, however, is to put our current lad out of his misery (him and us, I guess). Megson was hard-faced enough to block out the hostility. Dougie clearly isn't. I don't like seeing my club slide into the depths of this league, and I really don't like watching a hardworking but clueless young manager fall apart at the seams.

[LeverEnd]

https://audioboom.com/boos/2516770-hear ... e-to-derby

Dougie speaks.
Honest appraisal, I really think he's had enough but won't resign. He'd love the sack. Carry on getting paid while cracking one off in various Italian football stadiums. Then say in interviews that he was young, thrust into an impossible situation, then mention Wilfried Zaha lots. New job, happy days.

[Mar]

Its interesting that he mentions 'If you work very hard then things will come to you' as if its indicative of the job he's doing or at least wants to be doing. But I don't honestly think that he can turn around and say that the team have been working hard or have been reaping the rewards of their effort. I speak for the effort on the pitch. The training field might be different but as soon as match day rolls around it seems we roll over and that needs to change.

[William the White]

Good post, lot of sense, but I question your choice of managers. Hill has done well in the lower leagues, he's a Bolton lad, and he talks the talk, but we've seen how this job is getting on top of Dougie. Hill has no experience of managing a club the size of Bolton, and with all the pressure that's gonna come with it, I don't think he'd be up to it.

Know what you mean but experience doesn't always help. Magath's managed much bigger clubs than Fulham.

Hill's far from ideal but we are very, very far from ideal. And I don't think we should even consider ourselves a big club any more. We're a club in big trouble, heading for the third division.

I can see the argument from both sides, here. Whoever comes in would have to get the best out of the players we have, though. When he was at Derby, Clough did the job Freedman has been forced to do, before being shown the door (unwisely criticising one of his own players in a way that suggested he hadn't wanted him at the club, if I remember rightly). Sheff United look reborn under him. Keith Hill's name was mentioned last time around - he lives in Bolton - and getting Rochdale up to 5th in League One suggests he can maximise resources.

First task, however, is to put our current lad out of his misery (him and us, I guess). Megson was hard-faced enough to block out the hostility. Dougie clearly isn't. I don't like seeing my club slide into the depths of this league, and I really don't like watching a hardworking but clueless young manager fall apart at the seams.

Absolutely agree - buy up his contract, there's probably half a mill left on it... I don't feel one tenth as hostile to him as I did to Megson (and I didn't boo him either - i just don't do that, it isn't in me).

I need now a period of calm, of clear leadership, of direction, and that direction being a desire to stay in this league, for which we need an organised team who know their jobs, and for that I feel we really, really need a manager with experience at this level... I'd buy Nigel Clough... I'd buy Keith Hill... I might even prefer Hill... I don't have ambitions of promotion this season or imminently... I just want us to look like we know what we're doing - or even trying to do - and able to use this assembly of very decent championship level players to stay in this League. Give me that low level of assurance and I'm bordering on delight!

We are a club that has sunk to the bottom division, and has, ludicrously, spent a period of 14 seasons in the bottom two divisions. We are on the cusp, the balance, of falling down again. And there are clubs bigger than us that have spent time in the bottom two leagues. And are still doing it. The trouble is that, historically, we spend a long time doing it.

There is no need for this to happen. But the change needs to happen now, before the trapdoor opens.