Welcome to Bolton. Wrexham (h), 18/08, 3pm

[Mar]

It makes you wonder why every game isn't just declared 0-0 in August as no one can expect wins, because there's been transfers. Can't expect owt with 25,000 on and even "we might have lost that, last season." Nowt like lining the excuses up early.

Well.... it is August....


In reality though, we knew we'd dropped points last season on games like this. So much so that you'd be hoping we'd set out our stall to turn these sort of results into a win. Extra diligence, and yet, it's the same scenario playing out, in the same manner as last season.

Sure it's only August, but last season, shipping 4 goals to Wigan and subsequent draw against Burton (who finished 20th) really did make a difference. August can be a game changer, any excuses won't change that.

[Worthy4England]

Agree. I'd find it difficult to argue a case for "should have had three points." They weren't worth three either.

[GhostoftheBok]

We were far more dominant than we were in the "difficult" games last season.

We won individual battles and got tackles in. 2/3 of the possession, but 50/50 on tackles.

Tactically it was better than Orient. More control of the pitch.

I'm sure someone will chime in with "Oh, the tactics 3 points" or some such; but it does matter in terms of consistency going forward.

The quality of the attacking play will improve. We have to maintain that solidity.

It wasn't good enough, but it didn't look like fundamental problems. Scoring goals hasn't been a consistent problem for us. Keep teams out has.

[Spartan2]

Excellent performance for me, defense very solid, Sheehan and Thomasson superb in the middle, schön excellent. Lots of good movement and passing. The only let down is we didn't manage to break down a defensively resolute side which is what parky is very good at. The front three had no cohesion, Collins was particularly poor but they're three very good players I'm sure they'll gel soon enough. It was very good performance.

[jmjhb]

I thought we defended well, which was good to see.

Quality of the attacking play can't really be much worse than today.

That's 2 fewer teams with a 100% record, let's see if we can break Charlton's next week.

[Mar]

I'd also add that we were expecting a fight that we had to match and I think we did that. Especially in the first half. I think we set a standard that we weren't going to get bullied around the park and it worked. We kept them quiet.

[Bertie Wooster]

Just back from the game - nothing has changed at all tactically, lack of intensity and zero creativity - intensity and drive increased with Dempsey & Matete last 10 mins.

I though Wrexham where poor, we should have hammered them in the 1st half - everything is too slow, walking football again but with slightly less sideways passing at the back (apart from Sheehan) zero midfield creativity, Sheehan did nothing apart from a million short sideways passing & Thomasson was poor 1st half, better 2nd half.

We could have had Haaland up front and I doubt that we would have scored - Johnston, Schon, Santos did well, I thought Charles, Collins & McAtee didn't work - yes its early doors but they were there for the taking today and we were not good enough.

By the way I'm not sure if the TV picked up on it , but there where plenty of boos at the end.

[Bertie Wooster]

Excellent performance for me, defense very solid, Sheehan and Thomasson superb in the middle, schön excellent. Lots of good movement and passing. The only let down is we didn't manage to break down a defensively resolute side which is what parky is very good at. The front three had no cohesion, Collins was particularly poor but they're three very good players I'm sure they'll gel soon enough. It was very good performance.

I appreciate that its all about opinions, but excellent performance come on - almost everyone in the stands was moaning at our lack of creativity & movement going forward.

[DJBlu]

Excellent performance for me, defense very solid, Sheehan and Thomasson superb in the middle, schön excellent. Lots of good movement and passing. The only let down is we didn't manage to break down a defensively resolute side which is what parky is very good at. The front three had no cohesion, Collins was particularly poor but they're three very good players I'm sure they'll gel soon enough. It was very good performance.

Spartan gets it. I think the players deserve the plaudits as this was a pressure game. Clean sheet and but for a good save we would've had 3 points.

[DJBlu]

Just back from the game - nothing has changed at all tactically, lack of intensity and zero creativity - intensity and drive increased with Dempsey & Matete last 10 mins.

I though Wrexham where poor, we should have hammered them in the 1st half - everything is too slow, walking football again but with slightly less sideways passing at the back (apart from Sheehan) zero midfield creativity, Sheehan did nothing apart from a million short sideways passing & Thomasson was poor 1st half, better 2nd half.

We could have had Haaland up front and I doubt that we would have scored - Johnston, Schon, Santos did well, I thought Charles, Collins & McAtee didn't work - yes its early doors but they were there for the taking today and we were not good enough.

By the way I'm not sure if the TV picked up on it , but there where plenty of boos at the end.

You wish.

[McD]

Excellent performance for me, defense very solid, Sheehan and Thomasson superb in the middle, schön excellent. Lots of good movement and passing. The only let down is we didn't manage to break down a defensively resolute side which is what parky is very good at. The front three had no cohesion, Collins was particularly poor but they're three very good players I'm sure they'll gel soon enough. It was very good performance.

Spartan gets it. I think the players deserve the plaudits as this was a pressure game. Clean sheet and but for a good save we would've had 3 points.

Sorry, we saw a different game, my take in a word was Dreadful!
- There was commitment and passion, but no clear game-plan provided to the players
Has Evatt learned anything? - I think not!
Same old, same old - Completely devoid of tactics, unless headless chickens was his plan.
- No real clear cut chances (as last week)

Was hoping the new signings would have had a serious impact by playing to their strengths , but it was quite clear that IE's has already managed to put them under his two main aims: - "The process is more important than the result" and Possession is the main KPI.
- Einstein is supposed to have said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” - Not that I believe IE is in fact insane, but certainly in this respect he is deluded.

[Spartan2]

Excellent performance for me, defense very solid, Sheehan and Thomasson superb in the middle, schön excellent. Lots of good movement and passing. The only let down is we didn't manage to break down a defensively resolute side which is what parky is very good at. The front three had no cohesion, Collins was particularly poor but they're three very good players I'm sure they'll gel soon enough. It was very good performance.

I appreciate that its all about opinions, but excellent performance come on - almost everyone in the stands was moaning at our lack of creativity & movement going forward.

I think for a lot of people, the moaning is the main attraction.

[Bertie Wooster]

Excellent performance for me, defense very solid, Sheehan and Thomasson superb in the middle, schön excellent. Lots of good movement and passing. The only let down is we didn't manage to break down a defensively resolute side which is what parky is very good at. The front three had no cohesion, Collins was particularly poor but they're three very good players I'm sure they'll gel soon enough. It was very good performance.

Spartan gets it. I think the players deserve the plaudits as this was a pressure game. Clean sheet and but for a good save we would've had 3 points.

Plaudits for what ? Wrexham were poor believe me - our movement and use of the ball was poor apart from Johnston & Schon down the left who where good. The problem is our midfield two, they create nothing going forward - no one runs with the ball to draw a man.

Plus point we where not bullied and the mentality looked decent, it was just the football that was mainly quite dour. We have a decent team with some good players for this level, but the tactics are holding them back IMO we need more intensity going forward and some creativity from midfield - when Dempsey came on and then Matete they actually ran forward with the ball. Sheehan & Thomasson didn't.

[Bertie Wooster]

Excellent performance for me, defense very solid, Sheehan and Thomasson superb in the middle, schön excellent. Lots of good movement and passing. The only let down is we didn't manage to break down a defensively resolute side which is what parky is very good at. The front three had no cohesion, Collins was particularly poor but they're three very good players I'm sure they'll gel soon enough. It was very good performance.

I appreciate that its all about opinions, but excellent performance come on - almost everyone in the stands was moaning at our lack of creativity & movement going forward.

I think for a lot of people, the moaning is the main attraction.

I think for some mediocrity and being easily pleased are an issue - you are deffo in the minority if you thought that was an excellent performance, unless you feel asleep and missed most of the game ?

[Bertie Wooster]

Just back from the game - nothing has changed at all tactically, lack of intensity and zero creativity - intensity and drive increased with Dempsey & Matete last 10 mins.

I though Wrexham where poor, we should have hammered them in the 1st half - everything is too slow, walking football again but with slightly less sideways passing at the back (apart from Sheehan) zero midfield creativity, Sheehan did nothing apart from a million short sideways passing & Thomasson was poor 1st half, better 2nd half.

We could have had Haaland up front and I doubt that we would have scored - Johnston, Schon, Santos did well, I thought Charles, Collins & McAtee didn't work - yes its early doors but they were there for the taking today and we were not good enough.

By the way I'm not sure if the TV picked up on it , but there where plenty of boos at the end.

You wish.

Wish what ?, did you go to the game ?, I'm serious there where plenty of boos at the end.

[DJBlu]

Excellent performance for me, defense very solid, Sheehan and Thomasson superb in the middle, schön excellent. Lots of good movement and passing. The only let down is we didn't manage to break down a defensively resolute side which is what parky is very good at. The front three had no cohesion, Collins was particularly poor but they're three very good players I'm sure they'll gel soon enough. It was very good performance.

I appreciate that its all about opinions, but excellent performance come on - almost everyone in the stands was moaning at our lack of creativity & movement going forward.

I think for a lot of people, the moaning is the main attraction.

Stop touching them nerves pal.

[GhostoftheBok]

We've got a week on the training pitches to give a better attacking display against Charlton. 3 points there and we go into a run of 4 very nice fixtures to get everyone up to speed and out of the initial period of carrying those preseason issues.

On the "Wrexham were crap" angle, they've scored 5 in their last two games. Maybe we did very good work to make them look poor?

[DJBlu]

Just back from the game - nothing has changed at all tactically, lack of intensity and zero creativity - intensity and drive increased with Dempsey & Matete last 10 mins.

I though Wrexham where poor, we should have hammered them in the 1st half - everything is too slow, walking football again but with slightly less sideways passing at the back (apart from Sheehan) zero midfield creativity, Sheehan did nothing apart from a million short sideways passing & Thomasson was poor 1st half, better 2nd half.

We could have had Haaland up front and I doubt that we would have scored - Johnston, Schon, Santos did well, I thought Charles, Collins & McAtee didn't work - yes its early doors but they were there for the taking today and we were not good enough.

By the way I'm not sure if the TV picked up on it , but there where plenty of boos at the end.

You wish.

Wish what ?, did you go to the game ?, I'm serious there where plenty of boos at the end.

Aye, course there were.

Really can't be arsed with the support of this club at times.

Such a disgraceful expectancy that we should smash teams 4 or 5 nil.

God forbid the opposition turn up.

If you want Ian Evatt to leave then write a letter to Sharon. The team played well today, they didn't match your expectations. That's the issue.

[officer_dibble]

There will have been boos at the ref as well for not giving that pen at the end - which was a pen.

But yeah you could tell the atmosphere was flat, after half an hour or so it felt like a game we’ll lose to me as we huffed and puffed and didn’t score, then stopped creating as well. There is a definite risk to the crowd turning so he needs to get the game plan sorted asap.

[Mar]

God forbid the opposition turn up.

Not entirely sure the opposition did turn up today.

I think that's predominantly down to how well we played in nullifying them. Wrexham know their system, how to work it and how to be competitive. They've not been able to do that today.

For all the detractors today, there may be more to today's positives than is immediately evident.