Blackpool v Bolton Wanderers

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

One defeat in four. I know, I know, but I do think we may have bottomed out.

Gagging for Beckford to score, sounds like he went close on a few occasions again... And that Feeney - the complete waste of space Freedmanout millwallreject - might actually b a decent player...

But like a few, I await the words of those who went...

[thebish]

Just waiting for my tram back home. Excellent performance if s bit too cautious for me. Ream was outstanding, mcnaughton was solid and looks class. 451 left us with too bug a gap in midfield and Danns although he was great off the ball, seldom got beyond Beckford. A clean sheet, woopy do. Onwards and upwards!

sounds like a pretty impressive turnaround for Ream this season...

on t'radio they said Feeney was a real handful... was he?

[adamworthy2002]

Beckford is one of the laziest players I have ever seen.

[Tombwfc]

I think calling it an 'excellent' display is over-stating it massively, but I guess in relative terms it might have been. It was certainly the best we've been this season.

Despite how much of a hash of the job Freedman's made thus far, credit where it's due, at least he has tried to rectify that with these loan signings (which puts him ahead of Coyle, who couldn't see what was going wrong even after 18 months of us getting thumped by all comers). I was wrong to say that they were random panic buys, as you can see why they're all here. They appear to be solid characters and they do their jobs with the minimum of fuss. Feeney is not the quickest or most gifted winger you'll ever see, but he is direct. McNaughton I think is excellent. Danns was fine tonight, but I still need some convincing about whether we need him, Pratley, Medo and Spearing all in one midfield.

Also, my main issue with Beckford thus far has been that he contributes feck all but is allowed to get away with it on the basis that when a chance comes he's apparently Ivan Klasnic x Jared Borgetti, only for him to then miss every chance that comes his way. He missed three excellent chances again tonight, but he was more involved than he has been, so I can live with that.

So yeah, something to build on.

[Harry Genshaw]

Good performance but feel we missed a trick tonight. The 3 points were there for the taking but Dougies cautious approach meant we never really went for it.

Fantastic support too.

Bogdan 7 - Made 2 good saves tonight but little to do in honesty.
McNaughton 8 - An impressive debut and linked well with Feeney
Baptiste 7 - Solid
Mills 7 - As above
Ream 9 - Motm for me. One great saving tackle when needed and a very steady performance
Medo 8 - Broke up their play well and kept possession
Spearing 7 - Usual busy display
Pratley 6 - Spent the 1st half quite deep, presumably in a bid to keep Ince quiet but stuck to his task well
Feeney 8 - Direct, exciting and got a decent cross on him. I suspect we may need to play 2 strikers to make the most of him
Danns 6 - Took a while to get into the game but worked hard. For me it was crying out for him to be switched for Eagles with 20 left
Beckford 7 - Cant agree with the negative assessments of him. He had the thankless task of chasing long balls and hit & hopes often with no other player within 15 yards of him. No wonder he cant score. By the time he gets the ball he's knackered! Stick with him - I'm sure he'll bag plenty before the seasons end

[Dr.Karl]

If we were winning games at home and picking up points this would have been seen as a good result and performance. Think we started off brightly, liked the look of Feeney who is fairly effective at what he does. Provided most of the danger in the first half then got tired late on. Ream played great after an early mistake and McNaughton was solid. Got to be room for Eagles in that team though.

They came back into it with and made it an even contest. We restricted them to few chances while we had our golden one with Beckford. I've got patience but how many chances does he want on a plate?

Also, my main issue with Beckford thus far has been that he contributes feck all but is allowed to get away with it on the basis that when a chance comes he's apparently Ivan Klasnic x Jared Borgetti, only for him to then miss every chance that comes his way. He missed three excellent chances again tonight, but he was more involved than he has been, so I can live with that.

So yeah, something to build on.

Sums up Beckford for me. If we had a home game on Saturday I'm fairly sure we'd put a confident performance in after how we played tonight. Unfortunate we've got a team that won 4-0 tonight next.

[SmokinFrazier]

I'm glad to see Ream continues to prove his ability. I've always liked him and I thought he just needed a sustained period in the side to get mentally focused and now he's had that, he seems to have been our best player in the last few games? I haven't seen them all but to those who have, would that be a fair comment? The last two full games I did see him in, he was the best Bolton player on the pitch and he seems to be getting high praise after every match now. That's great to see. Some of the abuse and criticism he got was way over the top.

[bwfcdan94]

We got a clean sheet at Blackpool

[ChrisC]

First team to stop Blackpool scoring and winning at home this season.

[plymouth wanderer]

And by the sounds of things we should of took all 3 points

[wigan white]

Was a cracking night to be honest, especially the comfy seats which came in handy at half time .
Thought the team performance was excellent and with a quality (not lazy) striker we would have taken the 3 points. My view of the team is:-
Bogdan: Made a couple of decent saves but is still far too slow coming off his line and poor at commanding his box
McNaughton: Absolute class, played as though he'd been part of the team for years and had Ince in his back pocket for the whole of the second half.
Baptiste: Did ok, but definitely not as comfortable at left back, gets turned a little easy. Made some good runs forward but still tries to get rid of the ball as soon as possible.
Mills: Solid, absolutely commanding in the air, a few misplaced long passes but overall a great game.
Ream: Amazing, apart from one first half slip, he didnt put a foot wrong all night.The centre back spot is his to lose at the minute. Outstanding.
Spearing: Very industrious and a Captains performance, some misplaced passes but worked tirelessly on and off the ball for the full 90mins
Medo: See Spearing, both played really well.
Feeney: Really good first half, proper direct winger who can put a cracking cross over, tormented their left back no end. Tired in the second half, but looked really good.
Pratley: On the pitch to help Baptiste nulify Ince. Worked tirelessly all game but didnt really have an end product on the creative side. Did his job well though.
Danns: Again never stopped chasing and harassing the blackpool team all game, thought he was a little too deep to connect with Beckford, but as with Pratley on the pitch to do a specific job and stuck too it well
Beckford: Yes, some of the balls played to him were far too long and he was isolated at times, but feck me, he's one lazy fecker!!! He has a great skill of moving away from the ball when he doesn't fancy it and the icing on the cake was in the second half when a defender had the ball 10yds to the side of him and he just stood on the centre spot with his hands on his hips watching, while the rest of his team put blood and guts in to get the ball back.Can't stand the lazy tw*t.
Chungy: Did ok, but is still far too insistent on cutting inside the full back, instead of varying it by getting to the byline to supply a cross. Still seems too worried about getting injured again but seemed to put a bit more effort in than he did against Yeovil.

Overall a great performance against an on-form team away from home. Thought Dougie got it spot on last night. As I said with a good/industrious striker I think we'd have won the game. Cant' wait for Craig Davies to be fit and give him a try upfront.
Also a shout out to how great the fans where, got behind the team all night.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Blimey. Sounds like we did ok

[jaffka]

It does sound like we played more like a team.

However before we get excited, having looked at Blackpool's results this season they have scored more than one goal three times, the opposition being Doncaster (away) on the opening day (3-1), Bournemouth (away and 2-1) and at home against Leicester 2-2. Their other 3 wins against Barnsley, Reading and Watford were all 1-0.

They have also failed to win for the last three games, conceding three against Millwall.

If we are regarded as being in relegation scrap then its a very good point away from home.

However in my opinion it looks like they are having a wobble of their own and our failure to score has cost us and we missed out on 2 additional points.

[Hoboh]

We competed and could have won, no point in nitpicking was a decent result/performance, room to improve and the truth will be told Saturday if this was a one off or have we progressed.

[bobo the clown]

Well, we are improving.

Moved from 'Lose At Home, Lose Away' through 'Draw at Home, Lose Away' and now onto 'Draw at Home, Draw Away'.

Just a final tweak and I think he may have it cracked.


In itself this result is OK. Just that following scrapping a draw at home to Yeovil and now having a grand total of 5 points with close to a quarter of the season gone it's not easy to see it in isolation.

[LeverEnd]

I'm looking it not in isolation, rather as the first game in an 18 match unbeaten run, including 15 wins.

[jaffka]

I'm looking it not in isolation, rather as the first game in an 18 match unbeaten run, including 15 wins.

We are already 2 games into this unbeaten run.

[LeverEnd]

I'm looking it not in isolation, rather as the first game in an 18 match unbeaten run, including 15 wins.

We are already 2 games into this unbeaten run.

2nd game then. Jeepers! Didn't realise it was going to be a 19 game run!

[wanderer10]

I agree with all thats been said already. Defence was superb we just need to be more clinical.

I don't understand why we didn't make another change in that last 20 minutes though. That game was there for the taking and we had Hall sat on the bench who I think would have made an impact. Danns was tiring towards the end especially, so he should have come off for Hall.

Apart from that it was a good night. My particular highlight was how we managed to replace the word Gold with Alex Baptise in the Spandau Ballet tune. Suprisingly catchy.

Onwards and upwards!

[thebish]

I'm glad to see Ream continues to prove his ability. I've always liked him and I thought he just needed a sustained period in the side to get mentally focused and now he's had that, he seems to have been our best player in the last few games? I haven't seen them all but to those who have, would that be a fair comment? The last two full games I did see him in, he was the best Bolton player on the pitch and he seems to be getting high praise after every match now. That's great to see. Some of the abuse and criticism he got was way over the top.

yeah - i agree - Ream has come good this season, there is a tendency for fans to totally overplay the negative stuff for individual players... there's a few in the team at the moment who have been "it" for a while...

and - well done dougie - the new loanees have shaken things up a bit.