Homecoming. Rovers (H) in pre-season, 31/07/2021, 3pm

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Re: Homecoming. Rovers (H) in pre-season, 31/07/2021, 3pm

Post by BWFC_Insane » Sat Jul 31, 2021 6:08 pm

Thought we played very well. Got a bit unstuck when Blackburn changed their system combined with our change at centre half…but heck I don’t think we did a lot wrong bar losing our way a little bit for ten or fifteen minutes.

Very very good going forwards.

You can still see our weakness as teams pile forwards and win set pieces etc.,,we aren’t great in the air and Brereton et al showed that at times. But I think it’s a problem that can be solved with an addition or so.


Midfield was outstanding on the ball but when we lost it struggled on turnovers especially second half. Sheehan and Sarce both seem to end up leaving MJ a bit isolated. Things to work on there but on the ball all fabulous.

I’d say the team looked better than I expected. The weaknesses though are there and we just have to see how good L1 teams are at exploiting them.

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Re: Homecoming. Rovers (H) in pre-season, 31/07/2021, 3pm

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Sat Jul 31, 2021 6:24 pm

Evatt.
There were loads more positives than negatives. I thought it was a really good game, high quality, felt like a Championship game if anything with the standard of play. I am pleased it ended up that way because if you win a game two or three nil against a Championship opposition you might be a bit overconfident for next week but that just refocuses our mind and lets us know we still have some improvements to make. Monday morning we will come in and standards will be high, we’ll have everyone back so that is pleasing.

We are missing Ricardo Santos, who is huge for us, Kieran Lee, Nathan Delfouneso, loads of players. Eoin Doyle, George Johnston, Lloyd Isgrove have been training for a day. They will all be available, but how fit they are is the question. With this, once you do come back you don’t really know how your lungs are going to take to the rigours of training until you start. It has affected some more than others and I haven’t mentioned Matt Gilks, who was huge for us last season. Considering we have got half a team out and they have got a strike force with Armstrong valued at £15-20m, Sam Gallagher and all, we have competed really well.

It is going to be tough to select a starting 11, especially when you get them back but that is what we wanted. You add those names to what we saw there and as a Bolton fan you have got to be excited because that is a strong squad. We played some real quality football today and should have won the game but we didn’t, but we didn’t lose it either, which is important.

For me, as well as enjoying watching the team play, that [having fans in] was the highlight. To have that atmosphere – and both sets of fans made it like that, to be honest – they showed what we have missed, the rivalry, the atmosphere, and the players bounced off it in a game with competitive edge.
https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/1 ... blackburn/

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Re: Homecoming. Rovers (H) in pre-season, 31/07/2021, 3pm

Post by BWFC_Insane » Sat Jul 31, 2021 6:34 pm

Dave Sutton's barnet wrote:
Sat Jul 31, 2021 6:24 pm
Evatt.
There were loads more positives than negatives. I thought it was a really good game, high quality, felt like a Championship game if anything with the standard of play. I am pleased it ended up that way because if you win a game two or three nil against a Championship opposition you might be a bit overconfident for next week but that just refocuses our mind and lets us know we still have some improvements to make. Monday morning we will come in and standards will be high, we’ll have everyone back so that is pleasing.

We are missing Ricardo Santos, who is huge for us, Kieran Lee, Nathan Delfouneso, loads of players. Eoin Doyle, George Johnston, Lloyd Isgrove have been training for a day. They will all be available, but how fit they are is the question. With this, once you do come back you don’t really know how your lungs are going to take to the rigours of training until you start. It has affected some more than others and I haven’t mentioned Matt Gilks, who was huge for us last season. Considering we have got half a team out and they have got a strike force with Armstrong valued at £15-20m, Sam Gallagher and all, we have competed really well.

It is going to be tough to select a starting 11, especially when you get them back but that is what we wanted. You add those names to what we saw there and as a Bolton fan you have got to be excited because that is a strong squad. We played some real quality football today and should have won the game but we didn’t, but we didn’t lose it either, which is important.

For me, as well as enjoying watching the team play, that [having fans in] was the highlight. To have that atmosphere – and both sets of fans made it like that, to be honest – they showed what we have missed, the rivalry, the atmosphere, and the players bounced off it in a game with competitive edge.
https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/1 ... blackburn/
Spot on from Evatt. Also I’d be worried if I was Blackburn as we were without doubt the side an alien would pick out as playing at a higher level.

Good to hear those players are coming back as we need them. But the signs for me are very positive.

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Re: Homecoming. Rovers (H) in pre-season, 31/07/2021, 3pm

Post by sonicthewhite » Sat Jul 31, 2021 8:09 pm

Sounds like there were plenty of positives to take from todays game. The pick of it for me was Evatt's analysis at the end. Spot on.
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Re: Homecoming. Rovers (H) in pre-season, 31/07/2021, 3pm

Post by BWFC_Insane » Sat Jul 31, 2021 9:08 pm

I will say Johnston was outstanding today and his height never an issue. Looked class. Sheehan also. Baka gives us a totally different option.

Another wide player will help though obviously Delf will come back one hopes for next week.

I still think we could do with someone else in the mould of Williams - I fear him being out.

The good thing is we’ve clearly become more flexible and have more threats even if you can say overall we probably aren’t significantly better than last season in terms of starting lineup.

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Re: Homecoming. Rovers (H) in pre-season, 31/07/2021, 3pm

Post by nicholaldo » Sat Jul 31, 2021 10:25 pm

I thought we gave a very good account of ourselves. Their players were of superior ability but rarely looked threatening in the first half, in large part due to our work rate and high press.

Afolayan was both ours and the match's best performer. To me, he looks to have improved even since May and he should only get better. He, John and Sheehan look to be developing a very encouraging understanding.

I thought George Johnston (5"10, in my opinion) was also excellent. His positioning was good, he was composed in posession, finding our player even when under pressure, and played a couple of high-quality long passes to the full-back. He will face sterner physical tests in the future as both Armstrong and Dolan were shorter than him, but he can only play against what's in front of him and he handled it very convincingly.

They changed shape in the second half and played with a front three of Brereton, Armstrong and Gallagher. I agree entirely with the point about turnovers in midfield and I also think it's a weakness of ours. That, in addition to their change of formation and us making our own substitutions meant they began to demonstrate the gulf in quality between our level and theirs, getting forward directly with pace. When they did that, we struggled to deal with it.

Despite conceding two goals in quick succession, though, we continued to hold our own and with greater composure from Sheehan in the penalty area early in the second half we might well have been three or four up.

I expect I'm probably swimming against the tide with this, and even though I haven't lost sight of the fact we were playing against an opposition that plays at a higher level, I thought Bakayoko was quite underwhelming. Dixon didn't exactly fill my with confidence either, and will almost certainly be replaced by Gilks when he's match fit.

All in all though, a very positive display.

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Re: Homecoming. Rovers (H) in pre-season, 31/07/2021, 3pm

Post by officer_dibble » Sun Aug 01, 2021 6:09 pm

What’s the situation with Gilks? Is he isolating or still injured? Id prefer him in next week but fear how slow he will be getting down !

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Re: Homecoming. Rovers (H) in pre-season, 31/07/2021, 3pm

Post by truewhite15 » Sun Aug 01, 2021 6:12 pm

When I spoke to him, he was still recovering from surgery (I think he said it was to remove a floating bone fragment) but he was well on the way to featuring again. Indeed, he featured in the very next game, but that's all we've seen of him.

I'd guess that it's either Covid or some unexpected adverse surgery reaction.

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Re: Homecoming. Rovers (H) in pre-season, 31/07/2021, 3pm

Post by BWFC_Insane » Sun Aug 01, 2021 10:05 pm

officer_dibble wrote:
Sun Aug 01, 2021 6:09 pm
What’s the situation with Gilks? Is he isolating or still injured? Id prefer him in next week but fear how slow he will be getting down !
Self isolating.

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Re: Homecoming. Rovers (H) in pre-season, 31/07/2021, 3pm

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Mon Aug 02, 2021 10:39 pm


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Re: Homecoming. Rovers (H) in pre-season, 31/07/2021, 3pm

Post by Worthy4England » Tue Aug 03, 2021 9:04 am

Dunno who thought those camera angles were a good idea....

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