And you will take my hand and make believe it's..... Sunderland (H) 15:00 29/1/22

[GhostoftheBok]

My favourite was this one...

Screenshot 2022-01-29 201724.png (7.99 KiB) Viewed 983 times

Had no idea how right he was.

Other good ones too.

[sonicthewhite]

Amusingly, there are a lot of Sunderland fans who are keen to point out that we were crap yesterday.

Good job we were or we'd have really humiliated them

[GhostoftheBok]

It was also nice to see that Dion finally caught up with Doyle when it comes to goals from open play this season.

About bloody time.

[Prufrock]

thought the same yesterday.

My favourite comment was one of their fans *after the game* describing Charles as your typical league one big lump. I mean...

[Spartan2]

If anyone is interested I am watching the game again today, 6pm ish. Can bring out the couch if anyone else fancies it.

Do you have a recording of it? Would love to re-watch this tomorrow night, if not maybe I could stream it from you and record the stream?

[officer_dibble]

Full games free to view on iFollow with a normal (ie free) membership.

[DJBlu]

Full games free to view on iFollow with a normal (ie free) membership.

Really? Thought it was just highlights.

[Spartan2]

Full games free to view on iFollow with a normal (ie free) membership.

Did not know that, just signed up thanks.

[GhostoftheBok]

Full games free to view on iFollow with a normal (ie free) membership.

Best part of the subscription service. I will be really sad when we're playing in the Prem in a couple of years.

[nicholaldo]

The key for me was the effectiveness of our pressing. For the first time in a long time we hunted in packs and it really paid off. Clearly, we won't score as many goals every week but if we can make that type of performance our standard we should have a very exciting second half of the season.

It felt good as well to send a large away following home unhappy. Too often in recent years we've seen a sold out away end enjoy a good day out at our expense.

I won't be getting carried away but I'm quetly hoping yesterday was the first sign of the wheel finally turning for our club.

[nicholaldo]

Re. iFollow: is it not the case that all matches are free to watch the day after?

I only ask because I cancelled my iFollow subscription last year and I'm still able to watch the full replays.

[Bruce Rioja]

At the risk of souring the mood a little, has anyone a clip of Lee's miss? I still haven't seen it and I'm told it needs to be seen to be believed

[Bertie Wooster]

They (Sunderland) are one of the most deluded set of fans in the UK, they only have a decent fan base because of their location (i.e. not surrounded by the most successful clubs in recent memory Man U, L/pool, City etc), if we didn't have those clubs in the area we would command an equally large fan base (but as we all know loads of Bolton based fans support the big 3 and have done for 40 plus year). We also have B/burn, Burnley, Preston, Wigan within 20 miles or so - they only have the Geordies within 20 miles.

Sunderland isn't much bigger than Bolton if at all but being so remote & isolated they don't have the big 3 based within 1/2 hour, therefore all local people support s/land (very similar to Boro). I've had this discussion all my life with NE based men that I've worked with or met on holiday and I always try and explain & put them in their place after they have tried to have a go at our support. I have nothing against them at all as a club /town but if they were located in a heavily populated area like us with so many other clubs they would only get similar sized crowds.

[GhostoftheBok]

The club has also allowed the fan base to erode for decades. I could get into specifics, but we should be doing a lot more than we do.

Evatt and Sharron have spoken about wanting to see kids in Bolton shirts all over town. Hopefully they are actually doing the necessary work to make that a reality and not just hoping for it.

[BWFC_Insane]

The club has also allowed the fan base to erode for decades. I could get into specifics, but we should be doing a lot more than we do.

Evatt and Sharron have spoken about wanting to see kids in Bolton shirts all over town. Hopefully they are actually doing the necessary work to make that a reality and not just hoping for it.

Has it? I think what happened is during our 80’s doldrums period and into the early 90’s as football popularity exploded Bolton weren’t really there in a meaningful way. We weren’t very good.

Rioch came and reignited it but we lost a generation of fans to the advent of the premiership and the glitz and glamour that offered. I’m not convinced the club could do a lot about it. And that lost generation has a big knock on effect. When we were thriving in the premiership we filled the ground plenty and I suspect that’s our natural high point for fan base regardless of what the club do.

Perhaps I’m wrong. We are just surrounded by football clubs and it means our base is just more contained. The rise of Wigan, 90’s success of Blackburn and invention of Salford all haven’t helped.

[GhostoftheBok]

Has it? I think what happened is during our 80’s doldrums period and into the early 90’s as football popularity exploded Bolton weren’t really there in a meaningful way. We weren’t very good.

Rioch came and reignited it but we lost a generation of fans to the advent of the premiership and the glitz and glamour that offered. I’m not convinced the club could do a lot about it. And that lost generation has a big knock on effect. When we were thriving in the premiership we filled the ground plenty and I suspect that’s our natural high point for fan base regardless of what the club do.

Perhaps I’m wrong. We are just surrounded by football clubs and it means our base is just more contained. The rise of Wigan, 90’s success of Blackburn and invention of Salford all haven’t helped.

That's been the prevailing opinion in the football club for many years. You can't alter how many fans you have with anything except success on the pitch.

It's absolute nonsense, but it has been the view.

[Worthy4England]

At the risk of souring the mood a little, has anyone a clip of Lee's miss? I still haven't seen it and I'm told it needs to be seen to be believed

Oh. I remember saying "how the fcuk has he missed that?" In the first half up t'other end IIRC....couldn't see who it was tbf...

Edit, it's the second clip on the ifollow extended highlights...up there, certainly

[Prufrock]

It was bad but it wasn't close to the pantheon. Dean Holdsworth can sleep easy.

[GhostoftheBok]

We did Lee Johnson in. They've sacked him.

[nicholaldo]

Lee Johnson has been sacked.