Time Cheltenham men please....At HomeV,Cheltenham at the completely Bolton Stadium Sat 4th feb 3-0'clock.

[BWFC_Insane]

We are 7 wins and some change away. I don’t think I’d stress too much on next week. I suspect we will get a hammering given we are bare bones and they will be desperate to beat us and are physical and strong.

But we need to find 7 wins and a draw or thereabouts. I think we can do that.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

But we need to find 7 wins and a draw or thereabouts. I think we can do that.

I assume you mean for playoff qualification? Current 53pts + 7x3pts = 74. Form tables suggest 6th place will require 80. Form can dip, but it would require a few teams below us to dip simultaneously.

Like you I'm fairly strongly confident we can make the play-offs. I'm now starting to wonder who we might meet there, and what shape they'll be in. Hence the form-table extrapolation on the League One thread.

[BWFC_Insane]

But we need to find 7 wins and a draw or thereabouts. I think we can do that.

I assume you mean for playoff qualification? Current 53pts + 7x3pts = 74. Form tables suggest 6th place will require 80. Form can dip, but it would require a few teams below us to dip simultaneously.

Like you I'm fairly strongly confident we can make the play-offs. I'm now starting to wonder who we might meet there, and what shape they'll be in. Hence the form-table extrapolation on the League One thread.

Looking at ppgs we are bang on for 6th being round the average of 74/5/6 points. Yes form can improve second half but I think it will be around there.

[DJBlu]

Over 17k in the crowd yesterday btw. Got to admire the support at times.

[Bruce Rioja]

Over 17k in the crowd yesterday btw. Got to admire the support at times.

I did wonder about that - it was nice to see the North Stand looking busy.

Seems the club has an initiative running with local primary schools, making matches more easily affordable. All I can say to that is - about bloody time too.
Surely it's in the long term interest of the club to secure the support of the next generation.

[GhostoftheBok]

Seems the club has an initiative running with local primary schools, making matches more easily affordable. All I can say to that is - about bloody time too.
Surely it's in the long term interest of the club to secure the support of the next generation.

This was suggested a decade ago, along with a root and branch reform of community outreach - especially as it relates to the Asian community (using Wolves as a model). The youth outreach model was based on excellent work by Nottingham Forest.

I am delighted school outreach is finally happening.

We are still missing large swathes of the community, though.

[Bruce Rioja]

We are still missing large swathes of the community, though.

This. Absolutely. 100%

The guy I sit next to teaches at a primary school with a predominantly Asian intake who, he says,feel somewhat ostracised when it comes to football.

How? Why? This is utterly ridiculous!

[GhostoftheBok]

This. Absolutely. 100%

The guy I sit next to teaches at a primary school with a predominantly Asian intake who, he says,feel somewhat ostracised when it comes to football.

How? Why? This is utterly ridiculous!

There was a full work-up done on how midlands clubs and some in London did outreach in those communities. Watching briefs at Wolves, Birmingham, etc. Focus group work done with community members in Bolton.

Got absolutely nowhere.

Maybe there is scope for it now. I hope so. Long overdue.

[Prufrock]

Blackburn have been doing a lot there, too. Though more recently I think.

[GhostoftheBok]

Blackburn have been doing a lot there, too. Though more recently I think.

Yes. They've also targeted "border" communities between the two clubs historical geographic areas by going into local schools and things to promote the club.

Bolton has (or had, then) a huge number of first generation residents with no club affiliations which we also failed to target. People who moved to Bolton for work in Manchester, Liverpool etc from all over the shop.

We were failing to reach any level of engagement with about 70% of the town, at that point.

[DJBlu]

Just watching the game again. Looking at Declan John a little more intently. That aside, I have a stopwatch for the ball in play. I'm currently in the 32nd minute of the game and the ball has been in play for 16 minutes and 21 seconds. I don't even think Cheltenham have been up to their tricks that much yet so I do think it's going to get worse.

How much longer is the EFL going to let teams continue with this? Do we need to have the clock stopped when the ball goes dead?

[DJBlu]

The ball was in play for 23m 57s in the first half. Half ended on 48m and 15s. For those that care.

Declan John, I get why people might be peeved as it looks like he's jogging when we're retreating however he's not been that bad going forward.

[TonyDomingos]

The ball was in play for 23m 57s in the first half. Half ended on 48m and 15s. For those that care.

Declan John, I get why people might be peeved as it looks like he's jogging when we're retreating however he's not been that bad going forward.

Are you the chap who wrote to the BN?
https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/2 ... mewasting/

[DJBlu]

Sadly not. I do wish I'd seen that article before timing the first half though.

It's got to be something the league look at as value for money alone starts becoming an issue. If you're paying £20 for a game and getting 50% of football then that's a con.

[Prufrock]

It's mad. The added time at the world cup is one of the few recent changes from FIFA that made sense and worked and it seems to have disappeared.

You don't need to fanny around with shot clocks or 60 min games. There's already a mechanism.. Just use it.

They also need to sort players taking the piss pretending to have head injuries. That's much harder, feck knows how, but Hojbjerg today was a particularly egregious example.

[GhostoftheBok]

In terms of Dec's performance, it can be summed up in one passage of play. Cheltenham hook a clearance up field after Charles and Shoretire sprint to try and press. The balls goes towards John (who they targeted all game) and he just watches Cheltenham get on with it, despite having yards on the winger who wins the ball. John turns, watches the ball bounce, sees the winger pick up the ball right next to him and then jogs roughly towards Jones' position whilst Jones tries to cover both men.

I don't care about anything else John did all game going the other way (and his attacking play wasn't good), but that's pathetic. At no stage did John make any attempt to touch the ball or deal with the man, apart from a disinterested tug on a shirt at one point.

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[Bruce Rioja]

Well, according to Evatt we can expect more housery from sides looking to strangle a point out of games.

The irony that Bradley now misses two games after being booked for timewasting when he was in fact simply throwing the ball to Toal is ridiculous.

[BWFC_Insane]

Well, according to Evatt we can expect more housery from sides looking to strangle a point out of games.

The irony that Bradley now misses two games after being booked for timewasting when he was in fact simply throwing the ball to Toal is ridiculous.

What I'd like to know is why (especially 1st half) we also slow the game down on free kicks etc...

There was a point we had a free kick awarded in our own half, ball went off the pitch, no attempt was made to get it back in play quickly by the ball boys and we were slowly walking round.

We all know teams are going to come and do this. Its awful. But why aren't we, ALWAYS trying to play quickly with intensity and forcing the tempo the other way?

[Worthy4England]

It's mad. The added time at the world cup is one of the few recent changes from FIFA that made sense and worked and it seems to have disappeared.

You don't need to fanny around with shot clocks or 60 min games. There's already a mechanism.. Just use it.

They also need to sort players taking the piss pretending to have head injuries. That's much harder, feck knows how, but Hojbjerg today was a particularly egregious example.

I'm not sure the world cup change lasted as far as round 2, TBF. But I was in favour of it. Before I got to the end of the post, I was going to type Hojbjerg mastered it in spades yesterday. For me, they should send that to Stockley and book the cheat alongside others that do the same (not singling out Hojbjerg, other than it was a great example)

[BWFC_Insane]

It's mad. The added time at the world cup is one of the few recent changes from FIFA that made sense and worked and it seems to have disappeared.

You don't need to fanny around with shot clocks or 60 min games. There's already a mechanism.. Just use it.

They also need to sort players taking the piss pretending to have head injuries. That's much harder, feck knows how, but Hojbjerg today was a particularly egregious example.

I'm not sure the world cup change lasted as far as round 2, TBF. But I was in favour of it. Before I got to the end of the post, I was going to type Hojbjerg mastered it in spades yesterday. For me, they should send that to Stockley and book the cheat alongside others that do the same (not singling out Hojbjerg, other than it was a great example)

Its utterly cynical but what can they do? They can't prove a player hasn't had a head injury (unless you can show nothing hit their head) and given the scrutiny on this there is absolutely no choices here. Ball hits players head. Down they go. You can't prove it wasn't something that needed treatment because they are under pressure to take head injuries as seriously as they can.