I see no ships; only hardships. V Pompey away, Tues 28th Feb. 7-45.

[boltonboris]

To say that Bradley was shite is bollocks, too. Fights for everything and did nothing wrong. Not sure who you would rather have in that spot, but he certainly wouldn’t be as good.

Too many players were off it last night. Some were shite in the first half and grew into it, most were shit from the get go

I agree too many off pace but Bradley was one of them.

So why single him out when he's been one of our best performers this season? When you're off the pace, at least scrap. He did that.

[BWFC_Insane]

To say that Bradley was shite is bollocks, too. Fights for everything and did nothing wrong. Not sure who you would rather have in that spot, but he certainly wouldn’t be as good.

Too many players were off it last night. Some were shite in the first half and grew into it, most were shit from the get go

I agree too many off pace but Bradley was one of them.

So why single him out when he's been one of our best performers this season? When you're off the pace, at least scrap. He did that.

Yep I agree he scrapped. He doesn’t ever not work hard. I thought he had a poor game though. And has for a whole been quite frustrating. Now perhaps just coincidence. But we won two 5-0 and since he returned have dipped. I don’t think that’s down to him btw. But I do think his game is dropping significantly. His end product is non existent now. Fundamentally I’m alarmed by how exhausted he looks considering he had a two week period off.

[DJBlu]

Not many times I agree with Insane but Evatt is trying to keep Gethin Jones in the side without dropping Bradley. We've seen him on the LWB, Left/Right of the back three and RWB. He's been at his best at RWB.

John - Mbete, Santos and Toal with Jones/Bradley.

Toal looked uncomfortable on the left side and it's a shame as he's excellent on the right.

Bradley sadly offered nothing last night due to the press, he cannot cope under pressure. Start with Gethin, get the goal/s and bring on Bradley to see the game out.

Mbete in the back makes it easier for Santos as there is another big man to deal with the headers out and when we're attacking with set pieces teams have to defend two big lumps. It's not a surprise Santos got his 1st and 2nd goals with Mbete up with him at the time.

Their goals,

What was that high line all about on the first goal? Wind in your face and we allow them to just float it in. Still annoyed at Gethin Jones as he gives his man a head start on his run. If you watch the game again, 83rd minute they have another free kick in a similar position, he moves as the ball is kicked, and low and behold it comes to nothing. Good header by their man though which gave Trafford no chance.

2nd goal, a quick corner with players napping. Toal at sixes and sevens. They score at the back post.

3rd goal, Jones rightly pushed the lad towards the line, great bit of skill that went for the Portsmouth striker.

Fine margins in this game.

Demps scores or squares the ball and if we go 2 nil up then we might have seen it out. The defending for the goals might have still meant we lost 3-2 as you can't defend like that and expect to win games. All this Wembley talk needs to stop as the focus has to be on the league because it'd be mightly embarrassing to finish 7th with an EFL Trophy.

[BWFC_Insane]

Yeah agree with a lot of that. But Mbete looked all over the show Saturday so wonder if it’s caught up with him. He’s a young player.

Not sure I’d single Jones out for the first goal. Entire back line caught out playing too high and they managed to put a ball in behind them. Didn’t matter where it fell they had three in behind so I’d not single Jones out. The line was too high.

[TANGODANCER]

I think we're missing Jon Bod much more than we're saying. Paired with one of three others I'm sure we'd be far better in attack. Show the fangs a bit more and stop looking for somebody to blame.

[BWFC_Insane]

I think we're missing Jon Bod much more than we're saying. Paired with one of three others I'm sure we'd be far better in attack. Show the fangs a bit more and stop looking for somebody to blame.

We are - but mainly because Victor is injured and Nlundulu hasn't looked very good.

And Jerome has also been injured.

The January signings in general have not made an impact necessary to take the strain away from the lads already here.

Charles still has to play to be at our best. So does John. Dempsey, Morley.

Shoretire is a good player who fills a couple of roles but is useful. Far from set the world alight yet though and is a young lad who will fluctuate in levels naturally.

Williams hasn't looked fully fit.

Mbete started well but is young and looks to be struggling recently and again is a young lad who will not likely be consistent week in week out.

The new signings haven't yet for me had the impact you'd hope to kick us on. Victor and Shola are so far the best of them but like I say neither are necessarily guaranteed strongest team starters as yet.

[boltonboris]

Again, "Mbete looks to be struggling recently" - He looked 5/10 in a game we won, when the players around him looked just as leggy and just as prone to potential errors

You said the same about Dec John after his first start for about 104 years. Players can have the occasional bad game - It happens. You dont have to read too much into it and decide 'that's it, that second half was poor, he's out of form now and should be taken out of the team'

[GhostoftheBok]

A big lad up front? I thought the front two played well.

So? We're talking about the system, not individual performances.

We didn't have an out ball all night. When things are breaking down at the back and in midfield, as you say they were, you need one.

As it stands, even if Evatt had wanted to start with another forward line he couldn't have. Dan isn't fit and Vik was injured in the warm up. So ultimately it doesn't matter.

I mean we can get into what went wrong tactically if you like, but I'm nor sure there's a point.

[Worthy4England]

To say that Bradley was shite is bollocks, too. Fights for everything and did nothing wrong. Not sure who you would rather have in that spot, but he certainly wouldn’t be as good.

Too many players were off it last night. Some were shite in the first half and grew into it, most were shit from the get go

I agree too many off pace but Bradley was one of them.

So why single him out when he's been one of our best performers this season? When you're off the pace, at least scrap. He did that.

For me, the last couple of league games, Bradley's field position seems to have been typically (but very noticeably) deeper - this might have been because we've been better pressed back or it could have been a tactic, but either way, he hasn't actually had much to bomb onto down the right - After I rewatched the PV game, it was very noticeable that he hardly made a cross (I think maybe 1 all game) - he seemed similarly a lot quieter last night (than say Accrington, where I suspect he was told to "go run at them")...

[Worthy4England]

A big lad up front? I thought the front two played well.

So? We're talking about the system, not individual performances.

We didn't have an out ball all night. When things are breaking down at the back and in midfield, as you say they were, you need one.

As it stands, even if Evatt had wanted to start with another forward line he couldn't have. Dan isn't fit and Vik was injured in the warm up. So ultimately it doesn't matter.

I mean we can get into what went wrong tactically if you like, but I'm nor sure there's a point.

The "outball" thing was very noticable. As you say it either landed well short of up front, or was around 9 feet in the air at the point that 5' 6" - 5' 8" Shola/Dion were jumping against defenders who looked to be three feet taller. So it typically came straight back...That's not an indictment of how Shola/Dion played

[BWFC_Insane]

A big lad up front? I thought the front two played well.

So? We're talking about the system, not individual performances.

We didn't have an out ball all night. When things are breaking down at the back and in midfield, as you say they were, you need one.

As it stands, even if Evatt had wanted to start with another forward line he couldn't have. Dan isn't fit and Vik was injured in the warm up. So ultimately it doesn't matter.

I mean we can get into what went wrong tactically if you like, but I'm nor sure there's a point.

The out was down the channels to Charles and Shola and when we got through midfield we looked like scoring.

I’m not convinced having Ade up front would have changed it. If you compare to Peterborough or Charlton we picked the same sort of side and the game was similar. It’s just we lacked some energy or ability to get out and defended abysmal. Fair play Portsmouth are a miles better team than those two who obviously have been criminally mismanaged this season.

I like a big lad up top. I’m not convinced that was the issue yesterday though. Midfield just wasn’t at it neither was the back three or Bradley.

[BWFC_Insane]

Again, "Mbete looks to be struggling recently" - He looked 5/10 in a game we won, when the players around him looked just as leggy and just as prone to potential errors

You said the same about Dec John after his first start for about 104 years. Players can have the occasional bad game - It happens. You dont have to read too much into it and decide 'that's it, that second half was poor, he's out of form now and should be taken out of the team'

He struggled from Wycombe onwards for me. Looked uncomfortable at Accy. And subbed half time v PV.

He’s a young lad. You expect it. He will dip down and up.

[boltonboris]

You don't need a big lad for an "out-ball" - They restricted that by keeping their full backs in line so we couldn't hit the channels and their wide forwards pressed our full-backs like lunatics

Their system as perfect against our 1 up front. We can say that we could've had another alongside Charles, but then our midfield would have been even more runover. We just got 'done' and I don't think having a taller striker on the pitch would have done anything to change that

[GhostoftheBok]

You don't need a big lad for an "out-ball"

No, but you do need an out ball.

[BWFC_Insane]

You don't need a big lad for an "out-ball"

No, but you do need an out ball.

Our best out was shola dropping into spaces or the channels and him running at them.

We looked a lot worse when the front two went off. Shola was tired but definitely looked worse when he went off. And he wasn’t having a brilliant game, but he was an outlet more so than others.

If you look at similar games wing backs have provided out balls but that didn’t happen last night. Pompey got their press right. There is also no escaping we were too sloppy, whether tired or just mental fatigue we gave them too much encouragement to come onto us and our midfield simply did not perform as it can do furthering the problem.

[boltonboris]

You don't need a big lad for an "out-ball"

No, but you do need an out ball.

And that has nowt to do with the size of your striker

[Worthy4England]

You don't need a big lad for an "out-ball"

No, but you do need an out ball.

And that has nowt to do with the size of your striker

F'narr...

When we got the outball, it was typically in at the feet. Unfortunately most of our outballs were 9 feet in the air punts...

[officer_dibble]

To say that Bradley was shite is bollocks, too. Fights for everything and did nothing wrong. Not sure who you would rather have in that spot, but he certainly wouldn’t be as good.

Too many players were off it last night. Some were shite in the first half and grew into it, most were shit from the get go

I agree too many off pace but Bradley was one of them.

So why single him out when he's been one of our best performers this season? When you're off the pace, at least scrap. He did that.

For me, the last couple of league games, Bradley's field position seems to have been typically (but very noticeably) deeper - this might have been because we've been better pressed back or it could have been a tactic, but either way, he hasn't actually had much to bomb onto down the right - After I rewatched the PV game, it was very noticeable that he hardly made a cross (I think maybe 1 all game) - he seemed similarly a lot quieter last night (than say Accrington, where I suspect he was told to "go run at them")...

Bradley was well marshalled last night - the early booking didn’t help. Sometimes you have to applaud the opposition for a job well done (and think about signing the players that did it in the summer - we may need a left back!).

[TANGODANCER]

He said unto his followers:

" N.R.G. Until you exhibit more than your opponents, they shall beat you and they know it. Silky skills are fine when you're not being pressed, crowded and hassled and are second to every ball. Do unto others before they do unto you. Go forth and fight the good fight and pour fire and brimstone on the heads of the enemy, attack then with the grapes of wrath and you will taste the mead of Barley Wine and honeysuckle.."

And so it came to pass, and Bolton rose from the ashes and was re-born.

From The Book of Norman:

Amen.

[GhostoftheBok]

And that has nowt to do with the size of your striker

Depends on the game - in this case it did matter. We needed to take the sting out the game at times and the option we have in the squad at the minute is one of the big lads.

Our usual methods are the rondo-based stuff and the counter press. Both of those fall apart when a team is tired. We needed an option to delay play with a tired team and the only one we had, realistically, was hold-up play from a solid forward.

As it turns out, neither forward who could play that way was fit to start.

As Insane says, we wanted to use Shola's technical ability as the out; but it was at best hit and miss. Shola played fairly well, but we weren't able to regroup into our defensive shape based on his play (partly due to the refereeing at this level). In the second half we made tweaks and the shape was a bit more compact, so we coped better; but we still lacked the out.

It's not something we normally suffer from, because we have that counter press to rely upon. When tired our needs change and could really use a reliable out to cope with the break-down in play.

Next season I'd like more options to dig us out of holes, but hopefully we won't have the same injury issues impacting the squad.