A whiff of Sulphur. Home to Harrogate Town, Sat Dec 2nd 3'O clock. F. A. Cup.

[sonicthewhite]

FT great result

[DJBlu]

I'd be getting a little worried if I was Vic.

5 goals from our subs.

[TANGODANCER]

That Thompson fella sounds useful. One for the scouts?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Dempsey's 4th assist of the season - two behind joint leaders Morley, Sheehan and Thomo.

I also make it that each of Bod and Dan have 8 'goal involvements' - Bod 6 goals 2 assists, Dan 5G 3A

[BorsdaneWhite]

Highlights on BBC Sport. That second from Dan is beautiful. Clearly deliberate, too.

[knobpolisher]

Are Dan's stats right , I thought he only had 3 goals ?

[Harry Genshaw]

Well that warmed the cockles on a freezing cold day at the 'bok. Some really neat passages of play, a hat trick and 2 more for Dan's tally. Check out his assist for JDBs 2nd. He muscled the full back off the ball, tore into the box and while lesser men would have shot, Dan rolled it beautifully into Bods path who applied the finish.

Areas of minor concern in the first half- on a few occasions it looked like we'd swapped Santos for Zat Knight, Randy was all at sea and Dempsey couldn't get his touch right. Awful goal to give away, and by the excellent Jones too, but we only ever looked in trouble by our own sloppiness.

Pleasing stuff- the scorers obviously, Forrester was excellent winning everything in the box, CMG did some great link up play and Aaron Morley only denied MotM by Dad Bods hat trick.

Great to see us in the hat for the 3rd round for once!

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Are Dan's stats right , I thought he only had 3 goals ?

two today, one against Exeter, two against the Rags kids

[BWFC_Insane]

Yeah looking very good in that we won 5-1 but didn’t play all that well in the process. Which suggests only good things.

Front two starters were excellent today. Dans best game for the club. Bods first hattrick.

There is no way for me that bod shouldn’t be starting a week Monday. Easily a class or two above Victor. Sorry but he just is.

Midfield looked good even with three rested. Bit sloppy at times in the back three but it was cold.

Can’t complain. Third round - let’s get a good draw!

[Mar]

I should be ecstatic with the scoreline. Yet I find myself being disappointed by it only being 5-1. That's how high the expectations are, great stuff from Bolton. If someone would've said we'd be 5-1 up by 52 mins and we didnt score more i'd've been surprised, especially with Adeboyejo, Charles, Maghoma and Sheehan coming on. Perhaps the desire to batter Harrogate was tempered somewhat by the weather. 5 goals is a really good number of goals to score, all credit to the team and the backup players to be able to gel that well that a 5-1 scoreline isn't unexpected.

We've conceded so the clean sheet record is gone. Had to happen sometime, wasn't expecting it today, and given Evatt's reaction to it i'd imagine he's surprised by it too. One record stops, whilst another gets matched, 104 goals matches the most prolific a Bolton side has ever been. Brilliant record to have and i'd imagine plenty of more goals to go.

Onto Port Vale. I'm fully expecting our strongest lineup on Tuesday and similarly on the following Monday. We're no longer top of the league, but I think that gives us the incentive to knock Portsmouth off top spot.

Fine run of form continues. In 2023 we've had 16 results of 3 goals or more (not including the friendlies):

Barnsley 0-3 Bolton
Bolton 3-0 Portsmouth
Peterborough 0-5 Bolton
Bolton 5-0 MK Dons
Bolton 4-0 Plymouth (FLT)
Bristol 2-3 Bolton

(friendlies.. Bolton 5-2 Bradford, Curzon 1-3 Bolton, Bolton 4-3 WBA)
Bolton 3-0 Lincoln
Cheltenham 0-3 Bolton
Bolton 3-1 Fleetwood
Bolton 3-0 Salford City (FLT)
Bolton 3-2 Stevenage
Wycombe 2-4 Bolton
Bolton 8-1 Man Utd U21 (FLT)
Bolton 4-0 Solihull Moors (FAC)
Bolton 7-0 Exeter City
Bolton 5-1 Harrogate Town (FAC)

[Mar]

Highlights on BBC Sport. That second from Dan is beautiful. Clearly deliberate, too.

Both of Dan's goals were really good finishes and his assist was great too, tap in for Bod, but that was as good as a goal for Dan.

[Mar]

Might be worth a watch:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/67597161

Might be worth an investigation into betting irregularities after some of that defending. Shocking from a number of defenders.

[officer_dibble]

Highlights on BBC Sport. That second from Dan is beautiful. Clearly deliberate, too.

Both of Dan's goals were really good finishes and his assist was great too, tap in for Bod, but that was as good as a goal for Dan.

Just seen it now - second is what we all hoped Dan would do - convert his power and speed and become a proper bully type centre forward - as beautiful as that second goal of his was, it’s the assist I’m happiest with!

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Might be worth a watch:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/67597161

Might be worth an investigation into betting irregularities after some of that defending. Shocking from a number of defenders.

Deary me!

Our highlights here. Is it unkind to say I'm not 100% sure Dan's first goes in without that deflection? Good on him though...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/67597166

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Ian's not angry, he's disappointed.

“I know people will say ‘but you won 5-1’ but I try and tell the players the truth and how I feel, and it is because of how they train and play that gives me an idea of how good they can be. And that wasn’t it. I don’t know if there was an air of complacency, but we were just OK, nothing more. When they dip below it, I will tell them. Today there were parts that were good – I thought the two centre-forwards Jon and Dan were outstanding – but there were others that were not so good.”
https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/2 ... s-verdict/

[DJBlu]

Ian's not angry, he's disappointed.

“I know people will say ‘but you won 5-1’ but I try and tell the players the truth and how I feel, and it is because of how they train and play that gives me an idea of how good they can be. And that wasn’t it. I don’t know if there was an air of complacency, but we were just OK, nothing more. When they dip below it, I will tell them. Today there were parts that were good – I thought the two centre-forwards Jon and Dan were outstanding – but there were others that were not so good.”
https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/2 ... s-verdict/

He'll be extremely annoyed as I managed to change only two light switches whilst listening to the game. If I'd tried harder I might have done three.

I believe he's seething we conceded.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I believe he's seething we conceded.

"I'm really unhappy with the goal we conceded, I think that was all our own doing. We’d worked so hard to get to the record, or the cusp of having it ourselves, and it was a silly one to give away. It was coming as well because we made some daft errors at times and I don’t know if there was an air of complacency."

[BWFC_Insane]

Ian's not angry, he's disappointed.

“I know people will say ‘but you won 5-1’ but I try and tell the players the truth and how I feel, and it is because of how they train and play that gives me an idea of how good they can be. And that wasn’t it. I don’t know if there was an air of complacency, but we were just OK, nothing more. When they dip below it, I will tell them. Today there were parts that were good – I thought the two centre-forwards Jon and Dan were outstanding – but there were others that were not so good.”
https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/2 ... s-verdict/

He’s right. We didn’t play that well. We won 5-1 so I’d say that’s a big positive that we didn’t hit top gear. But was below the standards we’ve set recently.

[The_Gun]

I only saw the highlights, but winning 5-1 after supposedly not playing well is probably quite a good sign.

Anyway, nice to be in the draw today. My personal order of preference for away fixtures we could get would be:

Spurs
Chelsea
Arsenal
Fulham
Brentford
Palace
West Ham
Brighton

Also maybe Maidstone, although it might be difficult to get tickets for that and there’d be no money in it for the club.

[BWFC_Insane]

I only saw the highlights, but winning 5-1 after supposedly not playing well is probably quite a good sign.

Anyway, nice to be in the draw today. My personal order of preference for away fixtures we could get would be:

Spurs
Chelsea
Arsenal
Fulham
Brentford
Palace
West Ham
Brighton

Also maybe Maidstone, although it might be difficult to get tickets for that and there’d be no money in it for the club.

Best if we get a local premiership side away I think. Maximize the financial reward.