Not exactly a Derby. Away to The Rams, Sat 16th March 3-0'clock.

[jmjhb]

Marginally not good enough. Unfortunately that's been the story for the past 2 months on the whole.

[officer_dibble]

Two signings we nearly made…Kane Wilson and Joe Taylor… penny for Markhams thoughts… Lincoln absolutely steamrollering into the play offs as well…

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

We're not far off. If we get some better quality passes/crosses in the final third I think it will make the difference in matches like today. We can do it, we're just not doing it consistently. Evatt needs to get them working on it constantly in training, that and concentrating on not brain farting at least once every match.

Shit day. Get over it and we go get 7 wins.

[TANGODANCER]

Marginally not good enough. Unfortunately that's been the story for the past 2 months on the whole.

I think it's more a case of being good enough to be third in our league, jmjhb. How good is good enough? We deserved to win today, but didn't; that's because we didn't get the breaks and a poor ref. A lot of teams below us must think we're good enough.

[Mar]

We're not far off. If we get some better quality passes/crosses in the final third I think it will make the difference in matches like today. We can do it, we're just not doing it consistently. Evatt needs to get them working on it constantly in training, that and concentrating on not brain farting at least once every match.

Shit day. Get over it and we go get 7 wins.

So many balls today were played in an effort to link up with JDC that just didn't come off. I'd start there in terms of being patient with the setup. Sure Derby did a good job of breaking that passing lane down, but the idea was there, just not the execution.

When we did get behind with Ogbeta and JDC, it didn't lead to anything decent being cut back or passing across. Fine margins an all that. I've just watched the highlights. They're all Bolton, barring the goal we conceded.

It's unfortunate, its frustrating, but it's our season.


I think if anything its probably about time we had some therapists in to give players some mental breathing room. It's been a high pressured environment for several weeks now and that's bound to have an impact.

The sooner they can relax and concentrate the easier they should find these moments up top and in defence.

[Mar]

Quite a few handballs given against us in the match. I'd argue this would've been the one that counted the most.


Not that i'm blaming the ref. We had a few players calling for handball, but I think the vast majority didn't see that. Pretty ironic that there were a number of handballs and we lose to an incident involving one.

Defensively, we've got to attack the ball on the corners. Looked like Maghoma and Santos were picking up the same attacker, Gethin Jones was positioned where he could have little, if not any impact and we were left short of numbers near the penalty spot. We've got Sheehan and Toal covering the near post with no-one around them, and Coleman pushing our own player to make room (standard fare I guess from a keeper perspective, push to make room then save).

I'm sure they've researched how to setup on set pieces and even with this one, its fine margins with that many bodies in the way it could've been blocked. Just unfortunate its gone in.

[officer_dibble]

Be nice if our captain made his stature count on set pieces at the other end as well.

[DJBlu]

Home team manager celebrating with his keeper like that.

Warne clearly seeing something most our fans can't.

[BWFC_Insane]

Home team manager celebrating with his keeper like that.

Warne clearly seeing something most our fans can't.

Their keeper has made one outstanding save. A decent save off thomasson. Of course he’s going to be happy with him. But they got the result. And they sit in second. That is ultimately all that matters. We finished above city the season that they peppered our bar and post. We won the game. It is what we did.

A league table doesn’t factor in ‘well they were the better side but didn’t score’ it purely represents the results you’ve accumulated over the season.

[Worthy4England]

Yeah. That would be 3 points.

[TANGODANCER]

Their keeper has made one outstanding save. A decent save off thomasson. Of course he’s going to be happy with him. But they n.

What about the one off JDB' brilliant diving header? That was a goal all the way till the keeper manged to get a hand on it? That could have ended the game in our favour. Or is that the one you meant?

[DJBlu]

Home team manager celebrating with his keeper like that.

Warne clearly seeing something most our fans can't.

Their keeper has made one outstanding save. A decent save off thomasson. Of course he’s going to be happy with him. But they got the result. And they sit in second. That is ultimately all that matters. We finished above city the season that they peppered our bar and post. We won the game. It is what we did.

The good old days of not knowing what result we'd get. Plucky old Bolton with their Premier League players. We'll never shake off that image as long as there are fans around to remind us. Bring back Keith Hill or Megson so we can have a proper moan.

As a side note I'd say it goes down as another sitter missed by JDB. 2 yards further to the right and keeper has no chance and it's a goal. Him and Charles have cost us a fair few points.

Some might say it's fine margins. Others will say it's a systemic issue that's coursing through the spine of a team that has no bottle.

Football, some like it, some don't.

[BWFC_Insane]

Home team manager celebrating with his keeper like that.

Warne clearly seeing something most our fans can't.

Their keeper has made one outstanding save. A decent save off thomasson. Of course he’s going to be happy with him. But they got the result. And they sit in second. That is ultimately all that matters. We finished above city the season that they peppered our bar and post. We won the game. It is what we did.

The good old days of not knowing what result we'd get. Plucky old Bolton. We'll never shake off that image as long as there are fans around to remind us. Bring back Keith Hill or Megson so we can have a proper moan.

As a side note I'd say it goes down as another sitter missed by JDB. 2 yards further to the right and keeper has no chance and it's a goal. Him and Charles have cost us a fair few points.

Some might say it's fine margins. Others will say it's a systemic issue that's coursing through the spine of a team has no bottle.

Football, some like it, some don't.


Charles and he probs responsible

There was nothing he can do with that header beyond what he did.

Plucky old Bolton finished season after season in the top half of the premiership. The reason being we had a manager a genuinely outstanding manager who knew that possession isn’t what counts. They were the glory days and what we are suffering through now is nothing like sadly. It’s awful in the lower leagues but we have to find a way out.

Yesterday I don’t think we missed a real gilt edge chance. Their keeper made a worldie save off Bod and Thomasson had a decent shot but one you’d expect a keeper to save more than often. He could have passed to Maghoma but I don’t think that was much more likely to be a goal.

Possession and dominance mean nowt if you don’t make it count and any team who can defend and carries a threat on set pieces is a problem for us. For all Evatt wants to talk about yesterday we simply did not create enough in front of goal and he can protest that all he likes but teams know that if they defend in numbers and restrict us there is always a chance against us as we are brittle.

[officer_dibble]

Yeah once we went behind there was no chance we would equalise - not even a sniff where we created a scramble or a moment of panic. We had a couple of corners, long throws and it’s then you need your man mountain captain to do what he never does - fight to get on the end of one and cause some panic. Toal has that ability, Santos does not. When we face a better side (or even Wigan) this system consistently doesn’t create enough chances.

Next battle is finishing third - I would not fancy us away second leg in the play offs.

[BWFC_Insane]

Yeah once we went behind there was no chance we would equalise - not even a sniff where we created a scramble or a moment of panic. We had a couple of corners, long throws and it’s then you need your man mountain captain to do what he never does - fight to get on the end of one and cause some panic. Toal has that ability, Santos does not. When we face a better side (or even Wigan) this system consistently doesn’t create enough chances.

Next battle is finishing third - I would not fancy us away second leg in the play offs.

I mean the issue is repeated. We need to dominate possession but when we do against organised disciplined sides we struggle to create enough chances and we don’t score with a high enough percentage of what we do.

I do think it’s systemic because we are built around possession not around efficiency. Derby have assembled a squad to get results by hook or by crook. They had no fit strikers yesterday. They knew they’d have to dig deep and sit in and try and nick it. But they know how to do that. We haven’t got anything beyond ‘pass it and hope the opponents collapse’. Derby were very solid yesterday. The restricted us well.

And the thing that makes me most annoyed is we sound like Wengers Arsenal after we’d sent them back from the Reebok in the good old days. The ‘but we played the better football’ losers. And I always detested Wenger’s Arsenal. The last thing I want us to be is that.

[DJBlu]

Home team manager celebrating with his keeper like that.

Warne clearly seeing something most our fans can't.

Their keeper has made one outstanding save. A decent save off thomasson. Of course he’s going to be happy with him. But they got the result. And they sit in second. That is ultimately all that matters. We finished above city the season that they peppered our bar and post. We won the game. It is what we did.

The good old days of not knowing what result we'd get. Plucky old Bolton. We'll never shake off that image as long as there are fans around to remind us. Bring back Keith Hill or Megson so we can have a proper moan.

As a side note I'd say it goes down as another sitter missed by JDB. 2 yards further to the right and keeper has no chance and it's a goal. Him and Charles have cost us a fair few points.

Some might say it's fine margins. Others will say it's a systemic issue that's coursing through the spine of a team has no bottle.

Football, some like it, some don't.


Charles and he probs responsible

There was nothing he can do with that header beyond what he did.

Plucky old Bolton finished season after season in the top half of the premiership. The reason being we had a manager a genuinely outstanding manager who knew that possession isn’t what counts. They were the glory days and what we are suffering through now is nothing like sadly. It’s awful in the lower leagues but we have to find a way out.

Yesterday I don’t think we missed a real gilt edge chance. Their keeper made a worldie save off Bod and Thomasson had a decent shot but one you’d expect a keeper to save more than often. He could have passed to Maghoma but I don’t think that was much more likely to be a goal.

Possession and dominance mean nowt if you don’t make it count and any team who can defend and carries a threat on set pieces is a problem for us. For all Evatt wants to talk about yesterday we simply did not create enough in front of goal and he can protest that all he likes but teams know that if they defend in numbers and restrict us there is always a chance against us as we are brittle.

Aye.

[Worthy4England]

And the thing that makes me most annoyed is we sound like Wengers Arsenal after we’d sent them back from the Reebok in the good old days. The ‘but we played the better football’ losers. And I always detested Wenger’s Arsenal. The last thing I want us to be is that.

Look mate, we can't help you football dinosaurs understand the beautiful game and the constant referencing of years gone by whilst accurate, just accentuates your lack of understanding. Leagues aren't there for winning, they're there so you can put your xG on show.

Football snobbery at its finest.

The enjoyment of listening to the Wengerboys queueing up to tell everyone what football was (and wasn't). I can appreciate Maria Callas singing, just wouldn't want it every week....

If we're process driven, let's see the process that stops to oppo waltzing through our box, hardly challenged.

[irie Cee Bee]

I wont analyse the obvious. We played well. Somehow I am not too disappounted as I would normally be with a loss because from what I saw, we gave our all against a top team above us playing at their home. I was proud of the effort. Take a few days off, rest, recover and reset. Get into the mindset that we will win the playoff final trophey and get promoted.

[Worthy4England]

I wont analyse the obvious. We played well. Somehow I am not too disappounted as I would normally be with a loss because from what I saw, we gave our all against a top team above us playing at their home. I was proud of the effort. Take a few days off, rest, recover and reset. Get into the mindset that we will win the playoff final trophey and get promoted.

Agree to an extent about a bit of rest. But I'd rather us roll the dice on winning the next seven and see where it lands us. We prolly wouldn't want an away leg second and I'm pretty sure being on a decent run would help.

[officer_dibble]

I still maintain I wouldn’t pay to watch derby fwiw…but I’d rather have the 3 points. Warne quite respectful to us - suspect he thinks there’s a chance we could be his next job when he’s sacked next season! Fingers crossed we can get up in the play offs…