Tyking the Mickey? Home to Barnsley, Boxing Day, Dec 26th 3-0'clock

[TANGODANCER]

Not being sure how much time family and grandkids (and wife) will allow for football on Boxing Day, so an early thread in advance to formulate cunning plan 99:

New Manager, Darrel Clark enters the arena to be greeted by a 4-0 loss at home to Leyton Orient . An unexpected (if welcome) result for The Whites, but all the more reason for wounded pride going savage against us if we get careless and over confident. Any team in this league is capable of a blip day (as we know), and The Tykes are no mugs for sure..

Can we claim a St Steven's Day late Christmas present and a bonus three points? Tough it will no doubt be, but be of good cheer and a Merry Christmas to all good Whites fans everywhere.

[truewhite15]

Feels like an important game to get the feelgood factor back. Or at least not feeling like it's a million miles away. The crowd will be quiet, and will be waiting for the least mistake, error, bit of overcaution, to get on the players backs. It's up to said players to come out fighting and stop that from happening.

[Worthy4England]

Feels like an important game to get the feelgood factor back. Or at least not feeling like it's a million miles away. The crowd will be quiet, and will be waiting for the least mistake, error, bit of overcaution, to get on the players backs. It's up to said players to come out fighting and stop that from happening.

Reckon you could probably write this about either team for Boxing day. If anything, they're having a tougher time than us, with a similarly leaky defence. Could see a few goals each. 2-2.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Feels like an important game to get the feelgood factor back. Or at least not feeling like it's a million miles away. The crowd will be quiet, and will be waiting for the least mistake, error, bit of overcaution, to get on the players backs. It's up to said players to come out fighting and stop that from happening.

Reckon you could probably write this about either team for Boxing day. If anything, they're having a tougher time than us, with a similarly leaky defence. Could see a few goals each. 2-2.

Could do with us scoring before half-time in a home game. That'd be nice for the fans. And the manager. And the league position.

In all seriousness, though... Sharon has nailed her colours to the mast and herself to the front of Evatt's HMS PTL. Over the next week we (on 31pts) have two home games, against Barnsley (30pts) and Lincoln (31pts). We have to take home advantage - for the fans, for the manager, and the league position. Because the league position has to get better, or the atmosphere at home games – which has been reasonably (or unreasonably) sympathetic - will start to turn toxic quickly.

So, Barnsley. As you say, they're on bad form, with 1 win in 7 league games – although being Barnsley, and therefore by their very nature highly erratic, they'd won 3 of the previous 4. In summer they turned to Darrell Clarke, who'd made a decent (but unsuccessful) fist of trying to keep Cheltenham up, and in late September they were third - but Barnsley gonna Barnsley, so they didn't win in 3, then won 3 in 4, then 1 in 7. So now they're down in the also-rans with us.

Like us, they seem to have a ceiling re opponents' league position: only 1 win (at Lincoln) in 9 games against top-11 teams. We have to hope that continues. However, the bad news is that they're much, much better away than at home - 21st in the home table, but 3rd away (W6 D1 L3 F14 A11), bettered only by Wycombe and Brum. More worrying still for us is that they're similarly split regarding halves: they're much better in the first half (2nd only to Wrexham) than the second (19th). So what we have is the division's worst first-half hosts (W1 D3 L6 F4 A8) hosting the division's 2nd-best first-half visitors (W5 D4 L1 F8 A2). That could turn ugly.

Given they've just been beaten 4-0 at home, and we have a (perhaps rapidly receding) reputation for expansive football, you imagine Clarke will have them keeping it tight for the first half. We could do with a goal going in off someone's arse, or maybe a set piece, or even a move worthy of a team which set its target this season as automatic promotion. I hope it happens.

[dave the minion]

It'll be rest.
We''ll shit 'em....

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

It'll be reet.
We''ll shit 'em....

I hope so. I'm working Boxing Day and have to go into the office; the game takes place during our broadcast hours, so I really shouldn't draw attention to myself by suddenly hollering "OH FOR F&CK'S SAKE BOLTON YOU USELESS BAGS OF CACK WHY HAVE I SPENT SO MANY FRUITLESS DECADES POURING LOVE AND MONEY INTO YOU ONLY FOR YOU TO REWARD ME BY NOT MARKING AT A COCKING CORNER YOU HEARTLESS BASTARDS" again.

[HMX]

It'll be reet.
We''ll shit 'em....

I hope so. I'm working Boxing Day and have to go into the office; the game takes place during our broadcast hours, so I really shouldn't draw attention to myself by suddenly hollering "OH FOR F&CK'S SAKE BOLTON YOU USELESS BAGS OF CACK WHY HAVE I SPENT SO MANY FRUITLESS DECADES POURING LOVE AND MONEY INTO YOU ONLY FOR YOU TO REWARD ME BY NOT MARKING AT A COCKING CORNER YOU HEARTLESS BASTARDS" again.

Surely your colleagues don’t notice at this point!

2-1 win.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Surely your colleagues don’t notice at this point!

"Breaking news: Bolton losing again"

[TANGODANCER]

Surely your colleagues don’t notice at this point!

"Breaking news: Bolton losing again"

Not having it, D.S.B.. We'll win. Maddy Prior and The Carnival Band are singing "I saw three ships come sailing in" Hope she means goals..

[Mar]

Well, we stopped Wycombe scoring, something only matched by Wimbledon in the FLT in Wycombe's 2nd game of the season. So that's quite a run of goals that they've had.

Can we do something similar and stop Barnsley's decent first half away record?

We've got players coming back from suspension. I'd like to see the current back three persisted with, it may be makeshift, but it did the job and it's not like Santos and Johnston were ripping up trees prior to them being suspended. They deserve a second run out.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

We've got players coming back from suspension. I'd like to see the current back three persisted with, it may be makeshift, but it did the job and it's not like Santos and Johnston were ripping up trees prior to them being suspended. They deserve a second run out.

While there's undeniably a certain ethical merit (and indeed meritocratic ethos) to what you say, imagine the reaction if we go with a back three of JDC (a right-back), Forrester (5ft11) and Gethin (a right-back) and get beat off a set-piece goal or two.

And a lot of people (on here and off) were crticising Jones, for one, for much of the game on Friday. I like Geth, I do, but his attempts to play LCB are sometimes as painful as Toal's.

Forrester certainly did enough to be retained - as did Randell, in my opinion, and JDC also did most things right. But the problem is positional. Forrester is a defending-focused defender - he wants to tackle, block, head, intercept, and celebrates when he does so. Nothing wrong with that, but he's much less comfortable when being asked to progress with the ball - which is what we ask of our outside centre-backs, it's what we *have to* ask of our outside centre-backs, or instead of overloading the oppo we'll be outnumbered in midfield and get precisely nowhere. Especially say at home, against a team who we might expect to sit tight, as Barnsley seem to have been doing away (and especially first half).

In other words, in our team, and especially at home, Forrester should be the middle centre-back but only if we've got enough height elsewhere to defend set-pieces. Dropping Santos would be a big call, especially given we might expect a lot of possession at the back; Santos might ping some long balls to stretch Barnsley, but would Forrester?

I dunno. I'd definitely have Johnston back at LCB (and hope the rest has done him good) because we need someone progressive on that side and he also likes defending. That's the easiest of the three backs to choose, for me. CCB it's hard to look past Santos - though I see why some might want to stick with Forrester. If Santos is picked, Forrester could be RCB but don't get angry if he can't link play as well. Strangely, given it's a home game, I might be tempted to play JDC there - or possibly Jones, who's better right than left. Not out of the question that Toal or Forino might be available, either - last update I heard (two weeks ago) had them ready in a fortnight.

Further forward, as you say, we might have options. Matete is suspended so Tomo might have to play the 6 (expect an early yellow...) unless Sheehan is fit again - but last I heard, he was out for another week yet. CMG and Arfield (could he play 6? would we trust him?) were back on the bench at Wycombe, and Dempsey might be fit, which would be good as there's at least one "8" space going if Tomo drops deep - and as nobody was very impressed with Lolos as an 8, it might be a clean sweep of changes (Tomo switching deep plus two new 8s). It wouldn't be out of the ordinary for Evatt to pick McAtee as an 8 in a home game so you've theoretically got a choice of six different 8s (Tomo, Lolos, McAtee, CMG, Arfield, Dempsey). Of course, they might not all be fit - we may or may not find out at the press conference, which I imagine might be Tuesday morning.

And then you've got the options up front. In all, it's arguably the least predictable XI of the season to pick - as opposed to Friday's make-do-and-mend. Time for the gaffer to use that squad - and for some of its members to prove they don't need replacing next month.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

By the way - if all those players are available, that would mean we're only short of Sheehan and Matete (I'm not counting Coleman). I make it that that would be our fewest absentees since late Nov/early Dec 2023, when for a fortnight the only problem was Cameron Jerome's neck, and for one game - Vale at home in the Pizza Cup - I believe we had every single player available (well, not Johnston).

[Mar]

We've got players coming back from suspension. I'd like to see the current back three persisted with, it may be makeshift, but it did the job and it's not like Santos and Johnston were ripping up trees prior to them being suspended. They deserve a second run out.

While there's undeniably a certain ethical merit (and indeed meritocratic ethos) to what you say, imagine the reaction if we go with a back three of JDC (a right-back), Forrester (5ft11) and Gethin (a right-back) and get beat off a set-piece goal or two.

The idea of a meritocracy is the thing i'm going for. Thomason got into the side because he had to step up his training over summer to get into contention. At the minute we've had players that have underperformed and yet because of their stature and previous ability they've been shoe-ins.

There needs to be a merit for good performances and a negative consequence for bad performances. We've got a clear example of a good defensive performance. They keep that up, they can keep in the squad for me, despite not being our obvious best player in that position.

[Harry Genshaw]

Don't freeze and concede early, we win 2-1.

[boltonboris]

They'll bounce back from a crushing defeat at home. Like they all do. 0-2

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

They'll bounce back from a crushing defeat at home. Like they all do. 0-2

This is, sadly, a believable scoreline. It's all too easy to imagine us conceding early, them sitting back, us getting frustrated, boos at half-time, plans out the window, they bag another on the break.

One thing we have to overcome is our crap home first halves. Here's our HT scores so far, with FT in brackets:
0-0 (1-1) Mansfield (cup)
0-0 (0-0) Wrexham
0-1 (0-2) Exeter
0-1 (0-4) Huddersfield
4-1 (5-2) Reading
0-2 (2-2) Shrewsbury
0-1 (1-1) Villa kids (cup)
0-0 (2-1) Burton
0-0 (1-0) Posh
1-0 (2-1) Fleetwood (cup)
0-1 (2-1) Blackpool
0-1 (3-1) Mansfield
1-0 (3-1) Huddersfield (cup)
0-1 (0-2) Wigan

That is, frankly, relegation stuff - we've only scored in 3 of 14 home first halves. It's even worse in the league - 1 in 10. And this in a team targeting automatic promotion.

Thing is, if we get an early goal we tend to be OK. Sheehan scored after 12 minutes against Reading and off we went.

It's not a new dichotomy, either. In spring, we scored early at home against Oxford and Reading and piled up 5 both times. But then we let Pompey and Shrewsbury score first and we had to settle for draws; it took us until the 72nd minute to score against relegation-destined Vale; and in the play-offs we let Barnsley score first, losing on the night.

Thankfully in a few cases (four times in the last five home league games) we've staged second-half improvements/comebacks, which are very welcome. But we're still not as good as others - including away games, we've only equalised 3 times out of the 9 we've let opponents go in front, whereas Wycombe have done it 5 times out of 7, Birmingham 6 times out of 8. Equalising is hard, and it's all part of making it much harder for ourselves – a bit like not keeping clean sheets.

We might well concede and equalise this weekend - the supremely erratic Barnsley are one of only three teams with fewer clean sheets than us and one of only two teams (along with Birmingham) yet to have a 0-0, although they have beaten Wrexham, Huddersfield, Rotherham and Stevenage without conceding. But we can't rely on others being erratic. That's not how promotion works.

[officer_dibble]

Can’t get enthusiasm worked up at all for this. Any result is possible which is the beauty of league one. And we’ll be playing them again next season so we can go again.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Interesting that although Darrell Clarke is "hopeful" they'll be available, there is doubt over Luca Connell and Adam Phillips, the two Barnsley players Evatt namechecks as dangerous in his own press conference. After 'MatterGate' the BN has reverted to putting the full text online... it's here: https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/2 ... sley-test/ but in short:

• Osei-Tutu "is back, fine, available again"

• Eoin Toal is "back training"

• Sheehan "is not far away, Kyle Dempsey is not far away"

• Morley: as reported, "he just won’t stay there on loan. We will recall him and he will be part of our team and our squad unless they offer us an offer we think meets his valuation – then, we can look at other things... I have told them our valuation and now it is down to them to either meet it or not... for now, they haven’t made any offers. They have kind of just asked a couple of questions and we have given them clear, concise answers."

• Morley is "playing with confidence" but "it is a completely different pressure playing for Wycombe than Bolton Wanderers – the expectation is completely different, the amount of fans we have and pressures of the big games" so "it is important that... we don’t expect miracles" but "the stuff he needed to improve on that we spoke about, he is starting to improve. Fingers crossed, we can see that for us."

• Transfer window: "We have had a lot of input from Ludonautics for the first time really. Chris (Markham) has had a few meetings which, hopefully, are going to be important for us. There are some big decisions to be made, of course, and we want to bolster the squad."

• Could we sign another from abroad? "we are looking at all markets."

• "Chris and his team have their own algorithm so to speak and way of doing things. Ludonautics have theirs, which is different to ours."

• "If we are all in agreement on somebody, it means it has a good chance of succeeding. With recruitment, around the 50 per cent mark and you are doing well, you are doing OK."

• "we've got some really exciting things on the horizon and hopefully they can pay off. Chris is working very hard on trying to do some of the deals and we'll see how we get on with that."

• Asked about Maghoma, admits we've missed him: "that ability to drive from the middle of the pitch and receive in tight areas, elite athleticism and that final bit of composure – I think that is something we haven’t really had so far this season. We have missed Carlos (MG), who can do that role, and we missed Klaidi (Lolos) for large parts, who we think can do that role."

• Still expects Birmingham to win the league "and then everyone else are going to be really tight and close... I think it will go down to the wire and Barnsley will be in that group, along with us."

[TANGODANCER]

Realistically, 2-0 us if we play sensible football and don't make silly errors. The teams in this League have not suddenly become Real Madrid or Barcelona but are here for the same reasons as we are: they didn't get promoted out of it. .

So enough nonsense and get the Christmas present points. Another week, then We have three games and a Cup fixture all aways. so we need to get stuck in. Forward march.

[Worthy4England]

Every day I love you less and less...