League One, 2022/23

[Prufrock]

They very nearly stayed up having half fluked it up and with no budget. He's not glamorous. And he might do himself out of a job if they get notions. But if he can get Willock fit I'd been him to keep them up this year and go all right next.

[GhostoftheBok]

He's not glamorous.

Don't tell him that.

[Prufrock]

Oh aye yeah, Jesus, someone needs to have a word about all *that*.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Oh aye yeah, Jesus, someone needs to have a word about all *that*.

They love a bit of that at QPR, though. Outsiderdom. Ian Holloway. Stan Bowles. It might give them something to enjoy while watching Farmer John football.

[Worthy4England]

Oh aye yeah, Jesus, someone needs to have a word about all *that*.

They love a bit of that at QPR, though. Outsiderdom. Ian Holloway. Stan Bowles. It might give them something to enjoy while watching Farmer John football.

Dunno - I didn't sit there on Saturday watching the match thinking we were playing as Barca and they were playing as Wormwood Scrubs. That's not what I saw. There were some stylistic differences, for sure, they weren't that pronounced for me, that if I was watching my first football match, I'd have necessarily have picked us over them. Looking at the stats, then sure there were some differences.

- 59 - 41% possession to us
- 57 - 43% duel success rate to them
- we played more long balls than they did (but obviously we played more passes) - percentage wise, there wasn't a lot in it. 22 us v 24% them
- 61 - 39 areal duels to them
- 334 - 229 passes to us
- they had more shots, more shots on target their shooting accuracy was higher.
- they made more tackles, more clearances (although their tackle success was lower)
- we conceded the same number of fouls...

Our complaints about Wycombe and their "style" are straight out of the Wenger v Bolton handbook. Wasn't right then, isn't right now.

[BWFC_Insane]

Oh aye yeah, Jesus, someone needs to have a word about all *that*.

They love a bit of that at QPR, though. Outsiderdom. Ian Holloway. Stan Bowles. It might give them something to enjoy while watching Farmer John football.

Dunno - I didn't sit there on Saturday watching the match thinking we were playing as Barca and they were playing as Wormwood Scrubs. That's not what I saw. There were some stylistic differences, for sure, they weren't that pronounced for me, that if I was watching my first football match, I'd have necessarily have picked us over them. Looking at the stats, then sure there were some differences.

- 59 - 41% possession to us
- 57 - 43% duel success rate to them
- we played more long balls than they did (but obviously we played more passes) - percentage wise, there wasn't a lot in it. 22 us v 24% them
- 61 - 39 areal duels to them
- 334 - 229 passes to us
- they had more shots, more shots on target their shooting accuracy was higher.
- they made more tackles, more clearances (although their tackle success was lower)
- we conceded the same number of fouls...

Our complaints about Wycombe and their "style" are straight out of the Wenger v Bolton handbook. Wasn't right then, isn't right now.

Indeed. It’s embarrassing, one eyed nonsense. Nobody complained when we beat MK dons cos we had three big lads attacking set plays.

We’ve absolutely gone more direct in recent weeks. We are hardly Barcelona.

There is no place for football snobbery at Bolton where if we are honest should we achieve our aims of promotion we will be needing to find every edge in a league where we will outplay few if any teams.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Heard a song this morning:
“You may not see things my way /
I don’t care, cos I’m not asking /
But you can’t tell me that I’m wrong.”

I dislike Wycombe’s football. I like ours. If you think there’s no difference, then there’s clearly no discernment there and it’s the end of that conversational phase.

We can however agree that it’s good news he’s gone.

[Worthy4England]

Heard a song this morning:
“You may not see things my way /
I don’t care, cos I’m not asking /
But you can’t tell me that I’m wrong.”

I dislike Wycombe’s football. I like ours. If you think there’s no difference, then there’s clearly no discernment there and it’s the end of that conversational phase.

We can however agree that it’s good news he’s gone.

I'm fairly sure my post said there were differences. Twice. No one asked you to like Wycombe. It's fine you don't care about any responses, but the thought you might not get any response on a forum, seems a bit strange...Maybe we should have an Op Ed section without the ability to respond

I'd prefer to be us, than Wycome, too. But to delegitimise they way they play, rather than just acknowledge it's different? I dunno. If every team tried to play the same way, I think the game would lose something. Sure, we might want all teams to come and attack us and play to our strengths not theirs and if the playing field was totally level maybe they might.

[knobpolisher]

Barnsley creeping up there but in a 18 day period in March they have

Portsmouth Plymouth Wycombe Sheffield Wed Ipswich

That's tough

[GhostoftheBok]

Barnsley creeping up there but in a 18 day period in March they have

Portsmouth Plymouth Wycombe Sheffield Wed Ipswich

That's tough

We just have to keep winning and hope that the top 6 vs top 6 stuff falls in our favour. I know that's a cliche, but it's also a truism.

[BWFC_Insane]

We aren’t getting top two. That ship has sailed and there are others better placed. I’d focus on trying to secure a top 6 place and if we can manage top 4 it means we have a better play off chance.

[GhostoftheBok]

Securing a top 6 place and securing a top 2 place require exactly the same mentality. Win as many games as possible and see where you end up. At this stage there's no difference to how you approach every game. It's arguably less pressure aiming for the top 2, weirdly. It's such a long shot that you can miss out on that ("falling" into the play-offs) and not have any issue. If you start focusing on top 6 things could get nervy.

It's always better to look up. The pressure is more positive that way.

[jmjhb]

Fixtures thin out after next weekend so we'll be fine. I'm not worried, nor am I envious of the likes of Barnsley who have to play 15 games in 2 months.

[Worthy4England]

Fixtures thin out after next weekend so we'll be fine. I'm not worried, nor am I envious of the likes of Barnsley who have to play 15 games in 2 months.

I know folks say "We'd rather have points on the board" and that might prove to be the case with Barnsley's schedule but I don't think they'll be thinking the same way. Even if you only backed them to go WDL on their games in hand, they'd leapfrog us. They gubbed Derby yesterday, have drawn with Pompey away, beat Peterborough away, beat Shrewsbury, drew at ours, beat Sheffield away, drew with Ipswich away...Their results against the top 10 have been pretty good...

[BWFC_Insane]

Fixtures thin out after next weekend so we'll be fine. I'm not worried, nor am I envious of the likes of Barnsley who have to play 15 games in 2 months.

I know folks say "We'd rather have points on the board" and that might prove to be the case with Barnsley's schedule but I don't think they'll be thinking the same way. Even if you only backed them to go WDL on their games in hand, they'd leapfrog us. They gubbed Derby yesterday, have drawn with Pompey away, beat Peterborough away, beat Shrewsbury, drew at ours, beat Sheffield away, drew with Ipswich away...Their results against the top 10 have been pretty good...

Yep but we are 4th so three have to leapfrog us.

[jmjhb]

Barnsley have to play 4 of the top 6 in their next 6 games or something. After that they're playing midweek-weekend for about 6 weeks in a row.

Sure they might gain momentum. More likely they're burn running on fumes and burn out by the end of it.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I know folks say "We'd rather have points on the board" and that might prove to be the case with Barnsley's schedule but I don't think they'll be thinking the same way. Even if you only backed them to go WDL on their games in hand, they'd leapfrog us. They gubbed Derby yesterday, have drawn with Pompey away, beat Peterborough away, beat Shrewsbury, drew at ours, beat Sheffield away, drew with Ipswich away...Their results against the top 10 have been pretty good...

What's interesting about Barnsley is that they've played away at every other top 7 team bar Wycombe, and have most to come at home.

In their only top-seven home games before yesterday they'd been gubbed 0-3 by both sets of Wanderers.

So that makes it even more interesting that they handed the unassailable Warne his arse on a plate yesterday.

It's a proper "nobody will fancy coming here" - and unlike everyone else, we don't have to.

[Worthy4England]

Fixtures thin out after next weekend so we'll be fine. I'm not worried, nor am I envious of the likes of Barnsley who have to play 15 games in 2 months.

I know folks say "We'd rather have points on the board" and that might prove to be the case with Barnsley's schedule but I don't think they'll be thinking the same way. Even if you only backed them to go WDL on their games in hand, they'd leapfrog us. They gubbed Derby yesterday, have drawn with Pompey away, beat Peterborough away, beat Shrewsbury, drew at ours, beat Sheffield away, drew with Ipswich away...Their results against the top 10 have been pretty good...

Yep but we are 4th so three have to leapfrog us.

I wasn't questioning our ability to make top 6, just the possibility that Barnsley overtake us - sorry if that wasn't clear...

[Worthy4England]

I know folks say "We'd rather have points on the board" and that might prove to be the case with Barnsley's schedule but I don't think they'll be thinking the same way. Even if you only backed them to go WDL on their games in hand, they'd leapfrog us. They gubbed Derby yesterday, have drawn with Pompey away, beat Peterborough away, beat Shrewsbury, drew at ours, beat Sheffield away, drew with Ipswich away...Their results against the top 10 have been pretty good...

What's interesting about Barnsley is that they've played away at every other top 7 team bar Wycombe, and have most to come at home.

In their only top-seven home games before yesterday they'd been gubbed 0-3 by both sets of Wanderers.

So that makes it even more interesting that they handed the unassailable Warne his arse on a plate yesterday.

It's a proper "nobody will fancy coming here" - and unlike everyone else, we don't have to.

Fair point, of course in one of those games, they were down to 10 fairly early doors... I wouldn't bet against them being in front when they reach level games...As you say, they've had some decent top of the table results mainly away.

[Prufrock]

I haven't written off top 2. Plymouth looked out of reach, but have wobbled, as have Derby and even more so Ipswich after looking best placed to attack them.

It's still a massive long shot though and would require a hell of a run.

Haven't ruled out finishing outside the play off either mind. A lot of football to be played and yesterday was disquieting. Understandable, but we can't afford too many more of those. Very little between us, Barnsley and Derby atm. Barnsley maybe just in front, but that is a hell of a run of games.

Worries me a bit that our toughest run between now and the the of the season is also the run up to Wembley. Though hopefully the trickiness of the games will stop any complacency developing.