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

[DJBlu]

Nervous like the EFL Trophy final.

Hoping we can score a few.

Up the Home and Away fan piss boiling Evatt Whites.

COYWM!!!

[sonicthewhite]

I'm out all day and into the evening so someone will have to step in for brew making duties. Nervous about this one but if we play our game like we did against Oxford with the same team then Derby are there for the taking. COYWM!

[BWFC_Insane]

Been thinking a lot about the "big-game bottlers" tag. Here's a question open to all: Who was the last Bolton team you truly trusted to win those very crucial games against (other) table-toppers?

Parky's promotion team? Not for me. I've written several times before about how confident I was once they went one up at a Northampton or a Millwall or whatever. But I didn't approach promotion six-pointers with anticipatory relish.

We were lucky to host Sheff U on the opening day, before Wilder started to work – they got one point (home to Rochdale!!) from their first four league games as well as losing at home to 4th-Division Crewe in the league cup. And as someone (Worthy?) posted on here after we'd won that opener, we might well have lost it in the division above - they had some good chances before we scored. In the return at theirs they beat us 2-0; we had one shot on target.

Wasn't the only six-pointer that team lost on the road. I was at Scunny when they beat us 1-0 and we didn't really turn up until it was too late. The win at Fleetwood was brilliant but nobody expected it – we'd not won in four. We didn't beat Bradford - a six-pointer and the Parky Derby - home or away.

So that's a no from me. Let's look further back. Allardyce's promotion team? Well, the win over Preston is one of my fondest memories, but let's not forget it was in the play-offs, because we finished behind Fulham and Blackburn. Fulham beating us 2-0 at ours seemed humbling until Blackburn shellacked us 4-1 (and the 1 was a late consolation: the BBC report says "Rovers could have run in a cricket score"). As for the away games, another late goal got us a point at Ewood (we'd gone behind after 48 seconds) and we also squeaked a draw against 10 men at Fulham (who, per BBC again, "dominated").

We'd also failed in three semi-finals the previous season (including a complete no-show in the both League Cup legs against Tranmere, plus contriving to concede 7 goals in the play-offs). That's worth remembering, because a lot of fans did at the time. Especially when we were 2-0 down in the first leg at West Brom... I'm obviously ecstatic we turned that round but at that moment you'd have been hard-pushed to find a fan who thought we were good in the big games.

So to me, it seems the last Wanderers side I "trusted" in the big games was Colin Todd's 1997 promotion side. And even they drew both six-pointers against fellow automatic promotees Barnsley....

I think that it’s partly down to how you define ‘big game’. For me there is a certain game with a big crowd, an opposition with extra motivation and a bit of in game pressure in the build up that we’ve struggled with for the past three seasons now. It’s always intangible but you sort of can sense these games often.

In terms of comparisons - Allardyce lost three semi finals in a year and indeed came having been the only manager at that point to have surrendered a 3 goal play off lead. So I absolutely had a big concern he was a ‘nearly man’. And I do firmly believe there are managers who have that intangible ability to get teams over lines and those that don’t. And history is full of the neatly mean the ‘if only’s’ and hard luck stories. I don’t have much time for that. We are only here a short time we don’t want to waste years of ‘nearly next time we will do it’. And if we look at the three semis we were done by Tranmere’s physicality and long throws. We absolutely fixed that. And went back and won there. Villa a league up where we were the better side and Barry Knight. Still we lost thrice.

But this is where context is key. Over the summer after three semi disasters we lost Eidur, Fish, Jensen, Johansson, Johnstone. Our squad was gutted. We managed to bring Per back and our other money signing was £400K for Ricketts from Walsall.

I think most went into that season fearing a long hard slog to stay out of trouble. Instead we ran the top two close and went up via the play offs after being 2-0 down at West Brom - and that fight back there still ranks with me as one of our best. Brushed Preston aside in a huge pressure match.

Then went up, won at local rivals Man Utd against all odds and won absolutely crucial run in games like Charlton away, Villa at home and Ipswich of course.

We then repeated something similar the season after.

So I’d say at that point I had more belief than ever before or since that when the crunch came, when it really mattered we would have a better than evens chance of winning. Maybe false confidence because we all know these runs don’t last.

But the difference now is that we aren’t overachieving or against the odds. We are the big boys that Allardyce’s Bolton used to make fun of. The underachievers maybe.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

The Allardyce team with 14 away wins was definitely one I trusted. They were so effective at dismissing opponents and making the most of a fairly limited squad and finances, compared to the two who went up automatically.

That said, I was out of the country for much of that season, so viewing it remotely and with hindsight, perhaps I feel more confident about it now than I was.

No slight on you or Pru, DSB, or any of our exiles, but perhaps that's why you can dismiss my fears in 6 pointers like this? On the other thread you talked of ignoring the 1-0 win over Blackpool rather than the 1-4 defeat. It's the 2 Wigan hammerings, and particularly the later one that plays into my fears about our capability in the big fixtures. It's like 'Nam. You weren't there man!!

Hopefully at 5pm today, we're all a lot more optimistic about such fixtures in the future.

Yeah that Allardyce team was (usually) good at dismissing poorer teams but not so good at facing the ones above, which is the comparison for today. Winning the occasional big games, not the many tiddlers.

I know what you mean about being exiled: the derbies don't affect my workplace or schoolyard life like they did. But I still feel it when we lose. I spend most of the week daydreaming about Wanderers and selections and players and games; it's far more hurtful when we've just lost.

I don't dismiss anyone's fears, by the way. I don't think people are 'wrong' for their feelings. I just wonder sometimes whether it's not as bad as we think. Or maybe it's just always been like that - I too remember that Sam side as very successful, but they often weren't in big games. Perhaps it's good that the long-term memory roots out the worrying and leaves the happiness.

[Worthy4England]

Don't think it matters much, how confident we fans are (although when Harry said he was going to Blackpool and posted his rap-sheet, I wrote that one off!). Only matters how confident the starting XI are. We need them starting like we're going to win it and push the doubt to the opposition. Don't think there's an Opta stat for that, so you have to rely on the Manager and players...

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

[Worthy4England]

GK on the bench, I see.

Unchanged. As it should be.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I’d say at that point I had more belief than ever before or since that when the crunch came, when it really mattered we would have a better than evens chance of winning. Maybe false confidence because we all know these runs don’t last.

Allardyce's teams were fallible, as all teams are. Confidence in others is a tricky thing to judge, though, but what I will say from watching you post over the decades is that I find it hard to imagine you ever having any

Let's hope we're both more confident of promotion in three hours.

[BWFC_Insane]

Yay a GK on the bench!

[nicholaldo]

I'm confusingly feeling quite serene.

[BWFC_Insane]

I'm confusingly feeling quite serene.

Same. Think we get something today. Feels like there is more pressure on Derby than us which is a rare scenario.

[Worthy4England]

I'm confusingly feeling quite serene.

That would be on account of our record at Pride Park. P10 L7 D3...

What a great day to break our duck!

Still 2-1 Whites. Late Jerome double - what a great day to break his duck!

[nicholaldo]

COYFW

[Mar]

We had an abundance of LB's on the bench last match, so it's only right we've got a goalkeeper on instead.

Come on Bolton, big game time!

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

COYFWM.

[The_Gun]

Is the couch out today?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Is the couch out today?

Try again

[Mar]

Interesting that we've gone with the blue kit instead of the black kit. Makes sense given Derby's black shorts I guess. I suspect the stats would play out against us in terms of the black kits given our previous relegations, but this season, it'd be interesting to see what the actual figures were looking and whether we'd buck the trend.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Feels like nothing else matters but worth mentioning it's Posh-Pompey today too...

[Mar]

Live commentary out again, it's pretty much every week.