No nonsense, Ronseal type of deal. Barnsley Away. 3rd May 2024 19.30pm

[irie Cee Bee]

Lovely win. Advantage Bolton. Interesting tactics in the first half. No playing out from the back as we knew Barnsley would come out with a 4 man press. Good job Evatt and scouts as we countered by hitting it long, keeping their backline busy, their weak point. Then we hit them with Evats "beautiful" football, out of nothing. Brilliant. Then we went 2 up and seemingly comfortable with Barnsley fading.

Then they score, no one to blame; then they threw the kitchen sink at us, Santos was immense, Baxter worldie save kept us ahead as Barnsley smelt blood, our subs who were late in coming I thought brought us back into it forcing Barnsley back. Then Jeromes football intelligence standing in front of their keeper like the great wall in China as Williams corner flew in. What a game.

This team fought for this, stood up like men. Thomasson was a giant in midfield with his tackling and aggression. What a guy. Loved this.. but job not done yet. Its just half time.

[Worthy4England]

And to cap it all, a goal direct from a corner (which I thought only happened in kids

Did I ever bore you with my 2 Sunday League goals from LB?

A good night overall

[officer_dibble]

And to cap it all, a goal direct from a corner (which I thought only happened in kids

Did I ever bore you with my 2 Sunday League goals from LB?

A good night overall

Haha I’ve scored two from corners as well!

[Harry Genshaw]

No less than we deserved. Typical Bolton performance in a lot of ways. Should have been out of sight, and would have been if Maghomas effort had gone in, then suddenly we're hanging on and their tails and the crowds up. Great move for the Dempsey chance though and we get our just reward.

[TANGODANCER]

Nervy night after they scored but we coped well. Some of their play was good, some of it cavemen stuff. Ref's inconsistencies are doing my head in right now. Baxter made two Prem class saves but I wish he could kick a ball straight or more weighted. We do give things away. In summary, it was never going to be easy away in an unfriendly atmosphere, but we handled it very well considering and I'll be quite happy if we can repeat this on Tuesday. 100 percent for effort and some good performances.

Shame about the disallowed goal, but we did have a penalty. Dion could bring charges for assault against him but he's a tough lad. Good to see we've toughened up in the scrap stakes, but some refs give cards about like Green Shield stamps, go careful.

Cosgrove? Hmm....

I was watching Captain Ric and he seemed to be struggling a bit first half. Seemed to shrug it off later. Hope he's okay.



p.s Big thanks for the couch D,JB..

[Armchair Wanderer]

It's not easy to watch, is it. The silly fouls in the dying moments of each half. Keeping it exciting!

How do yellow cards work? Do you get suspended for the final with two in the two legs?

[officer_dibble]

You could sense that second half they knew we weren’t going to give them a sniff of a press at the back - I’d call that a Plan B…

[Bertie Wooster]

It's not easy to watch, is it. The silly fouls in the dying moments of each half. Keeping it exciting!

How do yellow cards work? Do you get suspended for the final with two in the two legs?

I was just about to ask that question.

Great result controlled the game without playing well - Santos immense, absolutely immense.

[jmjhb]

I feel like tonight we got the luck going our way which has perhaps been eluding us of late.

[BWFC_Insane]

It's not easy to watch, is it. The silly fouls in the dying moments of each half. Keeping it exciting!

How do yellow cards work? Do you get suspended for the final with two in the two legs?

I was just about to ask that question.

Great result controlled the game without playing well - Santos immense, absolutely immense.

Get what you mean but second half till they scored I’d say is the best we’ve played away from home since August. Controlled the game completely. Shame we switched off but still that spell was very very good. Controlled. Always carried a threat. Sat on them.

I think it showed we carry more threat going forward when we have less of the ball at times.

[nicholaldo]

I think it showed we carry more threat going forward when we have less of the ball at times.

A very good point, I feel.

[DJBlu]

Cameron Jerome knows what he's doing. Keeper had no chance as he was being so cute, then he blasts the ball into the stand to eat into the time added on.

[The_Gun]

Thought it was a foul by Cam on first viewing, but after watching it back a few times it definitely isn’t.

[Prufrock]

You can see why we/he wants to be a coach. He gets it. Good lad. Boosh

[Worthy4England]

Nathan Baxter is class

What a fcuking save that was. Happy overall, but some one in a Bolton shirt needs to own Cosgrave. Not in a stupid sense just by putting the fcuker in his box.

He’s just a big lump they brought on to occupy santos. He’ll start on Tuesday of that I am sure. Toal can sort him but he needs to keep his head.

Yeah Dibs, that last bit is the biggie for me. We let the fccker bully us. We need to stop it and if someone accidently kills him on the way, just call it an accident.

[Prufrock]

Kill the c*nt without being caught, so to speak

[Worthy4England]

Agree with the analysis that Williams really should be getting back into the space Cosgrove scores in. He’s too casual there. But I guess made up for it.

About a million tons better than Ogbeta defensively, overall. When I think about Bradley's defensive capability last year, that's a huge chunk of difference as a WB. Sure, you might lose a little v an out and out winger in attack bit you gain a ton in transition so you balance positives front and back with the "one or the other" and that's why Bradley is in the Prem...

[Worthy4England]

Kill the c*nt without being caught, so to speak

Yeah. No yellow cards for non-players in the car-park, type approach...

[Prufrock]

Lot of stairs from the players car park to the changing rooms, I heard.

[BorsdaneWhite]

Just got back. A superb away end, as per, and the debut of one of the (maybe THE) best chant for a decade. Much better than eeeueeaah-eeigh-ehh.

We did the dirty stuff uncharacteristically and confidently well tonight. Slowed everything down. Allowed the CBs time, sometimes, and ravaged them other times. Baxter and the wing-backs must have saved 5 mins from delaying throws and kicks—exactly what those anuzzis do to us.

Baxter’s saves in the second half were superb and if they’d have equalised, who knows. It was quiet until they scored the first. But saying that: Demps and Paris had great opportunities and if the latter would have played Collins through a millisecond earlier (when it should have been!) we’d have been well up. In addition: have the seen the replay—as it wasn’t on the highlights—but the disallowed goal looked perfectly fine from behind the goal. I see BBC has it down as on offside, which must mean it took a deflection on its way to the goal scorer’s head.

Either way: plenty to like: especially that ballsy and pragmatic performance I’ve always thought it would take to beat that lot in a knock-out. Hopefully we can beat them similarly in a more expansive way at home.