Up Winter Hill Bah't hat. Home to Barnsley, Tues 7th May 8-0 clock

[Mar]

I’m sure their tannoy announcement said there were only 13k there, but I may have misheard.

Aye, 13,846
Last season, attendance at theirs was 16,274 (first leg at ours 23,450)

Their avg home league attendance this season was 12,730 (us 21,080) so I think it's fair to say the streets of Barnsley are not awash in Wembley fever

I wouldn't read too much into those numbers. Those that are interested are keen on watching it and will be able to do so via a variety of methods. Those that are struggling financially will be able to lean towards saving money for the Wembley trip rather than doing the Play Off Semi Final trip.

They want more supporters watching it, i'd recommend putting it on at a reasonable hour on a Saturday rather than Friday night / Tuesday nights.

[DJBlu]

Anyone else nervous?

[TANGODANCER]

I’m sure their tannoy announcement said there were only 13k there, but I may have misheard.

Aye, 13,846
Last season, attendance at theirs was 16,274 (first leg at ours 23,450)

Their avg home league attendance this season was 12,730 (us 21,080) so I think it's fair to say the streets of Barnsley are not awash in Wembley fever

I wouldn't read too much into those numbers. Those that are interested are keen on watching it and will be able to do so via a variety of methods. Those that are struggling financially will be able to lean towards saving money for the Wembley trip rather than doing the Play Off Semi Final trip.

They want more supporters watching it, i'd recommend putting it on at a reasonable hour on a Saturday rather than Friday night / Tuesday nights.

Why be surprised? Corporations like Sky exist only to make money, of which sport is a lucrative slice. Anything else is purely immaterial.

[dave the minion]

Anyone else nervous?

Nah. It'll be reet, we'll shit 'em

[TANGODANCER]

Anyone else nervous?

Yep. Don't want to sound any negatives, just as scared/nervous as I should be, no more, no less. If it's any consolation, I wouldn't swap our situation for Barnsley's. It's ours lose. Time for a big COME ON YOU WHITES..!

[Bijou Bob]

Evening all, long time no post. I'm there tomorrow and for me, it all comes down to the first goal. If we score early, I fully expect us to hammer them as their heads will drop. Their fans were tweeting stories of their players being out on the pop an hour after the first leg finished.

If however, they scored first........feck it's going to be an edgy, nervous night until we gat a goal or the whistle goes.

They're going to pepper our box with long balls, looking for knock downs, cheap free kicks and set pieces. We just have to be disciplined and play our own game. The longer it goes scoreless, the more frustrated they'll get. Let them take the yellows and a red.

[officer_dibble]

Anyone else nervous?

Yeah, course. It’s the fear that if it does go wrong it will be a monumental feck up! Be reet!

[BWFC_Insane]

Anyone else nervous?

Only in the sense that we all know deep down it’s likely to be a game where they come and have a go and put us under pressure, probably score and it gets edgy.

At least I think that’s what we all expect. It’s just down to us to deal with it.

Honestly think the biggest thing for us is not to be too tense. Be focussed, committed and intense but just not tense up. Should be an occasion players are told to go and enjoy, make the most of it.

[TANGODANCER]

I just don't want to hear how unlucky they'd be to lose after dominating the second leg. Course they will, we're the ones with the advantage so we're not going to throw it away to prove any points. We're after promotion, not praise or points. If situations were reversed, we'd do exactly the same.

[Worthy4England]

Guess we'll never know who did what, when, just quite a few on theirs called it t'other way round as their attendances hadn't been great at home, recently, due to indifferent form. Dunno.

Agree it's the couple of blocks to WSL that have chunks missing...NSL (my preferred stomping ground) also seems to have chunks of capacity...

Guess it is what it is.

Yeah maybe but wouldn’t they have fancied selling 4-5K away tickets in that case? Lot of money to turn down that especially when you aren’t selling out the home end.

Aye, that's the point they were making. Not been a happy ground the last 10 games, what if they didn't shift lots of home tickets and there was 5k away...

[Worthy4England]

Anyone else nervous?

Not yet. Quite excited.

[Worthy4England]

For me, it was quite interesting looking at the post match stats..We didn't have the lions share of the posession 60/40 to them. They made more passes and had a higher passing accuracy. What we did do was manage them down to 2 shots on target. We both had the same number of shots. Did it well, we need to do that approach tonight too. Defensively we had more than double their tackle count and clearances.

At the other end, we managed 5 shots on target and bagged 3 of them. A pretty decent return given the other stats.

I think that leads me to a "not typical Bolton" performance, stats-wise. Football's not always a game about big numbers, it's about making your numbers count more than theirs. You could call it "wanting it more"

[BWFC_Insane]

For me, it was quite interesting looking at the post match stats..We didn't have the lions share of the posession 60/40 to them. They made more passes and had a higher passing accuracy. What we did do was manage them down to 2 shots on target. We both had the same number of shots. Did it well, we need to do that approach tonight too. Defensively we had more than double their tackle count and clearances.

At the other end, we managed 5 shots on target and bagged 3 of them. A pretty decent return given the other stats.

I think that leads me to a "not typical Bolton" performance, stats-wise. Football's not always a game about big numbers, it's about making your numbers count more than theirs. You could call it "wanting it more"

And I can’t help but think if we’d adopted an approach similar to that in a number of games this season like say Derby away we might not be sat here.

Equally we have to note that in a game of relatively few chances our first goal that opened it up was on the margins both in terms of offside and also in terms of a lovely move and beautiful cross but Charles had a lot to do to score that. Exact same scenario without Charles (or with him and him out of form) could see it missed and a totally different game playing out. Goals change games and all that.

[officer_dibble]

Well yeah - would Bodvarson have buried it? No point worrying about it. Got a great chance to get to the final now, just need to take it!

[BWFC_Insane]

Have felt pretty confident since Friday. This morning though post coffee am absolutely bricking it. Guess it’s just pre match normal fears but seeing Barnsley fans suddenly feel confident isn’t helping.

[boltonboris]

Have felt pretty confident since Friday. This morning though post coffee am absolutely bricking it. Guess it’s just pre match normal fears but seeing Barnsley fans suddenly feel confident isn’t helping.

What's changed with Barnsley? As long as we don't ship an early goal I reckon we'll be reet and we have plenty enough to hurt them, if we want to counter attack.

I don't think they'll come and be wide open. They'll be direct and look to get bits of set-pieces and I'm certain Cosgrove will start over Cole, giving them a bit more aerial threat, but if they don't score early, they will start to leave spaces for us to exploit.

Collins and Charles swapping between 9&10 will be important. Charles did a great job of that in the 1st leg, as they probably expected Charles to stay high with Collins behind, but that didn't happen..

Also maybe a case for Vic starting this one to see if the ball stays up there a little longer..

[The_Gun]

Have felt pretty confident since Friday. This morning though post coffee am absolutely bricking it. Guess it’s just pre match normal fears but seeing Barnsley fans suddenly feel confident isn’t helping.

Barnsley fans are suddenly feeling confident? Strange, if true.

[Worthy4England]

Have felt pretty confident since Friday. This morning though post coffee am absolutely bricking it. Guess it’s just pre match normal fears but seeing Barnsley fans suddenly feel confident isn’t helping.

I'm not intensely surprised.

[The_Gun]

Same starting team tonight then? That’s probably what I’d go for, and I think Evatt will as well.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Have felt pretty confident since Friday. This morning though post coffee am absolutely bricking it. Guess it’s just pre match normal fears but seeing Barnsley fans suddenly feel confident isn’t helping.

Barnsley fans are suddenly feeling confident? Strange, if true.

Probably think they found the formula in winding Toal up. We just need cool heads and the knacking of Cosgrove can wait until we're out of sight or at the death when any consequence matters little.