Arsenal on Wednesday

[Athers]

Traffic was a nightmare, 1hr30 from Manchester to the ground, so I missed us being slaughtered early on, but did arrive in time to see Bogdan shut his legs at the sight of Walcott.

Really happy with a point and a clean sheet as it keeps some momentum going, Norwich getting stuffed doesn't hurt either for Saturday.

I really thought we were down after Wolves, but I think we'll stay up now..!

Shut the fck up Athers !!!

Domed.

Feel like I had to get it out after resisting the urge to say, "Henry has never scored at the Reebok you know," when he came on!

[Worthy4England]

Draw about right for me. Arsenal could have buried us early on but missed chances.

We competed well, looked more compact and showed fight and battle.

Have to question where our goals will come from playing like this, but equally it's far preferable to our limp wristed early season efforts.

Norwich will be tough, but we must beat Wigan!

Agree - Happy with current form and effort.

All of which, given that we're still missing CYL & Holden, haven't signed £400m worth of talent in the transfer window and have really only added Ricketts back in from being injured, makes more and more mystifying

1) Why we stuck to 4-4-2 dogmatically, when it clearly wasn't working
2) Why Muamba and Steinsson seem to be not "frozen out" any more
3) Why our discipline was so poor early doors
4) Why tactically we were a complete crock of shit

We could have lost tonight (equally we could have won), but had we lost, it wouldn't have been because we got our tactics fatally wrong and shipped 5.

Nowt to do with "spending power" and all that bollocks, just the application of some tactical nous (and probably a small helping of luck too).

[P.O.S.]

Top point, well chuffed with it! And at one stage this season I couldnt see where another result was coming from at all. Well done Bolton, we're right in the fight now.

Couldnt believe what I was hearing from wideboy Arsenal fans on the train home; "Wenger is a cant, Henry is a cant, we're only 7 points off going down, oh well Id lavv a bit of Palace away anyway. Wenger out, get Mourinho in, who cares about good football he's a winner. The team is shit, Europa League is shit. Oh well fack it its a giggle aint it, lets go and find some muggy northern brasses to smash - we are Arsenal, shit and we know we are, in crisis and going nowhere"

Crisis?! They want to try sitting at bottom of the league all season!

[Sponge]

Ngog is rapidly becoming my favourite Bolton player after the Moo. Blinking superb. And if he starts burying those half-chances...

[Worthy4England]

Ngog is rapidly becoming my favourite Bolton player after the Moo. Blinking superb. And if he starts burying those half-chances...

Not quite going as far as "favourite player" and looks about as likely to score as Muamba most of the time, but I think his last couple of games have been pretty impressive.

[Athers]

That header from the great ball Petrov put in was a larf, was it off his shoulder? Went parallel to the goal line anyway

[Sponge]

Ngog is rapidly becoming my favourite Bolton player after the Moo. Blinking superb. And if he starts burying those half-chances...

Not quite going as far as "favourite player" and looks about as likely to score as Muamba most of the time, but I think his last couple of games have been pretty impressive.

I mean my favourite player in our current set-up, obviously. I find those moments of slight uncoordination endearing, hence my appreciation of Muamba.

[William the White]

Draw about right for me. Arsenal could have buried us early on but missed chances.

We competed well, looked more compact and showed fight and battle.

Have to question where our goals will come from playing like this, but equally it's far preferable to our limp wristed early season efforts.

Norwich will be tough, but we must beat Wigan!

Agree - Happy with current form and effort.

All of which, given that we're still missing CYL & Holden, haven't signed £400m worth of talent in the transfer window and have really only added Ricketts back in from being injured, makes more and more mystifying

1) Why we stuck to 4-4-2 dogmatically, when it clearly wasn't working
2) Why Muamba and Steinsson seem to be not "frozen out" any more
3) Why our discipline was so poor early doors
4) Why tactically we were a complete crock of shit

We could have lost tonight (equally we could have won), but had we lost, it wouldn't have been because we got our tactics fatally wrong and shipped 5.

Nowt to do with "spending power" and all that bollocks, just the application of some tactical nous (and probably a small helping of luck too).

good post, worthy.

but coyle learned and changed, and maybe he'll be less stubborn now.

Tonight's MotM was NRC by a mile. an absolutely massive game in an outstanding team performance.

We finished both halves the stronger team, and had nail biting periods near the start of both.

A draw a very fair result. By Arsenal mates doing the prawn sandwiches less happy than me.

Feet like bloody ice at the end.

But pretty warm inside.

the next two games are 'winnable' in the way three of the last four 'weren't'.

four points and I'll be happy. six and I'll feel we are on our way to safety.

[as]

Marvellous.

Atmosphere in the 2nd half was as good as I've ever heard in the NSL, 100% effort from the players and we were a tad unlucky not to nick it.

Ngog puts in a shift that SKD would be proud of, just a shame the big man came on and had that charlie of a ref penalising him for anything and everything

Arsenal are an awful team, full of cheats and moaners, I'm soooooo happy they'll struggle to qualify for the CL. And their fans also deserve to be hung, drawn and quartered as they are the epitome of cuntishness.

Horrible club - horrible players - horrible managers - with a massive following of glory-hunting paddies in the away end - c*nts the lof of them

Anyone else see the bloke in the NSL wearing a t-shirt and flip-flops

[Armchair Wanderer]

Draw about right for me. Arsenal could have buried us early on but missed chances.

We competed well, looked more compact and showed fight and battle.

Have to question where our goals will come from playing like this, but equally it's far preferable to our limp wristed early season efforts.

Norwich will be tough, but we must beat Wigan!

Agree - Happy with current form and effort.

All of which, given that we're still missing CYL & Holden, haven't signed £400m worth of talent in the transfer window and have really only added Ricketts back in from being injured, makes more and more mystifying

1) Why we stuck to 4-4-2 dogmatically, when it clearly wasn't working
2) Why Muamba and Steinsson seem to be not "frozen out" any more
3) Why our discipline was so poor early doors
4) Why tactically we were a complete crock of shit

We could have lost tonight (equally we could have won), but had we lost, it wouldn't have been because we got our tactics fatally wrong and shipped 5.

Nowt to do with "spending power" and all that bollocks, just the application of some tactical nous (and probably a small helping of luck too).

good post, worthy.

but coyle learned and changed, and maybe he'll be less stubborn now.

Tonight's MotM was NRC by a mile. an absolutely massive game in an outstanding team performance.

We finished both halves the stronger team, and had nail biting periods near the start of both.

A draw a very fair result. By Arsenal mates doing the prawn sandwiches less happy than me.

Feet like bloody ice at the end.

But pretty warm inside.

the next two games are 'winnable' in the way three of the last four 'weren't'.

four points and I'll be happy. six and I'll feel we are on our way to safety.

My theory is that if you're playing SKD then you need to play a 4-4-2. OC felt that he couldn't drop SKD lightly without getting some kind of backlash. So it's like we had to have with some of the dire performances this year in order for some fans to realise that maybe 4-4-2 wasn't the answer this season. That either forced OC's hand in dropping SKD when it started to get serious (rock bottom), or meant that he could be more adventurous in changing personnel/tactics.

Coyle has said that he prefers 4-4-2. If we hadn't have been relegation fodder I believe we'd still be playing it now. The reason we went from 4-4-2 to whatever we play now was due to "personnel", so when Holden and CYL come back, and maybe with this new 'un and Ngog up front, 4-4-2 might be the answer again. Or with SKD/Klasnic playing better.

[TANGODANCER]

All this talk of 4-4-2, 4-5-1 makes me laugh. We played a disorganised 9-1 with KD being the 1 and nobody else near him for most of our bad spell. At least now we have a semblance of organisation and are starting to keep the ball more and pass it about. If we were doing that after Holden got injured I must have been watching different games.

Reo Coker, Davies and even Muamba are starting to play a big part in forward play and not just spending time in our own half ,the defence were either playing dangerous high lines and getting caught for pace or getting crowded back into our own box. Petrov and Eagles are tracking back and we look much more organised at the back. N'gog is getting the support KD didn't for too long and tonight's change was very necessary as he'd run himself into the ground. I can see that switch happening much more and it's probably the reason OC wanted Kev to stay. Whatever, it's very heartening to see the committment and energy we're suddenly showing again.

[Jokers in White]

The most entertaining 0-0 draw i have seen in a while. I didn't have any feeling in my feet though at full time. Impressive display by us again, everybody played there part and were committed in every challenge well apart from Petrov who was pulling out of tackles but that's him, and when the announcer said he was MOTM everyone burst out laughing he did well but never MOTM. I'm pleased for Bogdan finally No1 and put in another confident performance, Reo Coker, M.Davies, Steinsson, Ngog, were outstanding. I thought it was a fair result and the stats back that up.

Bolton
Goal Attempts - 14
On Target - 8
Corners - 6
Fouls - 8
Possession - 49% (Didn't seem like that after the 1st half)

Arsenal
Goal Attempts - 16
On Target - 7
Corners - 6
Fouls - 10
Possession - 51%

[2399]

Didn't get up.

But had to get up later on to drive to playgroup so I got to see the last three minutes!!

[irie Cee Bee]

Fanbulous. We are now, finally, playing like a team. Everyman seem to know his job, working their socks off to cover each other and tracking the runs coming out of midfield.

Many heroes.. Ngog, Petrov and Steinson had outstanding games.. man of the match for me.. our captain.. NRC. He was amazing in the engine room once again.

What has caused this transformation... must be Sam Ricketts. He has brought quality and belief to our defense and to the whole team it seems ....and oh yes, keeping 11 on the pitch.

Lets not take Norwich nor Wigan light. They will be fighting hard. However, if we play with the same intensity as we did in the 2nd half against Arsenal, they will be hardpressed to stop us.

[keveh]

A brilliant point and one of the most entertaining nil-nilers you'll ever see!

I've got to agree with Sponge in that Ngog is fast becoming my favourite player, along with M Davies obviously (he's the new Paul Gascoigne didn't you know). People used to like Elmander for putting a lot of effort in and covering the whole field, well Ngog does that but can actually control a ball. It's just unfortunate that he is going to get very limited goal scoring opportunities in the role he's in at the moment.

[Peter Thompson]

We could have been 2 or 3 down in the 1st 20-25 mins we started so slow and lethargic

But towards the end of the 1st half & 2nd half (especially the last 20-25 mins) I thought we could have actually nicked it....M Davies, N'Gog & Bogdan again played well (NRC 2nd half), and I thought at times Petrov was excellent and even Tuncay did well when he came on for the last 15 mins.

The team appear to be playing with more confidence & spirit and we are playing at a quicker tempo and passing the ball much better , which is good to see - all in all a good point but they have to carry this on at the weekend and put some daylight between us the bottom 3

[officer_dibble]

Agree with a lot, though I think the luck of 2012 played a part, in 2011 we would have been 3-0 down after half an hour. Some good defensive performances after that Steinson and Wheater I think but NRC top man again.

We didnt get Mark Davies on the ball enough. When he did run at the back 4 he worried em. Pen?
Ngog works very hard, but carries no goal threat! We need to get players like Eagles in the box when he is playing. Last 10 when Tuncay went right and Eagles floated around was our best spell. Tuncay still shit though(;)).

If we'd of put Klasnic on instead of Davies maybe he could of sniffed a goal...or maybe he would of wandered around and cost us a vital pair of legs.

Oxlade Chamberlain was good for them, was great when he was subbed for that fat lump henry. RVP quality as well, what a shot that hit the bar.

Overall though cracking point well fought for. Great start to the year this!

[Bruce Rioja]

Feel like I had to get it out after resisting the urge to say, "Henry has never scored at the Reebok you know," when he came on!

I have a confession - I actually pointed it out to a friend

[n035209]

Thought we matched them everywhere last night, It was difficult to pick anyone out as i thought they all had a good game.

Knight and Wheater where outstanding for me last night, especially the couple of last ditch tackles, Why does knight get such a bad wrap? He plays week in week out and generally is effective if not spectacular, for me he is Mr consistent really dont know why people have such beef.

Anyway can look forward to Norwich away, then hopefully Southampton get a win against Millwall, so I have a easy game to get to? (Born Bolton, Work Southampton, for some unknown reason)

[boltonboris]

If the difinition of an even game.

They cained us for ahalf an hour, then for a half an ahour it was even, we battered them for another half an hour.

Both teams did everything but score.

Cracking game of football. Pleased with a point on reflection, but last night I was gutted we didn't snatch 3 at the end