BFTG Bolton(H)

[Royal Ginger]

Some football happened but primarily, I MAY NEVER BE WARM AGAIN.

[Royal Ginger]

Al-Habsi, McCleary, Williams all excellent, most fair, Hector poor.

I'd probably go for Al-Habsi motm, as Bolton could have and probably should have been 3 up after15 minutes.

Ref very biased towards us first half, seemed to try and even it up a bit in the second. Flat frozen atmosphere.

[Cureton's Volley]

5 Parkinsons <3

[genome]

I can't feel my feet.

Al-Habsi won us that game.

[PieEater]

Well I thought Bolton were complete and utter shit, on another day if we'd have turned up we'd have won 5 or 6 nil, as it was it turned out to be a composed performance and a bit of luck (rebound with the first) that we ended up winning comfortably.

There's still some doubt in my mind whether the team turned up for Clarke and whether they actually give a shit about the manager,

[PieEater]

oh and it was cold.

[holsgrove breaks a leg]

Freezing,almost rivalled by the home game v watford some years back! An understandably muted atmosphere,probably worst I've seen us winning for a long while. A wins a win to keep the pressure off clarke for now.

Having said that very weak defensively across back 4, hector has 1000 mistakes in him at the moment. Sa way off the pace, we need more competition there in Jan and I would like to liburd given a few cameos. Mcleary still lacking any worthwhile end product-is he suffering from Clarkes formation?. Williams battled well today and Norwood and blackman average ,piazon the usual fits and starts.clear mom for the impressive al habsi.

Interesting to see clarkes defensive subs which highlighted his mission to protect a win at all costs only to concede a pen straight away!. Glad we stopped the rot but I fear if we keeping playing with mistakes at the back and as individuals and not more as a team we will still find ourselves in trouble. God we miss tishbola and quinn!

[Chelsea/Royal]

2 nil up against a team that has won 1 game this season and Clarke goes 5 at the back!

Genius!

Oh and he has made Vydra a bit part player!

Genius!

God it was cold!

[genome]

Oh and he has made Vydra a bit part player!

He wasn't fully fit, apparently, although he made one full-on sprint when he came on which was quite alarming considering he was supposed to be carrying a knock.

[Armadillo Roadkill]

We could easily have been three down but for excellent saves from MOTM Al-Habsi.

We got a bit lucky with the first goal, then suddenly seem to remember football was a game that could be enjoyed, and had a really good spell.

In the second half Bolton broke things up quite well, and we just made too many mistakes.

Then totally weird substitutions, unbelievable negative tactics, one penalty and suddenly we looked like throwing away two points.

That was a match we won despite the manager, not thanks to.

Weather: bit nippy.

[Ginger Ninjas]

We could easily have been three down but for excellent saves from MOTM Al-Habsi.

We got a bit lucky with the first goal, then suddenly seem to remember football was a game that could be enjoyed, and had a really good spell.

In the second half Bolton broke things up quite well, and we just made too many mistakes.

Then totally weird substitutions, unbelievable negative tactics, one penalty and suddenly we looked like throwing away two points.

That was a match we won despite the manager, not thanks to.

Weather: bit nippy.

Pretty fair review. Think we actually looked a bit more composed when Obita was brought on to make it more 4-3-3, I really don't think 4-4-2 is working. Not sure what Fernandez has to do to get involved. AAH clear MOTM in the first half, thought Norwood was our best player in the second half.

[Westwood52]

I have been colder at evening games-remember one game against Soton where I had to go into the concourse at H/T minus 3 when I got back to the car.

Pretty shabby performance really & we were saved by Ali.

Ali 10: few misdirected goal kicks but kept us in the game. Almost got to the penalty.
Gunter 6: Bit weak really but compare him with the left side where we hardly ever got forward with any conviction.
Taylor 5: Badly lacking in confidence.
Mc Shane 5: Silly clearance which got him the booking-struggled all afternoon with their CF in the air(who was throwing his forearm around in every challenge).
Hector 4: Far too casual.
Williams 7: One of his best games, but a bit headless at times-good goal.
Norwood 8: One poor pass but once again the teams heartbeat.
Piazon 5: At least he scored-but is too soft for this league.
McCleery 9: His best game of the season-near his very best-why take him off ?
Blackman 7: Swanned around a bit & played the diva-but effective when it mattered.
Sa 6: Largely a passenger but put in a shift when it mattered late in the game.

Obita; strange substitution.
Cooper: even stranger substitution.

Clarke: Almost got it wrong tactically & we were not switched on right at the start.

One of the better refs .

[CountryRoyal]

We could easily have been three down but for excellent saves from MOTM Al-Habsi.

We got a bit lucky with the first goal, then suddenly seem to remember football was a game that could be enjoyed, and had a really good spell.

In the second half Bolton broke things up quite well, and we just made too many mistakes.

Then totally weird substitutions, unbelievable negative tactics, one penalty and suddenly we looked like throwing away two points.

That was a match we won despite the manager, not thanks to.

Weather: bit nippy.

Pretty fair review. Think we actually looked a bit more composed when Obita was brought on to make it more 4-3-3, I really don't think 4-4-2 is working. Not sure what Fernandez has to do to get involved. AAH clear MOTM in the first half, thought Norwood was our best player in the second half.

Oh what a surprise, another person who thinks we should play 4-3-3. Why is Clarke so blind to this?!

[P!ssed Off]

Al-Habsi MOTM.

A poor performance against a terrible Bolton side.

[RoyalBlue]

WTF was the Scottish Barsteward playing at when he made those negative defensive substitutions? We were playing a team who had only scored 10 goals all season, had then penned back in their own half and looking like it was only a matter of time before we got our third. Unlike the first 20 minutes (Al Habsi, who was great today, excepted) our defence were looking more than capable of dealing with anything Bolton came up with.

So first Clarke brings on Obita, all the hand signals clearly leaving the team confused as to what the hell was going on and where they needed to play. Then Bolton wheel on some old boy called Heskey and Clarke feels that warrants the introduction of another centre back! What a confidence boost that must have given Bolton and Heskey! FFS, after a couple of breaks forward Heskey would have needed resuscitation, our existing set up could have easily dealt with him and the team had already proven that attack was the best form of defence.

That was a match we won despite the manager, not thanks to.

Absolutely spot on. I'm beginning whether our cunning owners had spotted that Fulham were the ideal opportunity to offload Clarke and get some money in our bank account rather than firing him themselves and having to pay compensation.

[Chelsea/Royal]

Al-Habsi MOTM.

A poor performance against a terrible Bolton side.

Have to agree, I thought Charlton were the worst team I have seen, but Bolton were truly awful.

I don't know how anyone thinks Reading could be promotion contenders, they were truly dreadful as well.

[LUX]

WTF was the Scottish Barsteward playing at when he made those negative defensive substitutions? We were playing a team who had only scored 10 goals all season, had then penned back in their own half and looking like it was only a matter of time before we got our third. Unlike the first 20 minutes (Al Habsi, who was great today, excepted) our defence were looking more than capable of dealing with anything Bolton came up with.

So first Clarke brings on Obita, all the hand signals clearly leaving the team confused as to what the hell was going on and where they needed to play. Then Bolton wheel on some old boy called Heskey and Clarke feels that warrants the introduction of another centre back! What a confidence boost that must have given Bolton and Heskey! FFS, after a couple of breaks forward Heskey would have needed resuscitation, our existing set up could have easily dealt with him and the team had already proven that attack was the best form of defence.

That was a match we won despite the manager, not thanks to.

Absolutely spot on. I'm beginning whether our cunning owners had spotted that Fulham were the ideal opportunity to offload Clarke and get some money in our bank account rather than firing him themselves and having to pay compensation.

Must admit we are fortunate to have so many tactical geniuses on here.
Have you ever fancied a career as a top pundit, m8

[genome]

WTF was the Scottish Barsteward playing at when he made those negative defensive substitutions? We were playing a team who had only scored 10 goals all season, had then penned back in their own half and looking like it was only a matter of time before we got our third.

Er really? Bolton controlled the second half for me, we only had perhaps 1 decent chance after the break.

'greed on the Obita substitution though, not sure what that was all about.

[RoyalBlue]

WTF was the Scottish Barsteward playing at when he made those negative defensive substitutions? We were playing a team who had only scored 10 goals all season, had then penned back in their own half and looking like it was only a matter of time before we got our third. Unlike the first 20 minutes (Al Habsi, who was great today, excepted) our defence were looking more than capable of dealing with anything Bolton came up with.

So first Clarke brings on Obita, all the hand signals clearly leaving the team confused as to what the hell was going on and where they needed to play. Then Bolton wheel on some old boy called Heskey and Clarke feels that warrants the introduction of another centre back! What a confidence boost that must have given Bolton and Heskey! FFS, after a couple of breaks forward Heskey would have needed resuscitation, our existing set up could have easily dealt with him and the team had already proven that attack was the best form of defence.

That was a match we won despite the manager, not thanks to.

Absolutely spot on. I'm beginning whether our cunning owners had spotted that Fulham were the ideal opportunity to offload Clarke and get some money in our bank account rather than firing him themselves and having to pay compensation.

Must admit we are fortunate to have so many tactical geniuses on here.
Have you ever fancied a career as a top pundit, m8

Is sarcasm (and poor non-league level sarcasm at that) the best that you can do in response?

Probably so, given that it would be so very difficult to justify Clarke's decisions today. Why start defending when you look strong enough attacking. This was a game where attack clearly was the best form of defence.

WTF was the Scottish Barsteward playing at when he made those negative defensive substitutions? We were playing a team who had only scored 10 goals all season, had then penned back in their own half and looking like it was only a matter of time before we got our third.

Er really? Bolton controlled the second half for me, we only had perhaps 1 decent chance after the break.

'greed on the Obita substitution though, not sure what that was all about.

'Controlled' in the manner of an Adkins' team on a bad day - i.e. didn't ever look like they could do enough to grab a point. McCleary was causing them a lot of trouble right up till when he was taken off so IMO should not have been substituted unless injured.

[strap]

Another little positive we can take away from this is that our quartet on 4 yellows came through another match unscathed. Granted Tshibola wasn't playing, but still good news Gunter, Norwood and Obita escaped a booking.