Wanderers 1 Wigan 2 – Can’t He See The Bleeding Obvious?
Imagine the scene; a primary school in a working class area of Paisley around 1973. The nun in charge of the class asks a question. ‘Please Sister, please Sister’; a slight, dark haired boy on the front row is thrusting his hand forward and almost bursting his braces to provide an answer. The nun points at him, the boy answers; the nun responds ‘No Owen, that isn’t the right answer, it wasn’t the right answer yesterday, or the day before.
Will you ever learn?’ The scene is repeated day after day; young Owen is always boiling over with an answer and, at last, the nun’s response is different. ‘Holy Mother of God, he’s got it right. My prayers have been answered. Well done Owen, well done indeed’ she rejoices. But alas it didn’t last. A week later, we were back to Act One Scene One. ‘No Owen, no, no, no. I thought you had it but you are wrong again. I fear you will never learn’. And though young Owen grew to be a man, he didn’t get any better; he still found it difficult to recognise the right answer even when it was staring him in the face.
You would think our manager would recognise that we had some good results in the last few games, with Reo-Coker and Muamba playing behind Mark Davies in central midfield, and that when he changed this, with half an hour to go in last week’s match against Norwich, we conceded two goals and lost the game. What ever possessed him to start this game with Bogdan; Steinsson, Wheater, Knight, Ricketts; Eagles, Mark Davies, Reo-Coker, Petrov; Kevin Davies, N’Gog? At least he wouldn’t be taking Muamba off; he hadn’t picked him to start. When I heard the team, I felt like heading straight for home.
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Wanderers 0 Arsenal 0 – A New Bolton With Added Resilience
There is something about games against Arsenal. Last season’s thrilling victory, which proved to be a false dawn after the semi final debacle; the season before, which I think was Owen Coyle’s first game in charge and which we lost but played refreshingly well; and an FA Cup replay a few years back, which was an absolute cracker, all stick in the memory.
There is also something special about night matches at the Reebok, particularly when there is a decent crowd. This game, though it was a nil all draw, was well up to standard on both counts. We played with the same intensity and skill that we showed againstLiverpooland none of our players could be faulted.
Of course, there is a downside to evening matches against one of the so-called elite clubs, the horrendous traffic when everyone arrives together. Blackburn at home to Newcastle probably swelled the stream on the M62; what caused the hold up nearer the ground I don’t know but the delays meant that I missed the first ten minutes of the game despite jogging from the car park. It was a cold winters night; at least my jog warmed me up.
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FA Cup 4th Round: Wanderers 2 Swansea 1
I’m not usually short of opinions on matters concerning Bolton Wanderers but I have got to admit that I’m not sure what to make of this game, which I found perplexing and full of contradictions. We dominated the match for long periods and created countless chances yet we only managed to score from a free kick and a goalkeeping error.
Despite Swansea defending for virtually the whole of the first half they scored a simple goal before half time whilst we scored our second goal during the one spell in the game when Swansea were on top. Darren Pratley scored our opening goal, which was almost the only thing he contributed to the victory against his former club. Kevin Davies, who has received a fair amount of criticism this season, received a hero’s welcome from the crowd when he was introduced as a substitute.
Mark Davies, who excelled against Liverpool in the attacking midfield role, played deeper with Pratley playing in front of him and Reo-Coker. Bizarrely, when Muamba came on in place of Pratley, he also played the forward role. Should we regard this game as a confidence building extension of the chain of improved results since the turn of the year or was it a lucky victory that undermines the sprouting shoots of hope?
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Wanderers 3 Liverpool 1 – What A Magnificent Victory
Wow! Where did that come from? I’m black and blue with pinching myself. Since my despairing report on the Newcastle game there have been some signs of improvement but, surely, no one expected this.
We didn’t just win, we were the better team. We could have won by a greater margin and we outplayed Liverpool all over the park. In my last report, I suggested matches that we might win to achieve thirty-nine points. I haven’t got one right yet. Who cares? We are four points up on my benchmark.
What has changed to encourage hope to raise its teasing head? First, our England centre back has moved on to pastures new, hardly an event to encourage thoughts of survival. More significantly, a more fluid 4-2-3-1 formation has replaced the rigid 4-4-2, which means that Mark Davies is playing in a central role supported by the deeper lying Reo-Coker and Muamba.
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Why That Was My Favourite Win Of The Season
Feels good being off the bottom doesn’t it? As the title suggests, the win against Everton was my favourite of the season as it, in my mind, says more about the side than the wins against QPR, Wigan, Stoke and Blackburn.
Wanderers fans have grown frustrated lately at the lack of consistency in our side and our supposed inability to build on results. Every win to date has been followed by a defeat, and a glance at our fixture list suggests the same will apply here. But there is more to it than that. I think a lot of this is down to confidence.
Goodison Park is never an easy place to go, and the knowledge in the players’ minds that we can win there even after the wind gifting them a goal could just keep confidence levels from falling when we go a goal down in future games. It’s often not been the results that have bothered us fans this season as much as the performance.
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Coyle’s Changes Do The Trick
Even though it doesn’t need to be said – WOW! What a valuable three points! A very compelling and tense game up the road at Ewood Park, and most importantly some crucial points in the bag to bring home.
The entire game was a nervous affair and the news that OC had tinkered with the starting line-up by dropping Kevin Davies for Ngog and retaining the services of Marcos Alonso at left-back added some extra intrigue into the mix. Arguably, demoting both Davies and Robinson to the bench is not as controversial as the mainstream media would make out. Kev’s form has been seriously below par this season and given his advancing years this could well signal the end of his regular place in the first XI.
Similarly, Paul Robinson’s all or nothing approach, mixed with some dodgy positional play and tired legs, has seen him fall well out of favour.
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