Well the £10 tickets added 4000 on the gate from last year and what did the 22,117 of us get?
Without doubt the most woeful, inept, clueless and tactically hopeless performance the Reebok has seen from a Bolton Team. The omens were good going into the game, Fulham were by their own manager's admission tired and Bolton had been on a refreshing break. Fulham had only scored three goals away all season and not won a game while Bolton seemed to have found some home form. Did the game start with a bang as in previous Reebok encounters recently? Well…no it seemed like both midfields were determined to pass to each other when they could string two passes together that is.
On 28 minutes an Elmander free kick was spilled and Cahill and McCann contrived to miss from a yard out. That was about as good as it got. Then with minutes until the end of a turgid first half Simon Davies' hopeful pass upfield was intercepted by Andy O’Brien who instead of taking it away from goal took it towards and away from Jussi Jaaskalienen, who was now a bemused onlooker. O’Briens first touch was poor and he lost the footrace with Andrew Johnson who wouldn’t have scored an easier goal all this, or any other season.
Just before half time we managed to get back on terms with a strong with Kevin Davies adding to his tally, yet with 10 minutes of the second half gone O`Brien was dispossessed by Johnson who lost the ball in the penalty area, Danny Murphy got it, lost it, got it back and rifled a shot against the bar leaving Gretar Steinsson floundering.
Then came the keystone cops as the ball fell to Sean Davies with seven Bolton players in the six yard box in front of him. None of them managed to block his shot and someone should mention to Jlloyd Samuel that doing so behind the line kind of misses the point. Comic it certainly was but with no relief for the long suffering Bolton faithful. And it got better, or worse dependant on which side of Watford gap you came from.
Gavin McCann under no pressure on the left edge of the penalty area plays a defence splitting pass, unfortunately it was our defence and Clint Dempsey gratefully accepted and played in Diomansy Kamara who buried it in our goal. A schoolboy error - the schoolboy you pick after the fat one and skinny one with milk bottle glasses that is! It was the most woeful performance a Bolton side has put in at the Reebok, although not everyone played badly the majority did and deserved the boos of the crowd at full time. If it was just this particularly inept performance it would be bad enough but its the others things at the Reebok do not bode well for Bolton’s future.
The team looked demorolised and lacking ideas and confidence. The crowd is increasingly hostile, indeed jeering the introduction of Muamba and getting into a full blown argument with Mathew Taylor. The club appears in danger of imploding. Gary Megson recognised the problems on the pitch but couldn’t resist a dig at the fans saying "You listen to the reaction of people around here and you would think you had taken over Real Madrid, and there had never been a poor performance" missing the point yet again.
It's not that we have never seen a poor performance following Bolton, it's just the manner and frequency that is beginning to switch people off. What should be noted by the Bolton Board is the number of Season Ticket holders stating clearly they will not renew that way the club is playing. The core support is crumbling.
This is more than a bad day at the office, many of us have had that, those of us that still have an office to go to of course. The divisions are now running deeper than that; a club divided from its fans is in serious trouble. The fans that are booing are still there, the real danger is that they will vote with their feet and not be next season. With dire performances, a manager who thinks we expect Real Madrid and money tight for those in work never mind those without its looking an increasingly easy choice not to be there.
The so called easy run in is a double edged sword as playing clubs around us rather than those at the top means every defeat will send us down quicker than losing to those above. It's a terrible cliché about a must win game but the West Brom game is looking just that. The buck must stop somewhere and Bolton are Gary Megson’s team, his tactics, his signings so he must take responsibility. Another soul destroying defeat to the bottom of the league and maybe it is time to look elsewhere as the fate of Charlton, once a Premier League mid table regular like us, should have a sobering and chilling effect.
