BFTG Bolton(H)

[Ian Herring]

One of my infrequent visits to the Loyalty Dome this season.

I have come to the conclusion that I don't really care in the least who is our manager.

What I care about is the success of the team, and the club.

In the years I have followed the Rz I have felt warm feelings for: Infoot, McGhee, Jim and Mick, Coppell and Brian.

I have felt indifference towards: Porterfield, Burns.

Pity for: Terry the Taxi.

A shame-faced kind of lust and hatred towards Pards (the provocative, M25-voweled and consonanted (not a word) cunter).

Converse comedy hatred for McGhee (previously mentioned in a warmer vein).

No feelings or recognition at all of the perm-tanned Adkins during his non-entity rein at Smallmead.

A kind of unregulated sub-stomach churn of the kind you experience walking through any major city in summer months when the sewage system starts chucking up and wafting drift-turn backwash stench back up through the drains (Whitley Whiffs ad infinitum) when thinking of Steve Clarke - mixed with any of the varieties of non-feeling/indifference/lack of recognition itemised above. (What's he ever actually done? Answer, apart from one short rhubarb patch at Reading this season - fuck all.)

Today in the first 15 minutes Bolton could have been three up.

Great performance by the increasingly less-shaky Al-Habsi.

Gunter - weak, ineffective. (And there are times when I really like this bloke when he is on his game - but it seems he appears feeble in his approach at times, sadly).

McCleary - great control on and receiving the ball - looked calm and full of authority at times.

Williams - fairly sleek.

Hector - flaky, slightly up the self.

Taylor - Watery.

McShane - equally uterine.

Norwood - Okay.

Piazon - looked like Shane Long might appear in the latter stages of bone cancer - too delicate to touch but as easy to remove from his about-to-be-vacated space as a butterfly in the latter stages of being erased by nuclear fission.

Blackman - despite the pink boots, still quite alive (in the gay, tatted arm way that modern footballers have) on the back of ripples of near-recent form.

Sa - Acceptable, for 80-90% of the game.

Bolton: looked like Salford FC - a bit northern gobshite with some organisation and grit and bite - standard Northern tripe or pre-baked pie pastry. Stodge.

Good to see the 16 go off late-doors after his exaggerated writhing in the first half that got us an early booking. Twat.

Don't give a shit what happens to Clarke. In football terms he's made a mistake and upset the wrong people, probably, reading the thin runes emanating from the club.

Conversely it may have the obverse affect that he has to pull a run of form rabbit out of the hat that will see Reading probe more directly for promotion this season.

Strange, subdued and wishful days.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Habsi has always been a decent keeper....against us, at least.

The early signing blunders happened.........but he (like Bond) had so little to do to counter them.......now our keeper has lots to do.....the true keeping quality is now evident.

Think I said this would happen a couple of months ago.....well done me

[marlowuk]

I'm not sure if anyone else noticed but it was freezing cold?!!

Al Habsi kept us in the game for the first 20 minutes or so with 3 great saves. We were being muscled off the ball by a very physical Bolton side and McShane was not his usual dominant self in the air. Then the ball took a lucky ricochet off a Bolton defender (I think) which Piazon reached first and managed to poke it into the net. That seemed to settle us down and we played faster and with more purpose for the rest of the half and were good value for a 2-0 lead from a great strike from Danny Williams who was, along with AAH, my MotM. Even Piazon was, after his goal, tracking back and battling more strongly for the ball.

Unfortunately we seemed to lose all urgency in the second half and allowed Bolton back into the game. They were unlucky when they hit the post with AAH beaten but Blackman had a good effort brilliantly saved too. Blackman worked extremely hard all game though and was eager to win back the ball whenever he lost it. I didn't see why the penalty was awarded, and neither did the spectators around me, but there were no protestations from our side and, apparently, Norwood brought down one of their players. AAH very nearly saved the penalty but couldn't get enough of his hands on the ball and that goal obviously encouraged Bolton. We went more defensive (including the substitutions!) and got more jittery! Our solid back four (or 5 or 6) looked anything but solid although we looked just as likely to score from a counter-attack. I also thought McCleary had one of his best games of the season for us!

And was it my imagination or did I hear a short rendition of 'Steve Clarke's Barmy Army' - from the Bolton fans!??

[bobby1413]

Piazon is total sh*t ... I don't care if he scored today - that's a red heron. He is total cack. Get him out of the first 11 ASAP.

Sa needs to man up at times. He seemed to go down too easily once or twice

Gunter - still not sure he's up to the standard required. What does he do
That makes him earn his spot?

McShane mixed

AAH - I love him

[AthleticoSpizz]

Red herring btw.........

[3points]

The decision making in the final third was poor today, otherwise we might have had another couple of goals.

Increasingly thinking Orlando Sa is becoming a low budget Pavel Pogrebnyak. No pace, never in the box and falls over a lot

[bobby1413]

:D

Red herring btw.........

[CountryRoyal]

The decision making in the final third was poor today, otherwise we might have had another couple of goals.

Increasingly thinking Orlando Sa is becoming a low budget Pavel Pogrebnyak. No pace, never in the box and falls over a lot

Decision making mostly comes down to confidence. Confidence in yourself and in your team mates, which is obviously and understandably reletively low at the moment.

Disagree with your last point, not a huge fan of Sa but I'd sooner have him in the team over Pog in a heartbeat.

[tidus_mi2]

The second half was dreadful, no one could get any fluidity, Bolton had that opportunity from a set piece that bounced off the line but that was it. However the 2nd half suited us and Bolton didn't really look like scoring until Clarke swapped to a 5 man defence, it invited Bolton onto us and we suddenly looked overrun.

[3points]

The decision making in the final third was poor today, otherwise we might have had another couple of goals.

Increasingly thinking Orlando Sa is becoming a low budget Pavel Pogrebnyak. No pace, never in the box and falls over a lot

Decision making mostly comes down to confidence. Confidence in yourself and in your team mates, which is obviously and understandably reletively low at the moment.

Disagree with your last point, not a huge fan of Sa but I'd sooner have him in the team over Pog in a heartbeat.

Just wish we had someone who was strong and has pace. Then we'd look like we would have all the options covered up front. Never seen Liburd play, and had hoped he'd get some minutes today with us 2-0 up with 20 minutes to go

[Royal Ginger]

Habsi has always been a decent keeper....against us, at least.

Not always...

[genome]

The decision making in the final third was poor today, otherwise we might have had another couple of goals.

Increasingly thinking Orlando Sa is becoming a low budget Pavel Pogrebnyak. No pace, never in the box and falls over a lot

Decision making mostly comes down to confidence. Confidence in yourself and in your team mates, which is obviously and understandably reletively low at the moment.

Agreed with this. You only had to see when we went 1-0 up, that our confidence had a shot in the arm and we were fluid in the final 3rd for the rest of the half. We never really got going when we came back out and as Bolton had most of the ball I think we lost that momentum.

Does anyone else think the Bolton penalty was harsh?

[Jagermesiter1871]

Awful first 15. Good next 30. Average to poor next 45.

Poor substitutions from Clarke.
I've always thought that the best way to judge the quality of a manager is by 2nd half performance, particularly directly after the break. The half time talk, reassessment of tactics and any subsequent changes is probably the most direct influence on the team a manager has and thus is the best insight into a managers worth.

This is damning of Clarke as today, Fulham away and basically every match under Clarke I can remember, we have come out second half looking slow and lethargic. What ever he is saying in there at the break isn't working and his substitutions seem to confirm his ineptness.

Until this week I had been a fan of Clarke. However his behaviour this week has caused me to put his actions under a microscope.

Further thoughts:
Wtf has happened to Hector? He's been dire for the last 4-5 games. Al Habsi superb. Williams v good. McCleary good. Rest ok.

Controversially, I also think Blackman could do with being dropped to the bench for the next game. Whilst he does show glimpses of his earlier season form, he's extremely selfish and wasteful, without the goals to back it up at the moment. He has undoubted quality but I think it's certainly gone to his already ballooned ego.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Habsi has always been a decent keeper....against us, at least.

Not always...

was that against us?

I kind've find the the whole Al-Habsi slagging-off/joke thing now very redundant

(As I did when we signed him)...

Well done me

[Royal Ginger]

Habsi has always been a decent keeper....against us, at least.

Not always...

was that against us?

I kind've find the the whole Al-Habsi slagging-off/joke thing now very redundant

(As I did when we signed him)...

Well done me

Yeah that was against us. We threw away a 2 goal lead and lost 3-2 if my slightly hazy memory serves.

Agree about slagging off thing, was only a couple of years ago that Arsenal were sniffing around after him. The Wigan fall from grace put him in a bit of an unrealistic position. I've liked him all along, but that howler always makes me chuckle.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Fair dos'

Just a snapshot....but a good one

My memories of his Wigwam days were him tipping over decent chances from our marauding forwards.......

...........and then there was the Pog

[The Cap]

Jeeze that was cold. Having said that I've worked in -38 before, with the wind chill factor, so may be not that cold. Well played Al Habsi. And I felt totally indifferent to Clarke stood on the touchline. In fact, sadly, I feel that Clarke's actions this week have diminished my feelings towards the beautiful game as I once knew it. Naive perhaps but there we have it. Anyway we won 2-1, so all good.

[Royal Ginger]

Fair dos'

Just a snapshot....but a good one

My memories of his Wigwam days were him tipping over decent chances from our marauding forwards.......

...........and then there was the Pog

That home game you're referring to is right up there as one of my least favorite games to have had the misfortune of attending.

[AthleticoSpizz]

My other memories of all the Wigwam matches were always "just before Christmas" minus 1 with a windchill factor of -50

Our current keeper was always the motm for them


Cannot say I will ever miss those days

[Lower West]

Poor substitutions from Clarke.

And the options available on the bench?