MATCHWATCH : Bolton Wanderers (h)

[Snowflake Royal]

As long as there’s a way that you weren’t technically 100% wrong.

If he turns out to be excellent I'm happy to call it that way. He's played 6 games.

And my issues were more about wasted potential from our academy anyway.

But you can try to point score if you like. Reckon I'm well up on Ehib, Abbey, Abrefa, Camara etc.

[The Cap]

Well it's great to see that we have already covered off next months points deduction....

Class. Pure class

[South Coast Royal]

Walking away from the ground and seeing the Bolton fans looking a bit down brought back memories of the famous Wembley game when we missed out on reaching the Premier League.

Fast forward 20 odd years and there we are, both teams playing a run-of-the-mill 3rd division game on a day when Brighton, a club that we and Bolton might often consider ourselves to be on a par with, are winning comfortably away at Man Utd.in the Premier League.
Tony Bloom at Brighton has proven to be the owner that every club would like to have.

Fortunes do change fairly quickly in football but I now satisfy myself that Reading won't be at the top level again in my lifetime so I have to just think back to the good old days with "old" being less than 20 years ago.

[Snowflake Royal]

Bottom 3 already starting to look cut adrift

Not a single win between them in 21 games.

[Snowflake Royal]

Walking away from the ground and seeing the Bolton fans looking a bit down brought back memories of the famous Wembley game when we missed out on reaching the Premier League.

Fast forward 20 odd years and there we are, both teams playing a run-of-the-mill 3rd division game on a day when Brighton, a club that we and Bolton might often consider ourselves to be on a par with, are winning comfortably away at Man Utd.in the Premier League.
Tony Bloom at Brighton has proven to be the owner that every club would like to have.

Fortunes do change fairly quickly in football but I now satisfy myself that Reading won't be at the top level again in my lifetime so I have to just think back to the good old days with "old" being less than 20 years ago.

Almost 30 years ago.

Back in the mid-late 90s, I think Reading and Bolton would be insulted if you suggested Brighton was on a par with them... around that time Brighton were in serious danger of falling out the league and ceasing to exist.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Walking away from the ground and seeing the Bolton fans looking a bit down brought back memories of the famous Wembley game when we missed out on reaching the Premier League.

Fast forward 20 odd years and there we are, both teams playing a run-of-the-mill 3rd division game on a day when Brighton, a club that we and Bolton might often consider ourselves to be on a par with, are winning comfortably away at Man Utd.in the Premier League.
Tony Bloom at Brighton has proven to be the owner that every club would like to have.

Fortunes do change fairly quickly in football but I now satisfy myself that Reading won't be at the top level again in my lifetime so I have to just think back to the good old days with "old" being less than 20 years ago.

Almost 30 years ago.

Back in the mid-late 90s, I think Reading and Bolton would be insulted if you suggested Brighton was on a par with them... around that time Brighton were in serious danger of falling out the league and ceasing to exist.

I wouldn’t necessarily expect to see us in the top flight again, but also don't rule it out and resign yourself. For me the memory is the draw at Brentford in 2002. A few years later, we were PL and them L2. Now the tables have turned, but on a 15 - 20 year horizon. Football is cyclical, and the likes of Brighton, Palacw, Brentford and Bournemouth may be reminiscing about their current glory days from L1 in 20 years' time, while us, Bolton or Derby are mixing it up in the PL.

A competent owner who cares is a game changer for clubs of our size. You may say "who would invest in Reading " but that's a short term view from current circumstances. Who would invest in Brentford in L2 at Griffin Park? Who would invest in Brighton playing at the Withdean they didn't even own? Why were Bournemouth an appealing investment on negative points in L2?

Not saying it will happen. Just saying it's a bit daft to say you'll never see us in the top flight again.

[South Coast Royal]

Walking away from the ground and seeing the Bolton fans looking a bit down brought back memories of the famous Wembley game when we missed out on reaching the Premier League.

Fast forward 20 odd years and there we are, both teams playing a run-of-the-mill 3rd division game on a day when Brighton, a club that we and Bolton might often consider ourselves to be on a par with, are winning comfortably away at Man Utd.in the Premier League.
Tony Bloom at Brighton has proven to be the owner that every club would like to have.

Fortunes do change fairly quickly in football but I now satisfy myself that Reading won't be at the top level again in my lifetime so I have to just think back to the good old days with "old" being less than 20 years ago.

Almost 30 years ago.

Back in the mid-late 90s, I think Reading and Bolton would be insulted if you suggested Brighton was on a par with them... around that time Brighton were in serious danger of falling out the league and ceasing to exist.

I wouldn’t necessarily expect to see us in the top flight again, but also don't rule it out and resign yourself. For me the memory is the draw at Brentford in 2002. A few years later, we were PL and them L2. Now the tables have turned, but on a 15 - 20 year horizon. Football is cyclical, and the likes of Brighton, Palacw, Brentford and Bournemouth may be reminiscing about their current glory days from L1 in 20 years' time, while us, Bolton or Derby are mixing it up in the PL.

A competent owner who cares is a game changer for clubs of our size. You may say "who would invest in Reading " but that's a short term view from current circumstances. Who would invest in Brentford in L2 at Griffin Park? Who would invest in Brighton playing at the Withdean they didn't even own? Why were Bournemouth an appealing investment on negative points in L2?

Not saying it will happen. Just saying it's a bit daft to say you'll never see us in the top flight again.

You are obviously unaware of my age but of course there is every chance that one day we can compete again at the top level.

[Royal_jimmy]

For the first time in a long time I'm buzzing after a win in a tough game

[Snowflake Royal]

For the first time in a long time I'm buzzing after a win in a tough game

Nah, winning against Bolton in League One is shit. You'd rather lose to Middlesbrough in the Championship.

[Royal_jimmy]

For the first time in a long time I'm buzzing after a win in a tough game

Nah, winning against Bolton in League One is shit. You'd rather lose to Middlesbrough in the Championship.

I would if we were competing in that league

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Sounds like a good performance all around against a team who are usually up there. Good character as well after the week we've had and with the protests during the game potentially causing a distraction as well for the players.

Seen their goal though and it just shows how pace isn't as important as many make out, it's understanding and positioning. Binden gets caught square with the ball over him and then gets caught on the wrong side for Charles to put his body in and score. A poor moment in an otherwise pretty good performance.

The best I have seen Azeez play this season by far.

[Hound]

One last thing, thought Bolton looked absolutely shot at the end whilst we were still full of energy. Think the players are getting up to speed now, helped by good early subs

[BraisingsteakRoyal]

It was like his entire career was judged on a dozen poor games for wba rather than the other 300 games he’s played in his career

Players who start to decline towards the end of their career do tend to keep going that way.

Not always true with goalkeepers - who often have a second-wind later on in their careers. They are usually more settled in life, have played more games (or trained with better players as a 3rd keeper somewhere), less panic-y etc.

[South Coast Royal]

Yes, Button has the knack (based on experience?) of being in the right place at the right time which is a big thing for a keeper.

[MouldyRoyal]

Not much to add on the performance, other than thought Button kept us in it in the first half. Had a decent game and not at fault for the goal.

Other than that, got to say what an actual pcunt the Bolton manager was. Just berating the officials and players from minute 1. Was sat pretty close to the dug out and he just came across as an absolute thug. Bolton fans deserved better tbh. Was light and day with Selles in comparison.

Good win, some clear personality being shown. Need to keep supporting the boys as I think they are beginning to put it all together. We start picking up points away from home and we might sneak into playoffs depending on point deductions lol.

[leon]

I though the midfield looked porous at times. Bolton waltzed straight through Savage and Hutchinson. Micky Gooding mentioned it on BBCB before the game and you could see it happening. Our left side was all over the shop with Mola giving Bolton freedom to attack and get crosses in. Mcintyre looked far more effective when he came on - adding stability.

The subs really made a difference as it kept the momentum going. Elliott looked lively.

[Snowflake Royal]

Selles doesn’t always get his subs right. But I LOVE how much he uses them.

[Stranded]

One last thing, thought Bolton looked absolutely shot at the end whilst we were still full of energy. Think the players are getting up to speed now, helped by good early subs

The fitness levels of players seems to be off the chart compared to the last few years but the fact that Selles trusts every member of his matchday squad to do their job means we can use all 5 subs to manage fatigue without seeing a drop off in standards. The fresh legs also seem to give the remaining players a boost.

Yes Bolton looked shot at the end, the red card was almost directly attributable to that but was also clear that their bench did not have the same quality on it as ours did. We could easily have started all those on the bench on Saturday with minimal (if any) drop off in quality.

[Snowflake Royal]

It really highlights just how stupid Ince was constantly running the same players into the ground with no break.

Especially in games we were already losing comfortably.

I have little doubt him pretty much refusing to ever sub his son contributed to his injury.

[Orion1871]

I though the midfield looked porous at times. Bolton waltzed straight through Savage and Hutchinson. Micky Gooding mentioned it on BBCB before the game and you could see it happening. Our left side was all over the shop with Mola giving Bolton freedom to attack and get crosses in. Mcintyre looked far more effective when he came on - adding stability.

The subs really made a difference as it kept the momentum going. Elliott looked lively.

Think the reason the midfield was so open was because we were trying to play too quickly. The players were rushing around pressing high at 100 mph, trying to force passes that had a very slim chance of coming off, and Bolton could counter us easily.

We looked better when Elliott came on and started taking the ball into his feet and turning with it rather than rushing everything.