Bolton Preview

[colin]

I’ve had four months notice of this so I thought I’d start a little diary on the fortunes of Bolton Wanderers Football Club.

14th October

There’s been a bit of a problem at BWFC over the past few months. In the summer Big Sam decamped to The Skunks after a bit of a tiff with the owners of BWFC and has taken his ability to grind out ugly football with a bunch of aging foreigners to a new place. Little Sam has been having a torrid time, what with Gary Speed, the coach, resigning to concentrate on playing, and the fact that the club is next to bottom with only five points after nine games. The “Incredible Sulk” has got a cob on because he can’t play for Barcelona.

Oooh, Here’s “Spit the Dog” from today’s Football365:

“Bolton's El Hadji Diouf has sensationally admitted to intentionally getting himself sent off in order to play for Senegal.

Diouf's loyalty has often been criticised in his homeland, but the 26-year-old claims he sometimes goes out of his way to ensure his availability. "I have got myself sent off while playing for my clubs, in order that I could go off to play for the Senegal national side," he told the News of the World.

What a lovely bloke.

17th October

One minute I’m doing a diary on Bolton, the next, the wheels come off at The Breezeblock.

Guardian Unlimited: "Bolton have parted company with manager Sammy Lee "by mutual consent", having taken just five points from their first nine Premier League games. The club's general manager Frank McParland, who joined Bolton in the summer from Liverpool, has also left. The news was confirmed in a terse statement from Bolton's chairman Phil Gartside. "This has been a difficult decision for all parties but we have agreed the time is right," he said. "Sammy has played an important part in the club's recent history. We wish Sammy and Frank well for the future. Our efforts will now look for a replacement manager and to concentrate on the future."

Gartside is known to be a fan of former Wigan manager Paul Jewell, who is regarded by insiders as the favourite to take over at the Reebok.

Lee appeared to be living on borrowed time from the moment his falling out with the club's most senior player, Gary Speed, and the club captain Kevin Nolan was made public. Gartside was particularly unimpressed that Lee had alienated Speed, a consumate professional, and that concern was shared by the club's owner, Eddie Davies.Sources close to Speed had gone as far as to call Lee "insecure and paranoid", and claimed that the feeling within the dressing room is that Lee had begun to see Speed as a "threat". Now Bolton must find a manager who can unite the dressing room, and push them up the

Premier League table."

19th October

Bolton have had their approach for Leicester manager Gary Megson rejected by the Championship club.

They have already failed in their attempt to talk to Birmingham boss Steve Bruce and have also approached Real Sociedad about Chris Coleman.

Football365 again “……..they now seem to have lost the plot completely.

That's if you believe The Mirror, who claim that if they don't get their first choice then they want Glenn Hoddle.”

21st October

After yesterday’s 2-0 defeat at Arsenal, and Derby managing a 0-0 at Fulham, Bolton are now at the bottom of the prem.

23rd October

Graeme Souness has been interview by Bolton, but has turned down the offer. Chris Coleman has been refused permission to talk to the club by Real Sociadad.

25th October

It looks like Gary Megson is going to be the new manager. I gave a Stockport County fan a lift to the railway station tonight after a game of five a side. He told me that Megson took them plummetting to the depths.

Bolton have drawn 1-1 with Braga of Portugal tonight. A crowd of 10,848 for an EUFA match, I’m sure we can all click in with that figure.

28th October

Bolton 1 Villa 1. The lowest prem crowd ever at The Reebok. The team was booed off after the game. However Bolton crawl above Derby as the latter lost at home to Everton.

31st October

Carling Cup, Bolton lost 1-0 at home to Manchester City on a penalty. A dull game by all accounts.

4th November

Bolton played West Ham at The Boleyn Ground in a game described in The Guardian as “wretched” and “dire.” The Times also described it as “wretched” and a general overview as “the dross on show.” The Bolton fans must have been gifted with foresight as only 229 of them turned up (I got this figure off t’net so it may not be 100% accurate.) The score was 1-1 with the Trotters equalising in the third minute of added time. Bolton remain 2nd bottom on 7 points

8th November

A creditable 2-2 at Bayern Munich in the UEFA cup group stage game. 4,000 fans made the journey

11th November

Bolton 0 – 0 Boro

So, what would you rather do on a damp and cold November Sunday, watch a 0-0 between The Trotters & The Smoggies or unblock the loo? This has got to be the last one on Match Of The Day 2………..

……………It was.

25th November

OK, let’s be nice to Bolton. They beat Manchester United 1 – 0. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Rat Faced Whinger got told to sit in the stand at half time by Mark Clattenburg after he moaned that Bolton were being too physical. The Guardian said: “It was a view few neutrals in the crowd seemed to share and probably owed more to the fact that United trailed to Nicolas Anelka's 11th-minute goal than anything else.”

The result took Bolton to 15th on 11 points, just one above the drop zone. Well done.

29th November

Uefa Cup again: “Bolton were spared by an equaliser three minutes into stoppage time from Stelios Giannakopoulos but their shortcomings against limited opponents mean they will have to beat Crvena Zvezda (aka Red Star Belgrade)in Belgrade next Thursday to stand any chance of qualifying from Group F.* There was a distinct lack of quality and it made for a drab atmosphere, with vast expanses of empty plastic seats and, for long spells, the only sustained noise coming from the boisterous contingent of Greek supporters. Many of the fans in a hugely disappointing crowd - the lowest at the Reebok since a Carling Cup tie against Gillingham in October 2003 - were already heading home when Stelios struck and, until that point, Bolton looked virtually unrecognisable from the side that upset Sir Alex Ferguson at the weekend.”

1st December

Nothing to do with Bolton really, but Allerdyce came back to Ewood as manager of The Skunks. Ha!

2nd December

They went to Anfield and got beaten 4-0. Apparently they were lucky to get nil and Liverpool should have been close to scoring goals in double figures. It was cold & it rained all the time, so our neighbours will not be happy bunnies. Spit The Dog (aka Diouf) committed an awful foul on Arbeloa – a studs in stamp on the lower shin. The latter was lucky not to wake up in hospital with a broken leg. Spit The Dog disputed the yellow card he received. He’s still a lovely bloke.

6th December

* They did it! No mean feat. Bolton now top the group. Some grudging respect for them in the competition.

9th December

Back to the Breezeblock & the Prem to beat close neighbours Wigan 4 – 1. Ex-Rovers kebab-scoffer Kevin Davies scored his first of the season.

15th December

A visit to fortress Eastlands where City have won their last nine home games. Make that ten. The Trotters went into half time looking good value with a 1-2 score line but their defence collapsed in the second half and allowed City to score another 3 to give a full time 4-2. Megson looks to have a real hard job on his hands. Meanwhile in Wigan on the same day it was very cold and the pies were not up to standard.

22nd December

Birmingham visited the Breezeblock and went away after shipping three goals. On Radio 5 Stuart Hall did a brief resume of the game about 10 minutes after kick-off. “It’s got 0-0 written all over it” he said. He was right until the 72nd minute when Diouf scored. Anelka added two more late on. Bolton are now up to 14th place. Rumour has it that Anelka will be popped into Abramovich’s well-used shopping trolley in the transfer window. If true it will be his 8th move in 10 years, and good news for us as he is currently joint top scorer in the Prem with 11.

26th December

Off to fortress Goodison Park where the first half was described on the BBC’s web site as “a predictable war of attrition.” Handsome Phil Neville scored about the fifth goal of his career when he floated in a cross which was missed by defenders and attackers alike and somehow ended up in the net. Tim Cahill provided the laughs as he somehow tried to claim the goal despite being a good three feet away from the ball. He later scored the second. Never mind you Trotters, off to The Stadium Of Light in a few days for a stroll in the park.

29th December

Well it was a stroll, for Sunderland, who came out 3 – 1 winners. One game after half way through the season Bolton have played 20, won 4, drawn, 5 and lost 11. They have yet to win a game away from home and have lost 8 out of the 10. More pertinently for us, at The Breezeblock they have played 10, won 4, drawn 3, & lost 3.

2nd January

Back to The Breezeblock where Notlob are proving to be rather good with wins there in their last four games: The Scum; Wigan; Birmingham & now Derby. Stelios Giannakopoulos took a big hoof from keeper Ali Al-Habsi in the 3rd minute of added time, lobbed it passed over Paddy Kenny and followed up with a tap-in to grab them the 3 points.

Jammy sods.

"It's difficult to say we deserved to win because we didn't," said Megson. "I thought we played poorly and it looked like being a disappointing home draw for us. We have played a lot better than that since I've been here and today is the first time we've had to rely on some luck to win.

“Ultimately a desperately poor game was decided by a mistake from the Derby defence.”

They are now 15th and just a four goal difference above the drop zone.

5th January

FA Cup day, and Bolton were dumped on their backsides by Sheffield United as they lost at home 0-1 . We won’t be playing them in the next round that’s for sure. Suckers! Getting beaten at home by a Championship side. What kind of Mickey Mouse outfit is Megson running?

[Sandiway Blue]

Longest post in history?

Seriously,a nice post and tbh makes our `crisis` a mockery.Poor notlobbers have in the last 12 months seen the best manager in their history leave and ever since have seen their side nosedive to the bottom of the prem.

Hears hoping we can make it even worse for them by taking 3 points off them on their own patch.

[philipl]

Enjoyable read Colin and yet another different angle on the preview.

Ok folks, I am going to jinx it but it won't take much of a shaking up by Hughes to send us out there to dominate and win this one.

2-1 to Rovers because we are incapable of clean sheets except against Sunderland and Liverpool.

[AggyBlue]

That's a bit different Colin.

Anything other than defeat.

One of the most important games of the season for me.

[joey_big_nose]

Massive game for us.

We are going into this with a lot of players looking out of confidence and out of form. Key individuals are not producing- Nelsen (destroyed- unrecognisable form the individual who came to the club), Savage (leaving), Tugay (can't keep the pace), Samba (suddenly gone from infallible to shakey), McCarthy (too deep, too ineffective, lacking killer instinct).

We need to rebuild the spine of the team. That can only be achieved from my point of view if Nelsen and Reid can find their feet again. If not we need new players. Will we have them by the time we play Bolton?

[cletus]

I really really hope we win this one!

...infact i`m praying we win this one!

Why? I`ll tell you,

because my girlfriend lives in Bolton. She doesn`t support them, but has taken a keen interest in their fortunes since we started going out. When somebody scores against us, i get a sarky text within minutes saying stuff like "oops! are the mighty Blackburn losing again lol?"

I refuse to get drawn into a slanging match, but have pointed out on several occasions Blackburn`s trophy cupboard is far far healthier than the Piggies one (infact, does the Breezeblock have a trophy room?)

I told her about our 3 championships, 6 FA cups, league cup & Full Members cup....not bad for a town team. Compare it to Boltons 4 FA cups (the last one in 1954 or summat) & nowt else.....then i go on to say 4 cups is a pretty poor return for a supposedly 'bigger' club from a town 3 times the size of Blackburn & of relatively the same age.

....& to make it worse, her daughter is a bloody Man Ure fan!

God i REALLY hope we win!!

[American Rover12]

Very well done, great new style of preview.

I think we're gonna bounce back strong.

3-1 rovers. Like philipl said, we're incapable of keeping a clean sheet.

Santa Samba Santa.

[Flopsy]

A loss is unacceptable (unless utterly robbed by the ref, then we can have a damn good moan)

A draw is fine for me, we need to get the whole "not losing" mentality that we used to have at the start of this season and the end of last

Anelka to score, as he always does, against us

[DanLad]

I've some great memories of Bolton away.

4-1 promotion run in with Jansen dummying the keeper about 5 times before slotting the ball away. Freezing cold and we didn't stop singing all second half. Players began wandering off the pitch at full time and Souness ordered them over to the fans to thank them for the support. ISTR the score would have been higher but for a fabulous performance from Big Col for them. We even got Big Col to show his backside before the game!

There was a draw a few years ago when we were looking doomed to relegation. Cole sent off. Did we win the Worthy that year?

Last season, 2-1. Benni making amends for the pen at home. Spending hours getting off the car park.

In fact, my memory might be a bit hazy come to think of it so if I'mwrong with any of these 'memories' please feel fee to correct me (I know you're all a bit reticent about that sort of this on here;-)

Looking forward to Sunday. C'mon Rovers!

[Hasta]

You've missed out my favourire reebok memory DanLad. Dwight Yorke's one meaningfull contribtion in a Rovers shirt in the 94th minutes when we drew 2-2 with 10 men.

[MarkBRFC]

Be interesting to see how our lads bounce back in this one.

Will take a draw, 1-1.

[waggy]

this game is a must win after saturdays result

[philipl]

There were a couple of unexpected 1-0s to Rovers at Burnden in the '70s in front of huge crowds for those days. 33,010 in '73 when Bolton won promotion from the third and nearly 25,000 when Bolton were having a second division promotion push in'76. That time we scuppered their promotion but the next season they won 1-0 in front of over 28,000 to secure promotion at Ewood.

[waggy]

i had derek faz and kevin stonehouse to blame for the black eyes after

[gazsimm]

a must win game for us, be intresting to see Hughes's selection for this one. I would love Savage and Roberts to be selected for this one and just remind Hughes that we actually need these players

[Sandiway Blue]

Why would you want Savage in the team when he wants out anyway? The guy is unhappy, fair enough, but I wish he'd keep his gob shut. Also on one of the media websites he's quoted as saying something along the lines of "it's not a case of Blackburn not wanting me, it's a case of me needing a new challenge". That really doesn't make sense as Hughes is not picking Savage... otherwise Savage wouldn't be ranting on about this! I accept that the guy can do a certain job but if he's upsetting the Rovers apple cart then he should be made to go. Also what did everyone make of him against Wigan when he was given the chance to show what he could do again? For me he was a nonentity.

I'm also fed up of people saying it's a must win game for us without any reason. If we're looking to finish in the top four then it is a must win game. Can we just be glad of the position that little old Blackburn is in without putting so much pressure on the club?

I'm going to the match on Sunday and really looking forward to it, come on you blues!

Good! that will be 2 of us having a good do then.

As my dad used to say "win or lose,sup the booze!"

[Daremz]

No reaction from the players at all.

Bolton 3

Rovers 1

Crying time.

[gazsimm]

Why would you want Savage in the team when he wants out anyway? The guy is unhappy, fair enough, but I wish he'd keep his gob shut. Also on one of the media websites he's quoted as saying something along the lines of "it's not a case of Blackburn not wanting me, it's a case of me needing a new challenge". That really doesn't make sense as Hughes is not picking Savage... otherwise Savage wouldn't be ranting on about this! I accept that the guy can do a certain job but if he's upsetting the Rovers apple cart then he should be made to go. Also what did everyone make of him against Wigan when he was given the chance to show what he could do again? For me he was a nonentity.

I'm also fed up of people saying it's a must win game for us without any reason. If we're looking to finish in the top four then it is a must win game. Can we just be glad of the position that little old Blackburn is in without putting so much pressure on the club?

I'm going to the match on Sunday and really looking forward to it, come on you blues!

If Savage had played more games before the fell out happend, he would not be wanting to move away from Rovers, he should be in the team instead of the Axe. Savage is a far better player

[rebelmswar]

If Savage had played more games before the fell out happend, he would not be wanting to move away from Rovers, he should be in the team instead of the Axe. Savage is a far better player

Wasnt he injured then lacking in match fitness? I have no doubt that Savage is a better player than the Axe but he wants away so let us let him go and move on. If we get 3 million for him Hughes can find a decent replacment. If Savage wanted to stay and play then I would be all for him, defending him to the hilt, but he has said himself that he wants to go.

Also this will be a close game but I think we will get a 0-1 victory.

[bubblerrovers]

Funny how quickly peeople forget how poor we are,

HT 0=0

Full time 2=0 to Bolton another Red card and penalty

[92er]

You've missed out my favourire reebok memory DanLad. Dwight Yorke's one meaningfull contribtion in a Rovers shirt in the 94th minutes when we drew 2-2 with 10 men.

Not quite fair on Yorke-didn't he play-maybe score?-in an away win at Arsenal?

[gazsimm]

Wasnt he injured then lacking in match fitness? I have no doubt that Savage is a better player than the Axe but he wants away so let us let him go and move on. If we get 3 million for him Hughes can find a decent replacment. If Savage wanted to stay and play then I would be all for him, defending him to the hilt, but he has said himself that he wants to go.

Also this will be a close game but I think we will get a 0-1 victory.

I blame Hughes for upsetting Savage, if i was him and i saw the axe playing before him i would be extremley ###### of as well. Its quite crystal clear that if Hughes had dealt with Savage and Roberts better then they would be more then happy to stay at Rovers

[rebelmswar]

I blame Hughes for upsetting Savage, if i was him and i saw the axe playing before him i would be extremley ###### of as well. Its quite crystal clear that if Hughes had dealt with Savage and Roberts better then they would be more then happy to stay at Rovers

I say again that I will be sad to see him go, but his skin should be a bit thicker than that. Being rested and playing other players that fit to the MANAGERS plans better should be part of a footballers life.

[92er]

I blame Hughes for upsetting Savage, if i was him and i saw the axe playing before him i would be extremley ###### of as well. Its quite crystal clear that if Hughes had dealt with Savage and Roberts better then they would be more then happy to stay at Rovers

According to Savage on Radio Lancs today, he hasn't fallen out with MH, he just wants to play as much as possible and now knowa he has to move to achieve this, whether that is to avoid relegation or to help another team remains to be seen.

[Sandiway Blue]

Funny how quickly peeople forget how poor we are,

HT 0=0

Full time 2=0 to Bolton another Red card and penalty

Funny how people forget how good we were just 2 months ago

We suffered a similar slump last season in the calendar months november and december (last season we had 13 points out of the 2 months as opposed to 9 points this season for the same period).

We had a much better start this season and yet everybody is all doom and gloom.