[Archived] Bolton Preview

[Exiled_Rover]

I agree with you. Here is the BBC's bizarre take on the situation:

He chested it, he was taken out when clean through on goal. How on the bbc can suggest that Cruz should have been booked I don't know.

That's the BBC for you. Stonewall penalty and a certain red card, I've no idea what the referee was playing at.

Talk about a game of 2 halves!

First Half

Apart from the Centre Backs 2-3's for everyone.

Second half.

Robinson - 2 Will send us down. The flaps puts the willy's up the whole defence, he just can't catch. We'll never win a game against a reasonable team who cross well.

Ooijer - 3 mind elsewhere.

Nelsen - 6 Fine

Samba - 8 GreatSamba performance

Warnock 8 seemed to get the balance right second half - roughed up to easily.

Emerton 6 - in and out, crossing was pitiful for most of the game - he is a right back and needs that extra yard of space you get playing deeper. Made the only chance in the first half look impossible - I would have scored.

Grella 5 - Overwhelmed in the first half by Boltons rough and tumble 3 man midfield. Sound after Tugay came on and kept possesion well later on

Andrews 2 - The WHOLE problem in midfield. Left Grella alone against 3 and although didn't wander he's just off the pace. Runs around a lot and doesn't get injured BUT he's always 1-10 yards off the play (more last night) and didn't press at all. We will NEVER control a midfield with him in it unless he gets to grips with the pace at this level. Must have had neckache the first half. GET in their faces! Be with the forwards when the ball falls and with the defence to clean up tackles. Looks to be there or there abouts but just isn't on the mark. Sorry.

MGP - 4 not interested

Roberts - 7 Gave as good as he got

McCarthy - 6 Poor penalty but little else - will score vital goals

Tugay -7 class

RSC - 9 Should have started on the Right

We're struggling now. At least the subs bench means we're not going to be out of too many games but first half has to pick up.

See that's the beauty of football, everyone has an opinion. For mine Warnock was at fault for both goals so he can't possibly have been the man of the match. McCarthy was also exceptional when his teammates started passing to his feet - which happened when Tugay came on. Grella played well, but he was playing on his own in the centre of the park - Andrews does absolutely nothing.

[dellinsert]

I like Grella, think he's been what we've been crying out for for years, but especially in the second half I thought he played 10 yards too deep.

[thenodrog]

I like Grella, think he's been what we've been crying out for for years, but especially in the second half I thought he played 10 yards too deep.

He is a devensive midfielder. The weakness is who to play further forward when DD is out.

[dellinsert]

He is a devensive midfielder. The weakness is who to play further forward when DD is out.

But at points last night he was playing virtually on top of Samba and Nelsen.

[LeftWinger]

But at points last night he was playing virtually on top of Samba and Nelsen.

This was when Tugay and Andrews were in there with him though. He was sitting deep to allow Emerton and Warnock to get forward so much.

[dellinsert]

This was when Tugay and Andrews were in there with him though. He was sitting deep to allow Emerton and Warnock to get forward so much.

I understand what you're saying but considering Bolton had 9 players in and around their box, for me he shouldn't have been as far back as he was. 10 or even 5 yards further forward would have helped greatly imo.

[joey_big_nose]

Decent points. Unfortunately 4-3-3 requires some of those strikers to be able to do a bit in midfield and none of ours are particularly suited to that.

I am not sure about that. With the two other strikers ahead of him McCarthy was excellent dropping back into midfield, and Roberts has shown how much he can help defensively when he comes back into the middile of the park. SO that side of things could work imo.

Other side of the coin is that if we go 433 we might lose the excellent defensive shape we showed against Newcastles, City etc. Bolton did not try to test us in the second half. A more adventurous opponent could have found bags of space on the flanks... Big decision for Sam to make going in against Boro who have a poor central midfield themselves but a decent set of strikers and Downing.

[DaveyB]

Make no mistake, we were very, very lucky last night. The only reason that we were able to come back from 2-0 down was because Bolton decided to sit back and and allow us to have the ball - as I said when we did that against City, if you give any premiership team the ball unchallenged for long enough they will create something.

A few observations from the match last night:

Bolton play terrible football, but are far better than us at playing it. I remember when we used to scoff at them, calling them WimBolton, as we played them off the pitch, but for 45 minutes last night we made them look like Brazil. As the Bolton fan that i spoke to after the game commented - he'd never seen a Rovers team play worse football.

They had one tactic - hit a long crossfield ball to Davies on the right. Even tactically inept Paul Ince saw this and managed to counter it by playing Ooijer on the left against pie-boy at their place. But, at least they had a tactic - which was 1 more than we had!!

Already been said, but it was more a case of Bolton throwing this away by sitting back, than us doing something amazing to get back into the game. The thing that scares me is that, had the scores been reversed at half-time, I'm fairly certain that we'd have come out and tried to defend our 6-yard box in the exact same way that they did.

Up until last night I was never concerned that we would really be in danger of going down - not even with Ince in charge - call me naive, but I always just assumed we'd be ok in the end. Now I'm very worried, we're just not good enough!! We have no pace anywhere in the team, no one who can actually beat a man, and no real tactics other than hoof it upfield and hope that it falls kindly for our strikers.

[LeChuck]

That's the BBC for you. Stonewall penalty and a certain red card, I've no idea what the referee was playing at.

Cahill prevented Jussi from being the last man, and Santa Cruz played the ball sideways, so a yellow card was the right decision.

I have no idea how someone could argue it wasn't a penalty though, stonewall as you say.

[Grabbi Graeme]

First half was a shocker, similar to the Newcastle game except Newcastle were so poor they couldn't score.

Second half and the 2 substitutions made the difference, but why can't we start to play from the 1st minute as opposed to the 46th minute, maybe Sam should do his half time team talk before the match starts.

Also got to laugh at the Notlob fans when 2-0 up it was "Megson give us a wave", then at 2-2 it was Gary Megson your a w*****"

[roversmum]

Megson was too busy jumping up and down and swearing at his players in any case. I don't think I've ever seen a manager get himself in such a paddy. I was expecting him to have a heart seizure at any moment

[Sysagent]

You actually talk with your wife about football? .............. wtf for?

The clue is in my post Gordon...

;-)

[Ozz]

Was the first goal for Bolton not miles offside when the big lad got the ball before crossing it in? Looked it from my seat. Anybody see the highlights?

[tomphil]

Sorry to ask but have you seena football match before? This was an appalling match involving two very poor teams.

Lets do Bolton first, apologies to Zulu who makes a LOT of sense on here, but Bolton are awful. Not that Rovers are any better.

For the first hour we were truely terrible, made no attempt to play football, when it wasn't head tennis it was hoof the ball up field and see what happens. In this time we did not create a single chance and presented Bolton with a 2 - 0 lead. Tugay should have come on at HT as we did not have a single midfielder worthy of the description. Grella? Ha! He looked OK when he played with Dunn but not tonight. As it turned out Tugay was able to turn the game in 30 minutes and we certainly pegged Bolton back for 25 of those 30 minutes. McCarthy may have got the equaliser but he cost us 2 points with a terrible penalty. We were desperately unlucky with the attempt that hit the base of the post but a win would have disguised a lot of painful truths.

The truth of tonight's game is neither side had any real ability or desire, an awful game full of very poor football. Best league in the world? At the top maybe, in the bottom half it's just cannon fodder to make up the numbers.

I think we'll be safe at the end of the season as there are enough teams doing badly to help us survive. We missed a big, big opportunity tonight and it makes the Fulham game in hand crucial. We've thrown away wins against Sunderland, City and Bolton and now badly need to win on Saturday. We have 18 games left, six we will probably lose so the remaining 12 need to give us 18-20 points. Lets have three from Boro.

[BuckyRover]

You know what that sentence is probably the one most sensible thing I have seen written around here for months...

Watching MOTD last night I commented to Mrs Sys what a complete load of sh1t the Premier League really is and the only real half decent football is coming from the top four or five, she has always maintained that it is an over rated pile of crap and is a stout Serie A supporter, this is coming from a woman who used to be on the Blackburn End at 2 years old!

Don't kid yourself that Reggina and Verona are any better than Bolton and Blackburn.

All the top leagues have comparitively poor teams in.

[Ozz]

Megson Slags Off Bolton Fans, Praises Rovers!

That is fantastic!

[frosty]

Was the first goal for Bolton not miles offside when the big lad got the ball before crossing it in? Looked it from my seat. Anybody see the highlights?

At the time I thought offside, but, having seen MOTD last night, I think he might have just been onside....

[gumboots]

At the time I thought offside, but, having seen MOTD last night, I think he might have just been onside....

And I thought he was just off so it just goes to show that even with replays you'd never get 100% agreement all the time. Benefit of doubt to attacker in this case i think.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

At the time I thought offside, but, having seen MOTD last night, I think he might have just been onside....

Having seen the replay - I thought it was marginally off-side - but close enough to give the linesman the benefit of the doubt. What annoyed me was the number of times he controlled the ball with his hand - and got away with it - I know he is tall - but some of his play should have been on a basket ball pitch.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Make no mistake, we were very, very lucky last night. The only reason that we were able to come back from 2-0 down was because Bolton decided to sit back and and allow us to have the ball - as I said when we did that against City, if you give any premiership team the ball unchallenged for long enough they will create something.

A few observations from the match last night:

Bolton play terrible football, but are far better than us at playing it. I remember when we used to scoff at them, calling them WimBolton, as we played them off the pitch, but for 45 minutes last night we made them look like Brazil. As the Bolton fan that i spoke to after the game commented - he'd never seen a Rovers team play worse football.

They had one tactic - hit a long crossfield ball to Davies on the right. Even tactically inept Paul Ince saw this and managed to counter it by playing Ooijer on the left against pie-boy at their place. But, at least they had a tactic - which was 1 more than we had!!

Already been said, but it was more a case of Bolton throwing this away by sitting back, than us doing something amazing to get back into the game. The thing that scares me is that, had the scores been reversed at half-time, I'm fairly certain that we'd have come out and tried to defend our 6-yard box in the exact same way that they did.

Up until last night I was never concerned that we would really be in danger of going down - not even with Ince in charge - call me naive, but I always just assumed we'd be ok in the end. Now I'm very worried, we're just not good enough!! We have no pace anywhere in the team, no one who can actually beat a man, and no real tactics other than hoof it upfield and hope that it falls kindly for our strikers.

How can we be lucky ? Was it Bolton's choice to sit back so much - or was our ball retention that good that they had to defend in depth. Irrespective of that - you have to admire some of the passing of Tugay and McCarthy - as well as the impact of Santa.

Even though we were useless in the first half - in all honesty I didn't think they were that much better - and 2-0 at half time flattered them. The first half was a poor game - edged by Bolton - where the ball probably went off with altitude sickness.

If nothing else - hopefully Sam now realises that he has players at Rovers who can play a better standard of football than just hoofing it forward. I agree in the early days - as we built up confidence - it was important not to play too much football in our own half - but keep things tight and feed off the scraps. But now confidence should have improved (7 games without defeat) we should be attempting a better standard of football from the start.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

Can't be bothered with ratings today.

We missed Dunn in the middle, Emerton, Andrews, Grella are all fine with neat passes to each side and a little bit forward, but none of them can really run at players like Dunn or cut open a defence like Tugay can.

First half was a shambles, we were all over and Robbo had no chance. A huge blatant foul on Warnock in the build up to the first goal and the linesman was diabolical. The referee gave Bolton every single thing in the first half, it was just unbelievable.

Second half, we clearly had acquired a rocket up the arse. Much better closing down and passing and Bolton gradually sat back further and further until eventually Robbo was basically sat on the half way line. But we still had the problem of no forward passing. Cue Tugay. Great ball for Roque who would have scored had Jussi not taken him out, perhaps he should have stayed on his feet and tried to put it in if he could, I couldn't tell. Benni had it saved and wasn't ready for the rebound.

60th minute we were hammering on the door and Bolton had all 11 behind the ball. The crowd were immense, it was like we were searching for a 90th minute equaliser, not half an hour left. We got the goal we deserved at the end after a scramble and the crowd went ballistic. Truth be told it didn't look like we'd get back into it.

Then Nelsen at the very death headed against the base of the post. How close could you get?

If if if.

If Benni had smashed it down the middle or Nelsens header had gone in, we would have got our deserved 3 points.

One key thing - Andre Ooijer should not play Right Back. He stifles our forward play and cannot cross for toffee. As soon as he went off we looked much more dangerous and balanced. The same thing occurred against Newcastle.

Emerton needs to play right back with a Centre Mid, be it Andrews/Dunn/whoever on the right because Ooijer weakens us hugely.

I'd have taken a point before the game in all honesty, and after going 2-0 down I didn't think we'd get anything.

Yes, we had a bad game, but lessons have been learnt, mistakes realised, and Big Sam's unbeaten record continues.

Onwards and upwards.

[Hughesy]

I cant believe some of the negative and relegation talk on this thread. We are still unbeaten under sam, we have learned how to score goals again and our defence (exc 1st half last night) looks well organised and solid.

With the likes of West Brom, Stoke, Hull, Bolton, Boro, Pompey there has to be really optimism that we will stay up. Get behind the lads and the results will continue to come.

Onwards and Upwards

[Montfort]

What a game!!

What an emotional roller coaster !! From the depts of despair to high exultation. I think it was one of the most emotional games I have ever seen.

I would like to both agree and disagree with davyB. We were not lucky. The first goal by Warnock was patient and well worked. It is hard to break down a 10 man packed defense and that goal would have been good against anyone.

davyB is spot on when he says that "Bolton play terrible football but they do it far better than us.". Butt ugly is the term that comes to mind. All high balls, long throw ins and lots of agression for the scaps. I though Blackburn were 2 down before they started to realise what was happening. For a long time they seemed to drag us down to their level. Loved the way that Benni applied himself after a poor penality. Delighted the way he got the goal - right in the thick of things.

Make no mistake, few teams will give Bolton 2 goals start and end up with anything.

Finally I am surprised by the negative coments from so many on this thread. Alot of what was said was true. but if you can't rejoice at the good bits what's the point. The people around me last night were ecstaticat the end. Loved the chant - You've screwed it up 2 nil -or something like that.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

The people around me last night were ecstaticat the end. Loved the chant - You've screwed it up 2 nil -or something like that.

A little bit less elaborate than that, but yes, it was sung with some passion.

"2-0, and you (blanked) it up" is probably more accurate.

[Paul]

Personally I can't see us losing the match unless we have a shocker or the ref has a really bad game. I'm going for a 1-1 draw.

Apart from the score 10/10