Nov 2009

FA Cup 3rd Round

Bolton have been drawn at home in the 3rd round of the FA Cup, against Lincoln City. Lincoln are currently 21st in League Two. This actually makes the the fourth worst team in the entire Football League. I’m still not staking any money on who might win it.

A Goal, A Point, Meh.

Bolton gained an away point at Craven Cottage yesterday - a ground they haven’t won at in the Premiership, apparently - due to a fine goal by Ivan Klasnic and some ropey tactics in the second half. 1-1 was the final score, with the Croatian scoring in the first half when Bolton played well. In the second half, Bolton decided to defend the lead despite not having kept a clean sheet all season and Inevitably the equaliser came, from Damian Duff as it happens.

No Goals, No Points, No Clue

Bolton put in an abject display on Sunday afternoon to lose 2-0 at home to Blackburn. Dunne scored on the break in the first half after a Taylor free kick had been deflected onto the bar and the second goal came due to a bizarre mixup between Sam Ricketts and Jussi Jaaskelainen - Ricketts headed the ball back to Jaaskelainen from outside the area, only to miss the goalkeeper (who had come out to try to claim a ball he frankly didn’t need to) and head the ball straight into his own net.

Despite pretty much a complete lack of creativity and threat up front, no ability to retain possession and a pass accuracy that would shame a conference side, Gary Megson’s main concern is apparently that his team didn’t run around enough. Between that and Phil Gartside giving an interview the Bolton News saying ‘now is not the time to panic’ - which almost certainly means people
are panicing behind the scenes - it would not be beyond reason to describe the club as being in total disarray.

Ugh..

Bolton Megson's team selections and results seem to have reverted to the standard of the beginning of the season. With Jlloyd Samuel suspended, Paul Robinson came back in at full back in a pretty woeful defensive display (not that most of it was his fault, all the defense had a shocker). Bolton lost 5-1 at Villa Park and at least three goals were at least contributed to by bad play by our back line. I won't list all the scorers but it is worth noting Johan Elmander scored his first goal in... well, ages. A tap in from about 3 feet out after Cahill's effort came back off the post. At the other end, John Carew had an absolute blinder of a game. A defensive disaster and an opposition striker having his best game all season, not a good combination for us then.

The goal is
here.

Two Games, One Score

Bolton played Chelsea twice this week - on Wednesday at Stamford Bridge in the Carling Cup 4th round and yesterday in the Premier League at The Reebok. The score was the same both times; 4-0 to Chelsea. I'm not going to bother listing the scorers, but I will say that Chelsea's last goal at the Reebok was a piece of great football and that the game yesterday was pretty even up to the point where Jlloyd Samuel gave away a penalty in a tackle with Drogba and got sent off in the process. I thought the penalty was very harsh to be honest but once it was given the red card was pretty inevitable. It would be interesting to see if Bolton appeal - and if they did appeal and win, what would that mean? Would the goal be chalked off? Not that it makes any difference as far as the points go.