Bolton 3-2 Spurs: What the papers say

Monday February 2nd, 2009

How the national press reported the Wanderers 3-2 win over Tottenham

“Abject, feeble, gutless, wretched…” No that’s not Gary Megson’s latest views on Bolton fans but the News of the World’s judgment on Spurs.

The Guardian put the blame squarely at the door of Harry Redknapp and berates the Spurs boss for trying to blame Juande Ramos… at least he isn’t balming the fans is all I can say.

More interestingly from a Bolton perspective, The Guardian quotes Kevin Davies as saying that the squad were surprised by Kevin Nolan’s departure for Newcastle, but their chalkboard feature shows that Davies did more than enough to cover for his former captain’s absence. His work rate put Roman Pavlyuchenko in the shade, apparently…

by Guardian Chalkboards

The Daily Mail also says Nolan wasn’t missed and reckons Mark Davies looks like a more than adequate replacement. Or as the Mirror put it: “Kevin Nolan quickly went from ‘Mr Bolton’ to ‘Mr Who?’ for the Reebok faithful.”

The Telegraph concentrates on Gary Megson’s recent problems rather than Redknapp’s and suggests that victory was the Bolton fans’ reward for having “stuck by their manager this time”. It goes on to rave about the performances of both Davieses too:

The Davies boys provided Bolton with the sensual difference between the two teams. One a bludgeoning front man, masterful in the air, resilient to the last; the other youthful, nimble, imaginative, infectious.

The Times also leads on Bolton rather than Redknapp’s woes, but only because their reporter saw fit to use Kevin Davies’ brace as an excuse to have a dig about his style of play:

Having left his calling card on the shins of many of the country’s top defenders, Kevin Davies is not the most popular player in the Premier League, but his enormous value to Bolton Wanderers was underlined yesterday when he scored twice to kill off Tottenham’s challenge.

The Times goes on to say that Gary Megson apologised to Bolton fans for calling them “pathetic” after the game, although it doesn’t actually have the quotes of him saying it.

The Express can’t seem to decide whether it agrees with what Megson said last week or not. It kicks off its match report by saying: “Sections of the Bolton crowd were not the only pathetic and stupid things at the Reebok yesterday.” Before continuing:

Wanderers boss Gary Megson has been to PR in the past week what oil company Total has to British workers by using the two words to brand some of his own fans then letting captain Kevin Nolan go to Newcastle.

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Watch video highlights of Bolton 3-2 Spurs here.

Read the fans’ view on the game here.