Johan Elmander
Burnley Football Club Just Keeps on Giving as Bolton Snatch a Point
Sunday, August 29th, 2010 | BWFC Goals, BWFC News, BWFC People, Johan Elmander, Kevin Davies | 1 Comment
It remains to be seen whether former Burnley manager Owen Coyle will make a success of his time at the Reebok, but another recruit from the poor relations in East Lancashire made a more immediate impact, as Bolton snatched an unlikely point against Birmingham City.
Player, shirt, grin, with zimmer frame cunningly concealed
Robbie Blake had done nothing, apart from look old, after he replaced Johan Elmander, but his free kick that gave the Whites a share of the points was a peach. Ben Foster in the Birmingham goal couldn’t have been further from the ball if he’d been outside the stadium.
Five minutes into the second half things had looked grim for the home side, after Craig Gardner put Birmingham two up. By this stage, they were down to ten men, Jussi Jaaskelainen having been sent off for bitch slapping Roger Johnson. The incident will be a prime candidate for inclusion in a future instalment of Football’s Most Embarrassing Moments. That left Adam Bodan, wearing a shirt almost the exact colour of his hair to make a league debut under the most difficult of circumstances.
Johnson appeared to be at the centre of everything. Early on he put the visitors ahead from a James McFadden cross, but was at fault when bundling Kevin Davies to the floor with twenty minutes remaining. Davies coolly slotted the resulting penalty home.
Bolton huffed and puffed to little effect, a Johan Elmander effort being the closest thing to a chance, but they were rescued as referee Kevin Friend lived up to his name. A clash between Gary Cahill and Barry Ferguson appeared to be six of one and half-a-dozen of the other, but a free kick was given to the home side just outside the penalty area, and Blake curled it brilliantly over the wall to give his new side a share of the spoils.
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It’s Time to Have Stuart Hall Stuffed and Mounted
Monday, August 16th, 2010 | BWFC News, BWFC People, Johan Elmander | 4 Comments
A game between Bolton and Fulham was never likely to be a classic, this being the fifth 0-0 draw in ten fixtures between the sides at the Reebok. Maybe that’s why only 20,352 turned up for the first game of the season. Given the weather, there were more enjoyable things to do.
Expecting Owen Coyle to immediately transform Bolton’s dysfunctional game into something more dynamic would be foolish. He is after all, working mainly with the squad that his predecessor assembled in order to play dull football. But more evidence that he’s moving in the right direction is required.
The centre back pairing coped easily with Bobby Zamora, but the defence as a whole is still too easy to get behind, particularly on the side that should be occupied by Gretar Steinsson. Up front, the Whites were toothless, incapable of putting the opposition under sustained pressure.
The most damning criticism of Gary Megson, is that his players looked as if they were strangers to each other. After a pre-season with Coyle and a whole host of friendly games, little progress has been made in that department. Can we have some movement please?
A scoreless draw, against a side notoriously poor on their travels is not a satisfactory result (Fulham won one game and lost eleven away last season.) Especially with a difficult September to come in which the points tally is likely to be zero.
Worse was to come for those Wanderers fans who tuned into Five Live on the way home where the BBC demonstrated their continuing contempt for Bolton by giving the match summariser’s gig to Stuart Hall.
Hall is many things, an irritating wanker being one of them, but he’s no football reporter. The use of language is bad enough. It reminds you of On Again, On Again, the song that Jake Thackray wrote about his wife. › Continue reading
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10 ways Gary Megson COULD win Wanderers fans over
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 | BWFC News, BWFC People, Gary Megson, Gavin McCann, Johan Elmander | 3 Comments
Katie and Peter: More annoying than Gary Megson. Pic from shimelle, some rights reserved
Katie and Peter: More annoying than Gary Megson. Pic from shimelle, some rights reserved
How Gary Megson could become more popular than Adolf Hitler
Ridiculous analogies are the latest weapon of choice for the army of Pro-Megsonites (mainly non-Wanderers), who have taken it upon themselves to criticise Bolton fans for daring to have an opinion about the manager whose wages they pay.
SquareFootball (a good site that Manny Road enjoys a good relationship with, but isn’t afraid to criticise when they get it totally wrong), suggested recently that Bolton fans wouldn’t get behind Gary Megson even if he guided us to the Champions League.
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Bolton Wanderers 3-1 West Ham: Video highlights
Thursday, September 24th, 2009 | BWFC Goals, BWFC People, Gary Cahill, Johan Elmander, Kevin Davies | No Comments
Some much needed relief…
All the goals from the Wanderers 3-1 Carling Cup win over West Ham (minus the last goal for some reason)…
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Setanta misses the point with Bolton Wanderers season review
Monday, June 8th, 2009 | BWFC News, BWFC People, Danny Shittu, Gary Cahill, Gary Megson, Gretar Steinsson, Johan Elmander, Jussi Jaaskelainen, Matt Taylor, Mustapha Riga | 6 Comments
Image via Wikipedia
The Sky wannabes let Gary Megson off the hook
It’s the time of year when newspapers and websites fill empty space with reviews and analysis of the season just passed. Most of them are hardly worth reading, especially when you’ve had a season as dull and uneventful as the Wanderers have.
One section from Setanta’s end-of-season Bolton Wanderers review jumped off the page, though.
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Guess the Bolton Wanderers flop
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 | Ariza Makukula, BWFC News, BWFC People, Gary Megson, Gavin McCann, Grzegorz Rasiak, Johan Elmander, Kevin Davies | 4 Comments
As bad as it gets, surely...
News of the World blasts Gary Megson’s ‘costly mistake’
The News of the World picked its worst Premier League XI of the season on Sunday. In it was one Bolton Wanderers player. Can you guess who it was from this extract?
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Do you trust Gary Megson with your money?
Friday, May 29th, 2009 | Ariza Makukula, BWFC News, BWFC People, Danny Shittu, Ebi Smolarek, Fabrice Muamba, Gary Cahill, Gary Megson, Gretar Steinsson, Johan Elmander, Mark Davies, Mustapha Riga, Phil Gartside, Sebastien Puygrenier, Tamir Cohen | 10 Comments
Image via Wikipedia
The Bolton Wanderers manager wants more cash to splash… does he deserve it?
Gary Megson spent most of last season complaining about the size of his squad and he’s continued to send not-so-subtle messages to Phil Gartside and the Bolton Wanderers bank manager since the campaign ended.
Megson told The Bolton News that he’s confident of attracting big names to the Reebok, but do you trust him to spend your hard-spent season ticket cash wisely?
Let’s look at the evidence…
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Johan Elmander: Eight times more costly than a Premier League referee
Friday, May 29th, 2009 | BWFC News, BWFC People, Johan Elmander | 3 Comments
Referees cost Bolton £1.44m last season… that’s £9.66m less than Johan
According to this guide on a Hull City fans’ website, Premier League clubs receive an extra £0.72m for every place higher they finish in the final table.
Former referee Jeff Winter has been keeping an alternative Premier League table this season based on where each team would be if all refereeing decisions were correct.
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Bolton Wanderers 0-0 Sunderland: The fans’ view
Monday, May 11th, 2009 | BWFC News, BWFC People, Fabrice Muamba, Gary Cahill, Gary Megson, Gavin McCann, Johan Elmander | No Comments
The Bolton Wanderers match report you won’t read in the papers (or see on Match of the Day)
Here’s how the various Bolton Wanderers message boards reacted to the goalless draw with Sunderland…
Positives
- “We have now secured our place in the Premier League for the ninth successive season, which you have to say is a fantastic achievement however it has been done.”
- “Overall Gary Megson has done a good job and he deserves the chance to prove himself further next season” … “The board should back him with more money.”
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Bolton Wanderers v Sunderland: Here’s one we made earlier
Saturday, May 9th, 2009 | BWFC Goals, BWFC People, Gary Cahill, Johan Elmander, Matt Taylor | No Comments
What happened the last time the Wanderers played Sunderland
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