Sam Allardyce
Sheffield Wednesday Fans See the Truth About Gary Megson
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011 | BWFC People, Gary Megson, Sam Allardyce, Sammy Lee | 2 Comments
Sentimental softies that we are, here at Manny Road, we like to keep an eye on former managers of BWFC, just to be sure that they’re doing ok. Following a shaky start at West Ham, Sam Allardyce has a couple of wins under his belt, aided by the players that Bolton didn’t want anymore. Poor Sammy Lee isn’t doing quite as well, having joined the lengthily queue at Liverpool job centre, after being jettisoned by Kenny Dalglish in June. He’s probably reached the door of the building by now.
Gary Megson's Dad. Has a lot to answer for
Then there’s Gary Megson, currently spreading his very own brand of one-dimensional hoof-ball misery amongst the followers of Sheffield Wednesday. Owls fans were optimistic ahead of the new season, having somehow escaped from the relegation zone that Megson placed them in last time round. After two dismal away performances in succession, that feeling has gone, replaced by one of despair.
The scene of last night’s disaster was Gigg Lane, home of Bury FC, where crowd numbers reached a previously unknown 5,209 due to visiting fans, who’d trundled down the M62 unaware of the horrors they were destined to endure.
Bury manager, Richie Barker was in no doubt about the ease of the task which faced him. “With all due respect to the players now, we’re not playing against Chris Waddle or Des Walker,” he laughed.
So it proved. By half-time Wednesday were two down, having had no shots on target and with a 39% share of possession. How familiar that looks.
At this point, Owlstalk.co.uk, online home of the Yorkshire club’s supporters, went into meltdown. The posts below are reproduced as written, apart from the addition of a few dozen asterisks. › Continue reading
I have touched greatness… and his name is Owen Coyle
Thursday, May 12th, 2011 | BWFC Goals, BWFC News, BWFC People, Fabrice Muamba, Football Association, Gretar Steinsson, Owen Coyle, Premier League, Sam Allardyce, Sean Davis | No Comments
There are few certainties in life – one day, hopefully a long time in the future, it will end and, before then, you will pay taxes. Lots of taxes! They are the main certainties in life, depressing as they are, although there are other ones along the way – Vaz Te falling over, Muamba blazing over etc etc. I’m sure there are some positive certainties in life but I’m at a loss to say what they are at the moment so I’ll move on.
Wow...hope you're not expecting me to score that goal...?
One of the things I’m far from certain of, that I’m reluctant to believe entirely, is the image of those in the public eye; actors, footballers, politicians etc. Politicians especially. You never know whether the personality they put across in public is in fact them, or merely a carefully planned and orchestrated PR stunt. Are they the same person behind closed doors? Are they the same charming, likeable character when the cameras are off?
Our manager, Owen Coyle, has a very good public image. It’s so good in fact that Bolton Wanderers have almost become fashionable thanks to his 16 month reign. Bolton Wanderers message boards have even been visited by Arsenal fans praising our new found love our the beautiful game, unthinkable in the Allardyce days, and our role in Jack Wilshere’s development, although I doubt these messages will be as common if we beat them consistently at The Reebok again as we did under Allardyce.
I recently got the opportunity to meet Mr. Coyle thanks to the good people at 188Bet and BWFCforum.co.uk. Even excluding my fondness for all things Bolton, this was quite a thrill. To put this into perspective, I no longer have to say that the most famous person I have ‘met’, and I lose the term very loosely, was ‘Fiz from Corrie’. I think it says a lot about the quality of your celebrity sighting if you don’t know their real name!
Well, I did know Owen Coyle’s real name but did I know the real Owen Coyle?
come and get some lunch !
I was well aware of the public perception of Owen Coyle. He’s a very likeable man with an infectious enthusiasm for people, football and life itself. It’s a shame that I didn’t get to spend more time in his company as I might have been able to recall a positive certainty in life for the first paragraph.
We have all seen him at The Reebok Stadium, both during and after the match, inspiring and encouraging his players from the sidelines and applauding the home fans from the pitch post match for their role in what has, for the most part, been another impressive result and performance. › Continue reading
Its not over yet cocker…..!
Sunday, April 10th, 2011 | BWFC Goals, BWFC News, BWFC People, Football Association, Gary Megson, Marc Iles, Nat Lofthouse, Owen Coyle, Premier League, Sam Allardyce, Stuart Holden | No Comments
Sunday 22nd May 2011 – the day the 2010/2011 Barclay’s Premier League comes to an end. Champions will be decided (although, if Arsenal continue to falter, Man Utd may have clinched their nineteenth league title long before the final day), teams (hopefully Wigan and Blackburn) will be relegated, European places will be confirmed and, for the remaining twelve teams, midtable obscurity / survival will be secured.
Can someone turn off those lights on your way out...!
However, reading several posts on various Bolton messageboards over the past three weeks, more than a few fans consider the season to be over already. In their minds, our season ended on 19th March 2011 at approximately 16.35.
This was when the boot of Manchester United’s Johny Evans collided with the knee of Bolton’s Stuart Holden. The initial reaction was not good: Holden was stretchered off the Old Trafford pitch in obvious distress and Bolton fans feared the worse. Two days later, those fears were realised: Holden was out for six months (‘gutted smilely’).
Evans, to his credit, called to Holden to apologise for the challenge, an apology that Holden has yet to receive from De Jong for a similar tackle twelve months earlier. Holden has accepted Evans’ apology conceding that, unfortunately, injuries are a risk in a contact sport such as football. Arsenal fans take note, it’s not just your players who can suffer injury as a result of a mistimed challenge, a fact that poor Holden knows only too well. › Continue reading
Why Coyle shouldn’t make another ‘sideways’ move
Monday, January 10th, 2011 | BWFC Goals, BWFC News, BWFC People, Bruce Rioch, Owen Coyle, Premier League, Sam Allardyce, Sammy Lee | 5 Comments
Before we get started, I want to make one thing clear; to all the bitter Burnley fans who may read this, I fully expect Coyle to accept the Liverpool job if, and that’s a big if at the time of writing, it is offered to him. That is the nature of football. We saw it with Rioch and Allardyce; you saw it with Coyle and.. erm… Coyle
That said, while I don’t for one second think that Coyle would turn down Liverpool, they are after all a massive club with huge tradition and a great history, that doesn’t mean that I don’t think he wouldn’t regret it six months down the line.
I’m sure we wouldn’t stand in Coyle’s way if Liverpool does make an approach. It would be a fruitless endeavour anyway. Once a player / manager / assistant manager / coach / groundsmen / tea lady etc have made up their mind that they wish to leave, the best thing the club can do is try to get the maximum amount for them.
king Kenny in high spirites on his return to Anfield, with a ermmm his assistants
That is why, if Liverpool do come calling, we’ll be powerless to keep Owen. I’m not naive; Coyle is an ambitious manager and his career aims will mean that he’ll outgrow Bolton, just as he outgrew Burnley.
I don’t expect him to stay at Bolton for his entire career and I’ve always been prepared for the fact that, if a big club came in for him, he would leave. The consolation in that logic was that, in order for a big club to come calling, Coyle had to be a success at Bolton.
He has; 7th in the league going into the new year, despite a little, and probably understandable considering the squad, wobble in form and results of late.
I have just been informed by my Dad that Roy Hodgson has been sacked by Liverpool and Kenny Dalglish has been appointed until the end of the season › Continue reading
The Mu and Stu Show Rules Again
Sunday, December 12th, 2010 | BWFC Goals, BWFC People, Fabrice Muamba, Richard McCormick, Sam Allardyce, Sam Ricketts, Stuart Holden | No Comments
It wasn’t a classic performance. Or even a good one. There was none of the swashbuckling style that swept away Spurs and Newcastle. But as the curtain comes down on a year of improved fortunes for Bolton Wanderers, this victory over Blackburn Rovers and the first defeat of a Sam Allardyce side since he left the Reebok, will be cherished as much as the ones mentioned above.
The first half could be described in three words. Nothing much happened. The home side started better and used the channels well, but the crosses into the penalty area were dealt with easily and as the interval beckoned, Blackburn were in the ascendancy, without creating much in the way of clear chances.
Party time for Sam
The second period started at a higher tempo and tempers started to fray. Ten minutes in, and the Whites were down to ten men when Mark Davies collected a second yellow card after leading with his elbow on Phil Jones.
Owen Coyle’s side wobbled, and as they often do, took time to adjust to a setback. The visitors took control and the toothless, many fingered hordes who’d travelled down the A666 were already celebrating an anticipated victory.
Just as the cause was looking lost, salvation came from an unlikely source. With the exit of Davies, Lee Chung-Yong had been replaced with Fabrice Muamba and Johan Elmander given the right flank to work. The Swede drew a foul and from a Sam Ricketts free kick Ryan Nelson headed clear. The ball fell to Muamba who rounded the advancing New Zealander.
At this point, guided by experience, the pigeons on top of the North stand were preparing to find a different resting spot, but the midfielder’s low drive was expertly placed, just inside the near post. Muamba reverted by type by falling over during in the goal celebration and the guests from East Lancashire went quiet.
Moments later it seemed the lead had been doubled, but referee Mark Clattenburg disallowed Martin Petrov’s effort because he felt like it.
From then on, Blackburn threw everything at Bolton, including the kitchen sink, fixtures and fittings, and a tatty sofa that they’d brought from Ewood Park for Sam Allardyce to sit on.
The home defence stood firm, especially Paul Robinson, who threw himself in front of everything that moved. It was a pity then, just as the storm seemed to have been weathered, that the visitors were level, three minutes from the end, when Mame Biram Diouf picked up Jason Roberts’s first-time pass, advanced down the left side of the penalty area and chipped the ball over Jussi Jaaskelainen, aided by a slight deflection off Gary Cahill. Sam was up off his sofa and dancing around like a two year old.
Oops
The celebration didn’t last long. About forty-five seconds. From the restart, Muamba laid the ball back to Sam Rickett’s who launched a perfectly angled long ball into enemy territory. For once, Kevin Davies won the aerial battle and his head-on found Stuart Holden. The man from Dallas, so often Bolton’s midfield destroyer, finished like a seasoned striker, taking the ball on his chest and then volleying home. Holden’s mock celebratory faint is an in joke amongst the players, but it summed up the feelings of the Reebok faithful. Sam looked as if someone had nicked his rusk.
Allardyce was miffed in defeat. ‘To do what we did after we scored is absolutely diabolical from my point of view,’ he complained.
Big Sam hasn’t yet received due credit for what he achieved at the Reebok and in the eyes of some fans, the manner of his leaving and behaviour afterward have tainted the memory. But that discussion is for another time. Today, there are just three more words.
Up yours fatty.
- Richard McCormick
Oh Goody. Yet Another Bolton Pre-Season Preview
Friday, August 13th, 2010 | BWFC Goals, BWFC News, BWFC People, Kevin Davies, Lee Chung-Yong, Mark Davies, Matt Taylor, Owen Coyle, Phil Gartside, Premier League, Ricardo Gardner, Sam Allardyce | 1 Comment
Things couldn’t be more different. This time last year there was a collective gloom amongst Bolton fans. The previous season had ended with one win in eleven games, the summer signings were uninspiring and Gary Megson was still in charge.
There was an inevitability about the opening day defeat to Sunderland, which was far worse than the 1-0 score line suggested. That Steve Bruce’s men won only once more on their travels said it all.
St Owen of Lostock Acknowledges the Throng
This time round there’s a quiet optimism and it’s all due to one man. Owen Coyle arrived in January on a tidal wave of approval that’s yet to subside. Where Megson was dull and uninspiring, Coyle has the energetic enthusiasm of a new puppy. So much so, that you want to slap him sometimes. Putting so much faith in a manager with precisely one year’s top flight experience might not be the wisest thing, but what the hell, football supporters need hope.
Not many clubs have splashed money about in the transfer window. Bolton certainly haven’t. That’s because they haven’t got any. The much desired prolific goal scorer hasn’t arrived, but then only Nicolas Anelka and a pre-blubber Michael Ricketts, qualified for that description in the last decade, so it was always a forlorn hope.
Instead, there’s Robbie Blake, late of the unwashed hordes in Burnley. Blake’s a capable operator. It’s just a pity he’s older than God. But he may be a useful player to have on the bench, providing he doesn’t succumb to arthritis or senile dementia. Or have his zimmer frame nicked when the scallies from Liverpool come to visit.
Concessions have already been made to combat the advancing years. Drinks bottles for the other players contain Lucozade, laced with electrolytes. Robbie has Sanatogen in his. › Continue reading
Spurs v Bolton – How the pendulum has swung…?
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010 | BWFC Goals, BWFC News, BWFC People, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Gary Cahill, Gary Megson, Gudni Bergsson, Jay-Jay Okocha, Owen Coyle, Premier League, Sam Allardyce | 16 Comments
This weekend sees Bolton travel to White Hart Lane, and a clash between two famous old clubs that have 16 FA Cup
how times have changed
Finals (12 wins) and a combined total of 146 years of top-flight football between them, not to mention Spurs’ 4 League Cup wins, and 4 European trophies.
Recent history has been very different for the two clubs, with Spurs only spending one year out of the top flight since 1950, whilst Bolton have dropped through the leagues and back twice in the same period. However, looking further back in history paints a different picture of the two clubs.
Prior to 1950, Spurs had spent as much time in the Second Division as the First, and their only FA Cup win had come as a non-league club in 1901. Bolton had already won the cup three times, been runners-up twice, and spent the vast majority of their history in the top flight.
The abolition of the maximum wage in 1961 changed the football landscape at the time, and Bolton’s decline from this point onwards was dramatic and prolonged.
By the end of the 1959/60 season, Bolton were historically England’s 5th most successful club, based on average league position. At the same point, despite one league title success, Spurs were the 20th best team.
By the end of 2008, Spurs – by now winners of the FA Cup eight times, the League Cup four times, and four European trophies – had moved up to seventh in the table of overall average league positions, whilst Bolton had failed to add to trophy cabinet, had spent more time out of the top flight than in it, and slipped to 21st in the overall average league table.
In anticipation of the weekend’s clash, bwfcforum’s Statman takes a closer look at the history of the two clubs for Manny Road. › Continue reading
Every Day’s a cup final for Mark Halsey….!
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 | BWFC Goals, BWFC News, BWFC People, Football Association, Ivan Campo, Jay-Jay Okocha, Nicolas Anelka, Owen Coyle, Phil Gartside, Premier League, Premiership referees, Sam Allardyce, Youri Djorkaeff | 11 Comments
The support from football fans and ordinary people in the street has been inspirational
Click the link to listen to Mark Halsey’s Exclusive interview.
http://www.zshare.net/audio/751463426e948768/
Despite hailing from Hertfordshire, Mark Halsey has firmly established himself as one of Bolton’s favourite adopted sons. After spending 12 years playing non-league football for Cambridge City and Hertford Town he began his refereeing career in 1989 and a decade later refereed the famous 1999 Football League One Play-off Final between Gillingham and Manchester City at Wembley. The same year he was promoted to Premier League status and shortly after the FIFA List of referees. He quickly established himself as one of the most popular referees in the League.
Mark was kind enough to take time out of his schedule to speak Exclusively to Manny Road & bwfcforum’s Andi Walton. He started by asking him about his current health:
MH: Yeah I’m feeling very good, I seem to be getting stronger with every game I do and it’s a bonus for me because I never thought I’d be back refereeing again, so every day is a cup final and it’s really great to be back and the reception I’ve received from the two games I’ve done at Rotherham and Port Vale and Oldham and Bristol Rovers, the fans have been absolutely fantastic and it’s been very emotional and overwhelming for me.
AW: It must have been the furthest thing from your mind getting out on the football pitch when you were in the midst of your treatment but now you’ve got to that stage, it must be a real thrill.
MH: For me to come back and, you know, I suppose…for what I’ve gone through with all my chemotherapy and my radiotherapy…I mean if you saw me at Christmas, I was nowhere near the Mark Halsey of old, you know, but I’ve worked hard and a lot of people have helped me and it’s been great. The support I’ve received from people around the country – just ordinary football fans and ordinary people in the street. They’ve been inspirational to me and they’ve got to really pat themselves on the back for the way they’ve helped me and it’s down to them that I’m back where I am now.
Rooney “Close to Old Trafford Exit” – World Exclusive
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 | Alan Gowling, BWFC Goals, BWFC News, BWFC People, Gary Megson, Gary Speed, Ian Walker, Nicolas Anelka, Owen Coyle, Peter Reid, Phil Brown, Phil Gartside, Sam Allardyce, Steve Wigley, Tony Kelly | 16 Comments
Warren Obb explores the rumours that others dare not !
due to journalistic integrity (and the fact it might not be him) we have blanked out the ugly mush in this pic
(we would like to express, these are not necessarily the views of bwfcforum or manny road)
Superstar Shrek look-a-like Wayne Rooney was last night said to be close to an Old Trafford exit, according to sources.
The former Everton hitman, 24, has been in sensational form for the champions this season, netting his 33rd goal of the campaign in Sunday’s win over rivals Liverpool.
But in news certain to stun the Old Trafford faithful, Rooney was recently seen close to an Old Trafford exit. Our sources, who were allegedly close to the club at the time, also claim to have photos of Rooney in the compromising position. Negotiations to purchase the photos broke down in order to preserve our journalistic integrity. › Continue reading
Another season, another lesson in how to patronise northern football fans
Friday, August 14th, 2009 | BWFC News, BWFC People, Gary Megson, Kevin Davies, Sam Allardyce | 4 Comments
It's like looking in a mirror (Pic: Terry Wha, some rights reserved)
It's like looking in a mirror (Pic: Terry Wha, some rights reserved)
By ‘eck, The Guardian thinks we all wear flat caps and work down mines…
Regular readers from last season will know Manny Road is not a huge fan of match previews. I attempted to hijack the ridiculous notion that stats and facts based on past events have any bearing on upcoming matches with the regular ‘… things you didn’t need to know about Bolton Wanderers v Team X‘ series.
Manny Road won’t be doing that this season, partly because I think I made my point, but mainly because I’ve got better things to do on a Saturday morning (like sleeping off hangovers, for example) than trawling through endless, tedious football fan sites reading anodyne facts about how many times Kevin Davies has used his enormous backside to win a free-kick.You can read this nonsense for yourselves over at NewsNow.
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