bwfc.co.uk
Bolton’s Cup Hopes Take a Beating
Thursday, January 12th, 2012 | Academy | 1 Comment
Bolton went out of the FA Youth Cup on Wednesday night, despite putting in a solid performance at the Reebok. Saints were favourites to advance to the next round, but were made to work for it by a spirited Wanderers side, having to fight back from a goal down to secure victory.
Southampton's defenders had a distinct size advantage.
The Whites started slowly, with Southampton passing the ball well and leaving their opposite numbers chasing shadows. Bolton looked incapable of dealing with their opponents’ pace and movement, but Saints failed to find the final ball needed to really open-up the home defence. The young Trotters didn’t help their own cause, as Lewis Fielding sent every goal kick sailing towards the heads of the Wanderers’ strikers, who were dwarfed by the away side’s defence; resulting in little possession for Lee and Kelly’s boys.
However, Saints’ dominance was not to last. Bolton slowly came to grips with the pace of the game, and pulled themselves back into the match through sheer determination. As Bolton began closing-down swiftly in all areas, Saints’ neat passing game started to unravel. When Saints gave the ball away cheaply in midfield, it fell to the extremely impressive James Caton. Caton skilfully moved the ball forward and fed striker Zach Clough, who showed quick thinking and equally quick feet to return the ball to Caton, who had continued his run. It was bad luck that the pass sped just beyond him on the slick pitch, when he would have been through on goal. It was a sign of things to come from Caton, who had the beating of his fullback all night.
Southampton remained dangerous, thanks mostly to basic errors from the home side. A routine ball into the box was spilt by Fielding and fell to Jordan Turnbull. Turnbull’s snap-shot looked goal-bound, but Andy Kellett was on hand to clear off the line and save his goalkeeper’s blushes. It was Kellett’s first real involvement, but it was certainly not his last. › Continue reading
Bolton, Aston Villa and a bit of Naughtiness
Friday, December 9th, 2011 | BWFC People | 8 Comments
This week’s visitors to the Reebok Stadium are Aston Villa, a club that has contributed significantly to the downfall of Bolton Wanderers. Not necessarily through results, but by off loading their less gifted players in a north westerly direction.
The words ‘Zat Knight’ and ‘four and a half million’ should never appear in the same sentence (apart from this one) unless you’re counting reasons to dislike the lumbering oaf. But that’s how much Gary Megson paid for him. Those still wondering about the real reason Martin O’Neill left Villa now have their answer. He couldn’t stop laughing and had to take time off to recuperate.
This season’s abject West Midlands reject is Nigel Reo-Coker, who generally arrives at the scene a second after the ball has departed and kicks whoever remains there instead. His was a free transfer. It wasn’t value for money.
A ginger worshipper of Phil Gartside leads the Megson Out campaign
Going back a little there was Gavin McCann. To be fair to the badger, he had some good days, but as regular readers to this site know, his move had the stench of corruption about it. One court case resolved, another pending. Read Phil Gartside: “A Cheat, a Liar and a Fraudster” for more details.
Jlloyd Samuel arrived at the same time. Another disappointing acquisition. Another court case. This time involving the larger than life (and larger than everyone else) figure of Mark Curtis. Read The Ginger Harry Secombe Who Runs Bolton Wanderers for the facts.
Villa fans have a problem familiar to their counterparts at the ‘Bok. Their team is managed by an uninspiring ginger wazzock, who wasn’t wanted and still isn’t. A definition on the Urban Dictionary had the term ‘Ginger People’ nailed.
‘The hair colour that all thieves have in common. If you see a ginger, the chances are he already has many of your possessions.’
It’s been removed now. Shame that. Of course there may be ginger people who are honourable, talented, intelligent or just nice. It’s just that nobody has met one.
At least Saturday’s visitors have a striker in Darren Bent, who knows where the goal is. Bolton’s front men don’t appear to know where the stadium is of late, although according to the Daily Mail, Ivan Klasnic has been scoring in a different fashion. Now his wife is filing for divorce.
Add in a non functioning midfield and Keystone Cops defending and it’s easy to see why Bolton are joint bottom of the table. Of course Owen Coyle has had injuries to contend with and some astoundingly bad luck. But even with those mitigations he is doing less well than he should be.
A draw may be likely in this game. If only because it’s 24 league games since the Whites had one. Villa on the other hand have shared the points in five of their seven fixtures away from home.
However that result wouldn’t be much use to the Whites. A win is essential. Sadly, with the club is such disarray, it is difficult to see that happening.
- Richard McCormick
The Search for Bolton’s Next Manager Starts Now
Monday, October 24th, 2011 | BWFC News, BWFC People, Gary Cahill, Owen Coyle, Phil Gartside | 17 Comments
Another day, and another spineless performance from Bolton Wanderers, this time against the long ball hoof merchants that are Sunderland. Surrender to Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea, was uncomfortable to watch, but seeing the same attitude displayed against much more limited opposition has tested the patience of many Whites fans beyond breaking point.
Enjoy it while it lasts, fatty. You'll soon be under pressure again
What to do with Owen Coyle? Give him more time. Find him help. Get rid. There is no general consensus. If it’s the latter option, then Coyle could have no complaints. Six points from nine games is only one more than Sammy Lee got, prior to his sacking in 2007 and three wins (and twelve defeats) in fifteen league outings since the debacle at Wembley is unacceptable by any standards.
There’s also an unpleasing symmetry that has emerged. Last season Bolton had the worst away record in the four divisions. Now they have the poorest home results.
Criticism of the Whites boss should be tempered. Losing the two best players in Stuart Holden and Lee Chung-Yong from a squad that was ordinary in the first place, would be a crushing blow to anyone in that situation. In addition, his net spend in the transfer market over two seasons has been more or less nil, with Bolton so hamstrung for cash. But the lack of progress in rectifying what are glaring faults can not be ignored. › Continue reading
Revealed : The Thuggery that Ended Lee Chung-Yong’s Season
Sunday, July 31st, 2011 | BWFC News, BWFC People, Lee Chung-Yong | 6 Comments
By now all Bolton fans will know that Lee Chung-Yong is out for the season, after sustaining a double-fracture of his lower right leg in a pre-season warm up at Newport County.
So far, Owen Coyle has shown admirable restraint in response to the incident, while there hasn’t been a peep out of Tom Miller, whose horror tackle did the damage, or Anthony Hudson, the Newport manager, who ultimately bears responsibility for forgetting to tell his player that this was supposed to be a friendly game. › Continue reading
The Strange and Wacky World of Mrs Kevin Davies
Sunday, July 10th, 2011 | BWFC People, Kevin Davies | 7 Comments
‘What’s up with teachers? Short days, long holidays, inset days?’
The words came from Emma Davies, wife of Bolton captain Kevin, as she tweeted on the day of the recent public sector strikes. It was an inane comment to make, perhaps revealing long held prejudices, as the cause of the dispute was not the amount of time spent in class, but the erosion of pension rights.
Unsurprisingly, given that the man who supports her works short days, has long holidays and gets paid more in a week than most teachers earn in a year, there was some disagreement. Big Em did not take kindly to it.
‘People will know it’s me anyway by all the knives in my back,’ she advised later in the week after being seen in the local coffee shop. That, and her claims that she’d been abused, were melodramatic distortions of the truth. Granted, some of the replies were a little testy, but they only sought to highlight the crass nature of what she’d written. › Continue reading
Even more Damn Lies and Stats..
Sunday, June 12th, 2011 | BWFC Goals, BWFC News, BWFC People, Kevin Davies, Premier League | 5 Comments
It’s summer. There’s nowt much to do bar make up daft transfer rumours or pick the bones from our once promising season. Since the press are doing a good enough job on the former, let’s have another stab at the latter with a look at some stats for our strikers for the season just ended.
Elmander was always just a figure of fun..
It’s a matter of record that our hapless former Swede ended the season as top scorer with 10 premier league goals followed by Big Kev and the wonderkid loanee with 8 apiece. Our underused Croatian chipped in with 4, or to put it another way, the same number as KD if you ignore penalties.
Fans of Big Kev will be quick to point out that his game is about much more than scoring goals. They’ll point out that he created a whopping 86 chances, double the next highest, that only Robbo managed more than his 915 successful passes, and that only Elmander and Chungy had more than his 5 assists.
Fans of Elmander, meanwhile, should be publicly castrated on the town hall steps, but we’ll leave that one for another day.
It’s easy enough to look down our premier league stats and pick out the ‘top performers’, but does it give a fair reflection comparing someone who started every game, like Big Kev, with someone who rarely gets a look in, like Klasnic?
In the spirit of having bugger all else to do on a Sunday afternoon in the close season, I decided to compare stats per time played. The comparison is for premier league appearances only, and for the sake of simplicity (rather than accuracy) in calculating minutes played for each player all matches are assumed to last 90 minutes. › 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
Bolton’s Bottlers Deserved their Beating
Monday, April 18th, 2011 | BWFC Goals, BWFC News, BWFC People, Football Association, Richard McCormick | 1 Comment
And so the cup run ends. Not with glory, but in a haze of disappointment and humiliation. As Bolton rolled over in Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final, the most surprised people were the players of Stoke City. They’d expected to play a side placed eighth in the Premier League. Instead they were faced with what appeared to be a pub team who’d prepared for the game with a particularly gruelling bender.
How high do I need to raise it Owen ?
In case what follows appears grudging, it should be acknowledged that Stoke deserved their win and that the margin of victory did not flatter them. As stated on these pages previously, Tony Pulis’s side are more than the one-dimensional hoofers that they often portrayed as. They are admirably organised in midfield and have willing runners who are prepared to carry the ball through the centre of the park and place it in an area inconvenient to the opposition. Should they beat Manchester City in next month’s final, it will be a good day for football.
That said, the Wanderers didn’t just dig their own grave. They embalmed the body, drove the hearse to the cemetery and heaped soil on the rotting corpse. › 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
Useful links
Tags
Search Manny Road
