Chelsea
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
Will the Real Bolton Wanderers Please Stand Up?
Wednesday, May 25th, 2011 | BWFC Goals, BWFC News, BWFC People, Owen Coyle, Stuart Holden, Zat Knight | 6 Comments
And so it ends. A season of thrilling highs and crushing lows; flowing football and the Megsonesque; stirring fightbacks and feeble surrenders; fine home form but the worst away record in the league. Will the real Bolton Wanderers please stand up?
The campaign has ended with a small black cloud hanging over the Reebok and a genuine fear amongst fans of what might happen next time around, after five defeats on the bounce and a disastrous last day that saw the club drop five places in the Premiership and lose over £4 million in bonuses.
Martin Petrov finishes off Spurs, eight seconds after the ball had been on the edge of Bolton's penalty area.
It seems a long time ago that the Whites were sweeping aside Spurs, Wolves and Newcastle in quick succession with the sort of pass and move football that supporters had been longing to see. The roar of anticipation as the side broke from defence hadn’t been heard since the promotion season of 1997.
There were special goals too, the result of both individual and collective brilliance. Johan Elmander’s triple turn on a sixpence at Wolves that left four defenders needing to have their internal organs unplaited; Stuart Holden finishing off a move involving twelve passes in the same game; Mark Davies starting and finishing a move that saw a late equaliser against Blackpool; Elmander skipping around Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul to complete a passing sequence that started on the half-way line; Holden’s half volley at home to Blackburn that put a stop to Sam Allardyce’s victory jig on the touchline, and his managerial tenure at that club.
Lee heads the winner at Birmingham. It was going to be our year.
The FA Cup run was long overdue and much appreciated, even if it did end in disaster. Beating three Premier League teams away from the Reebok is no mean feat, and victory at Birmingham City was the best away day Wanderers fans had had in years.
After beating Newcastle, there was a slump in form and another, more significant one, in the final games. In both cases, Stuart Holden’s absence was the key factor. The American’s astute reading of the game and his ability in recovering possession after his colleagues had lost it, covered up a major problem with Bolton’s midfield organisation. There wasn’t any.
Failing to deprive the opposition of space in that vital area isn’t a luxury that any top flight side can afford, yet Owen Coyle didn’t come anywhere near to remedying the problem. Coyle has a different idea of how football should be played than Sam Allardyce, but he could learn a thing or two in that respect, from the man who used to occupy his chair.
The manager’s persistence with Zat Knight at the expense of David Wheater was also a puzzle, as the new signing seemed to gel better with the rest of the defence. One wondered if Knight had footage of the supposedly tee-total Scot doing unnatural things with the club mascot, whilst swigging from a bottle of Buckfast.
Oh no it wasn't.
After events of the last couple of months, the Bolton boss doesn’t quite have the God-like status he enjoyed before, with some wondering if he is too inflexible to be a truly great manager. Time will tell no doubt, especially if he is afforded the funds to make the squad truly his own over the summer months.
The habit of gifting points to teams in desperate need of them was seriously irritating, the worst instance being the visit of Sunderland. The Wearsiders hadn’t scored away from home since January when they arrived at the Reebok in May, and had no recognised strikers available. So there was a grim inevitability about their 2-1 win, with Bolo Zenden running the show after stopping off for his pension on the way to the game.
Liverpool under Roy Hodgson were the worst they’d been for decades, yet secured two wins. Chelsea were in dismal form on meeting the Whites but managed the same. Relegation threatened Blackburn were grateful for the easy three points at Ewood Park after not winning for months, as were Blackpool at Bloomfield Road, although it wasn’t enough to save them.
Has there been progress overall? It can be argued either way. More points have been gained than last term, with fewer goals conceded and the highest number scored since Bolton returned to the Premier League in 2001. Yet the finishing position is exactly the same as last year and one place lower than Gary Megson managed in his one full season.
There has been a glimpse of what Bolton Wanderers could be, tempered by harsh reality that comes from a squad lacking in depth. The season may be over, but the next mission, one that involves building a side to compete at the top level for an eleventh straight year is already underway.
- Richard McCormick
Champagne on ice
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010 | BWFC Goals, BWFC News, BWFC People, Lee Chung-Yong, Owen Coyle | 6 Comments
Harry Redknapp stated prior to the Arsenal game that, if Spurs were victorious in the North London derby, his Tottenham side could win the Premier League. His statement was widely ridiculed, though not quite as widely as it should have been, not due to the idea that Spurs could win their first league title in 50 years, but because Spurs hadn’t won such a fixture since 1993. Thirty minutes in and ‘Arry’s pre-match boast was looking even more ridiculous as the distance between the pretenders and the elite could not have been more stark. However, 60 minutes later and, following a miraculous turnaround, Spurs fans were toasting their first win at their rival’s home in seventeen years. Once the three o’clock fixtures finished, Redknapp was considered almost clairvoyant. Chelsea’s defeat at St. Andrews meant that Spurs were now just six points away from the league leaders. Title challengers indeed.
eh up... Harry's going on about the title again, better make an appearance just to keep things real...!
However, whilst journalists were marvelling at Redknapp’s Nostradamous like predictions, few noticed a fatal flaw in his plan. Whilst Arsenal were slipping up at home, that was their third home defeat of the season and fourth in total, Chelsea had suffered back to back defeats for the first time in years, City were struggling to play more than one attack minded player in any given team and Man United, while unbeaten, cannot win away, few had noticed that another team in white were above Spurs, and their form was not faltering. › Continue reading
It’s Perfectly Alright to Stamp on Bolton Players
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010 | BWFC People, Johan Elmander | 1 Comment
Bolton fans have reacted with some anger, but mainly resignation at the news that Tottenham’s Tom Huddlestone will not face retrospective punishment after his stamp on Johan Elmander, during Saturday’s game at the Reebok.
The FA were unable to act after referee Chris Foy claimed that the incident had been seen by match officials. Yeah, right.
In truth, it’s difficult to get agitated about Huddlestone did. For one thing, Bolton won – and in some style. Secondly, it wasn’t a full blown assault, more a petulant toe poke, for which the appropriate sanction is a clip around the ear and an admonishment to stop being such a girl, rather than a three match ban for violent conduct. However, the fact that this is not an isolated happening does grate a little.
After being reduced to a gibbering wreck by Eduardo’s horrible leg break at Birmingham, you’d think that William Gallas would be mindful of the health of his fellow professionals. How wrong that assumption would be.
In last season’s game against between Arsenal and Bolton at the Emirates, Gallas went in over the top on Mark Davies which led to the young midfielder being stretchered off with damaged ankle ligaments. A red card? Nope. A yellow then? Negative. Retropective punishment? Not on your nelly. Alan Wiley, the man with the inappropriate surname, said he’d seen the challenge so no action was taken.
Sissoko explains how he can get away with anything
Going back a while, to a New Year fixture at the Reebok against Liverpool, there was not one, but two stamping incidents. Firstly, Steven Gerrard did a little tap dance on the already prostrate Kevin Nolan. It was difficult from the video footage alone, to establish if there was malicious intent, and as Nolan himself made light of the event, it’s best to move on.
The same couldn’t be said for Mohamed Sissoko’s ten metre dash to stick the boot into a horizontal El Hadji Diouf. Given the seamier side of Diouf’s nature, some might say he’s due a good shoeing. Perhaps, Mark Clattenburg, the man in the middle that day, was working to a set of rules in which that sentiment had been enshrined. There can be no other explanation for the entry in his match report which said that no action was deemed necessary.
A few months earlier at Stamford Bridge, it wasn’t a stamp, but a reckless kick to the area below Tal Ben Haim’s knee that earned Michael Essien a booking, rather than the sending off it deserved. But that’s what you get when Rob ‘Big Club’ Styles is carrying the cards.
The intention here is not to claim that Bolton are being singled out for neglectful treatment. It’s the inconsistency and the bias toward the big clubs that is the problem.
Clattenburg was the referee at Manchester City when Emmanuel Adebayor attempted to stamp on Arsenal’s Robin Van Persie. A ban resulted this time, as the act had not been seen. Which was odd, as it happened three feet in front of the man with the whistle.
At Arsenal in September, Gary Cahill got his marching orders for the mildest of infringements. Even Arsene Wenger thought the decision unfair. When old wrinkle bonce sides with the opposition you know there’s a problem.
'Get up you cissy. Stevie hardly touched you'
Stuart Atwell officiated that day, which may provide an explanation. He was also in charge at Liverpool in March when he allowed Steven Gerrard to escape without censure after his forearm smash on Michael Brown of Portsmouth. The list goes on.
Without inside knowledge it’s hard to know where the problem lies. Are the FA too harsh on officials who admit they’ve made mistakes? Are those tasked with controlling Premier League matches completely starstruck? Or are they just a bunch of lying bastards?
Until the answer is found, players of the less fashionable clubs will hope that their more illustrious counterparts don’t start carrying weapons onto pitch. In the current climate they’d get away with using them.
- Richard McCormick
Europe, here we come !
Wednesday, October 20th, 2010 | BWFC Goals, BWFC News, BWFC People, Football Association, Kevin Davies, Lee Chung-Yong, Premier League | 2 Comments
Just how high can Bolton finish this season? While I’m not trying to get carried away by our lofty (the Lion) league position – 7th at the time of writing – and I’m sure they’ll be many more twists and turns, wins and losses, highs and lows before the season’s out, but what can we realistically expect with regards to league position come the final day?
According to Lee Chung Yong, who notched his first goal of the season against Stoke, we may have reason to check the exchange rate, get ourselves some travellers’ cheques, purchase some sun block (or thermals going off our previous visits to Belgrade and Plodiv etc) and prepare for a European tour once again.
"Ivan.... sort the sunbeds out son"
When I firsy read lee’s quotes, I thought that 20+ months of constant football had finally taken its toll on the youngster and he’d gone insane. European finish? Madness surely? Still, I suppose it was no more insane than England International (had to mention that) Kevin Davies proclaiming that a top ten finish was an achievable aim under Gary Megson’s leadership!
However, the more I read Lee’s quotes, admittedly aided by our last gasp win this weekend, the more I tend to agree with him. Ok, Europe may be too much, too soon this season, but a top ten finish should be a legitimate aim – Davies, please feel free to use this as your cue to trot out last season’s quotes to an unsuspecting journalist.
So what is the reason for this change of heart, aside from the obvious? Well, upon looking at the league table this morning, ignoring the top 5 which I think will remain the same, albeit maybe in a different order, there isn’t a lot to choose from between the remaining 15 teams. Unlike last year when Pompey looked doomed already with their off the filed problems, not to mention the small issue of losing their first seven matches, there are no teams who you can write off as relegation certainties just yet (or as close as you can get to a certainty in October). Similarly, there aren’t any teams who you think have had such a good start, they’ll be playing European football next season, unless you think that both West Brom and Bolton will be England’s representatives in the Europa League next season. › 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
Alex Ferguson doesn’t give a toss about Gary Megson
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 | BWFC News, BWFC People, Gary Megson | No Comments
Alex Ferguson goes in to hiding after hearing Gary Megson thinks they're mates now. Pic from tpower1978
Alex Ferguson goes in to hiding after hearing Gary Megson thinks they're mates now. Pic from tpower1978
The Bolton News falls for the United boss’ mind games
I Twittered last night about the appalling levels of hypocrisy on Five Live Sport, who went seamlessly from talking about how out of order football fans are for abusing players to then justifying Alex Ferguson’s abuse of referee Alan Wiley.
But Five Live aren’t the only ones who’ve swallowed Fergie’s spin.
Reebok Round-Up (28.04.09)
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 | Ariza Makukula, BWFC News, BWFC People, Gary Megson, Joey O'Brien, Kevin Nolan, Nicky Hunt, Phil Gartside, Sam Allardyce, Sammy Lee | 1 Comment
What Manny Road has been reading (and thinking) about Bolton Wanderers
Portsmouth 1-0 Bolton Wanderers: What the papers say
Monday, April 20th, 2009 | BWFC News, BWFC People, Gary Megson, Jay-Jay Okocha, Jussi Jaaskelainen | No Comments
- Image via Wikipedia
How the national newspapers reported the Wanderers’ 1-0 defeat at Fratton Park
The Express said that Bolton weren’t even trying to win the game and were seemingly content with a dull, goalless deadlock.
The contrast with the fighting spirit shown at Chelsea seven days earlier was also pointed out by the Guardian, who described the Whites as “uninspired”. The Telegraph, meanwhile, said we “lacked ambition and failed to ignite.”
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