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How the papers reported the 1-0 home defeat to Man United on Saturday

In the Sunday Times Gary Megson bemoaned his defenders’ lack of concentration near the end, but the paper itself laid out a whole host of problems with much deeper roots…

You could be sentimental and say Bolton deserved better, but on their own ground they had played for a nil-nil draw and apart from that Muamba shot, they didn’t trouble Van der Sar…

Bolton didn’t have the class to trouble United…

Bolton’s poor recent run made them do everything cautiously.

Even the Reebok Stadium stewards took a bashing for lacking the balls to administer the rugby tackle that the United fan who ran on to the pitch was asking for.

The Telegraph seemed to find more attacking spirit in the Wanderers’ performance, but Megson’s quotes about United’s title hopes at the end of the report will leave many fans again wondering why he spends so much time lavishing praise on our opponents, and seemingly so little figuring out how we might actually beat some of these teams (maybe a goal might help?).

The Independent said we deserved a point and that Alex Ferguson would be relieved to escape with all three, but if you can’t score a goal then you’ll never win a game, as the News of the World points out:

But a lone striker’s role against United is as thankless as tasks get. In fact, playing up front for Bolton is a thankless task, period.

Ariza Makukula is not the answer to that conundrum, according to The Guardian:

[he] did little but create a sense of mystery over how he could ever have won international caps with Portugal.

Of course, we’re not the first team to fail to score against United this season. Nor are we the only team to employ shamelessly defensive tactics against the big four, as Gary Neville points out in the Daily Mail when he points the finger at Stoke and Sunderland for being equally negative. The Sun adds Middlesbrough to that list too.

The Wanderers fans’ representative writing in The Observer said he doesn’t mind ‘anti-football’ as long as it gets results. But right now it isn’t, which is why Megson tells the Telegraph that he hopes the remainder of the transfer window will be kind to him (kinder than Makukula anyway).

Read Manny Road’s fans’ view match report here.

Watch Dimitar Berbatov’s winning goal here.