Would you buy a second hand car off these boys?

Aspirations have changed at Bolton since the dark days of Gary Megson. The arrival of Owen Coyle followed by our impressive start to the season had the more optimistic of us counting air miles and dusting off our Bulgarian phrase-books. Even when European qualification had passed us by – embarrassingly so in the cup – a top half finish was still on the cards right up to the end of the season.

Never mind. Coyle’s inherited Megson’s bunch of cloggers. Once he’s had the summer to make serious changes, we’ll be back to chasing Europe again. Surely relegation battles are a thing of the past? Aren’t they?

Maybe not. Our form after Christmas was relegation-standard, and the end of the season – five defeats on the bounce – was abysmal. It wouldn’t be the first time poor form at the end of one season has carried over to the next. Add to that our tough start to the season and it wouldn’t be a great surprise to see us rock-bottom after the first seven games. We’ll have easier runs to follow, but everything looks that bit tougher if you’re sat at the bottom and confidence may have taken a bit of a battering.

So how relevant is end-of-season form to performance in next campaign? Let’s hope the answer is ‘not very’. Only two previous premier league teams have ever lost their last five matches: Sunderland in 2003 and Derby in 2008. Both teams finished bottom and were relegated. Sunderland set a record low points tally of nineteen. Derby set a new one with eleven. We are therefore proud holders of another record – the only premier league side to have lost their last five games without being relegated.

So are we realistic relegation candidates, and if so who else is? Maybe recent history can give us some pointers.

Teams relegated from the premier league over the last ten years generally fit into one or more of the following categories:

1. Newly promoted

The omens aren't good, Neil

The most obvious category. Thirteen of the last thirty relegated sides were newly promoted, and not since the class of 2001 – Bolton, Blackburn, and Fulham, who are all still there – have all three promoted sides stayed up. Looking on the bright side, it’s 1998 since all three promoted teams were relegated (Bolton, Barnsley, and Crystal Palace), so maybe at least one will survive?

Candidates: QPR, Norwich, Swansea

2. Narrowly avoided relegation
Five of the last ten years’ relegated sides – including each of the last two years – finished in 17th place the previous year, so history suggests there’s a 50:50 chance Wolves will be in the mix next season.
For the record those relegated sides were Derby, Sunderland, West Brom, Hull and West Ham, and those that have survived were Fulham, Wigan, Portsmouth, Everton, and Bolton.

Although no team finishing 16th has been relegated the next year, the closeness of this year’s relegation scrap suggests that the other last day survivors, Wigan and Blackburn, could also be in the mix.
Candidates: Wolves.
Possible: Wigan, Blackburn

3. Second season
Five of the 30 slots have gone to teams ‘enjoying’ their second season in the top flight. In the case of West Brom and Hull, they had also narrowly avoided relegation the previous season, but the other three – Ipswich, Reading, and Birmingham – had finished in the top half.

Newcastle and West Brom are the two clubs facing their second season. West Brom have steadied the ship under Roy Hodgson and will be targeting mid-table at least. Of the two, Newcastle would be the more likely candidates for me, but only because of indications of internal problems and my belief that Pardew is a poor manager, although they should have the finances to build a decent side after the sale of Andy Carroll.

Candidates: Newcastle and West Brom.

4. Finished the previous season badly
Accounts for six of the thirty relegation slots in the last ten years. Two of these were teams that had also narrowly avoided relegation, but the other four all finished comfortably mid-table, albeit in poor form, reminiscent of this year’s Bolton.

Leicester finished the 2000/01 season with nine defeats in their last ten and dropping from 4th to 13th in the process. They carried this form into the new season, getting thumped by newly promoted Bolton in their first game of the new campaign, losing seven of their first ten games, and being rooted to the foot of the table for most of the season.

Southampton finished 12th in 2004 but with only two points from their last five games. Again, this carried over to the new campaign, with them winning only one of their first twelve and ultimately finishing bottom.

Charlton finished the 2005/06 season in 12th place despite four defeats in their last five then started the next season with seven defeats and only one win in their first ten games, ultimately finishing 19th.

Birmingham’s impressive 2009/10 season saw them defy expectations and claim a top ten place, but also saw them win only one of their last ten games. Whilst the following year started with a four-game unbeaten run, they only managed one win in the first eight, and ultimately a poor end to a topsy-turvy season saw them relegated on the last day.

In four of the last ten seasons, one of the relegated teams have had the worst form of any surviving team in the last five games of the previous campaign. Obviously this also means that the other six teams that finished bottom of the form guide survived, including Everton in 2004 and Man City in 2007 who went on to enjoy top half finishes the following year.

Remember, though, that losing your last five games is unprecedented for any surviving club, so Bolton are in uncharted territory. We managed less than a point a game since Christmas (only Blackpool and West Ham had worse records) and with our diabolical away record, a tricky start at newly promoted QPR (reminiscent of Leicester in 2002) closely followed by games against five of last season’s top six and things could look bleak by mid-October.

Last season’s only other premier league ‘survivor’ with less than a point per game in their last five was Arsenal, who are clearly in no danger of relegation.

Candidates: Bolton

5. Other factors
This category covers other potential ‘warning signs’: financial troubles, loss of a long-term manager, change of ownership, daft managerial sackings and disastrous appointments.

Many of the teams already mentioned also fit into this category. Leicester had recently lost Martin O’Neill. Charlton had lost Curbishley and followed up with three managers the following year. Southampton lost Strachan and appointed Sturrock (briefly) then Wigley (laughably), and so on.

Only six of our thirty relegated teams do not fit into at least one of the categories above. Two of these – Leeds in 2004 and Portsmouth in 2010 – were victims of financial meltdown, as the consequences of overspending took them from European qualification to relegation in short time.

Another – Newcastle – had recently changed ownership, and were going through their Laurel and Hardy phase as new owner Mike Ashley was demonstrating why he should never have been allowed anywhere near a professional football club. There were already murmurings of discontent before Keegan walked out at the start of their relegation season.

Barring sudden loss of interest from the Arabs / Russians / Americans, there are a couple of potential candidates from this category.

Blackburn’s recent change of ownership coupled with the appointment of an inexperienced manager probably put them at the top of the list.

Bet you daren't appoint ... him!

Mike Ashley still should be allowed nowhere near a football club, and Newcastle’s sacking of Hughton and appointment of Pardew seems a bit of an odd one. Again there are murmurings from within the club, and the sale of your captain and main goal threat to a championship club doesn’t bode well, so let’s add them too.

Aston Villa’s appointment of McLeish is the most head-scratchingly daft for a while, but they have too much money and (currently) too good a squad to be genuine candidates.

Candidates: Blackburn, Newcastle.

That leaves only three clubs out of the last thirty relegated that were relegated without any of the ‘warning signs’ listed above, which suggests that if you’re an established premier league club not mentioned thus far, you’re probably safe..

Summary: put your money on …
It’s difficult to look beyond the three promoted sides, and likely that at least a couple will be in the mix. Other prime candidates for me would be; Blackburn due to their potential for off-field turmoil with the new owners and because they narrowly avoided relegation this year, Newcastle due to Mike Ashley, Alan Pardew, and second season syndrome, Wolves simply because the worst placed survivor tends to have an even chance of going down, and finally Bolton due to our poor form at the end of last season and our difficult schedule at the start of this one, but mainly so I don’t jinx us by saying we’ll be safe.

To narrow it down further, I’d expect Wolves to build on their survival in the last two seasons and Bolton to have too much pedigree, too solid a set-up and too good a manager to be in the mix after Christmas.

So perm any three from Norwich, QPR, Swansea, Newcastle, and Blackburn.

There you go – the three relegated teams will definitely come out of that bunch. Probably.

- Wakey

If Wanderers fans never hear the statements above again, they probably won’t mind, for the words were never meant as a compliment, and usually came from opposing managers after being turned over by Sam Allardyce’s functional football.

How times change.  What sides can expect from Bolton these days is a pasting, and when Owen Coyle’s team get on the score sheet it’s unlikely to be from a long punt upfield or a flick on from a throw-in.

Coloccini finds out he has to face Elmander again later in the season

What constitutes a typical Bolton goal at present was amply demonstrated just after half-time against Newcastle United on Saturday, as the home side put the game beyond reach.  There was a concise beauty in the way that Johan Elmander rounded Tim Krul, before rolling the ball into the net, but the move that enabled him to do that started on the half-way line.

Gary Cahill won possession and Fabrice Muamba played a simple pass to Elmander.  The Swede turned and twisted in a way that has become familiar, before being barged out of the way by Kevin Nolan.

It didn’t matter, for as so often, Stuart Holden was there to mop up, and he played in Lee Chung-Yong on the touchline.  The Korean’s pin-point pass was taken on the turn by Kevin Davies and a touch with his left-foot found Elmander in the penalty area, making a perfectly timed run to add the finishing flourish.  Fifteen seconds, six different players, a mixture of hard-work and artfulness and Bolton were home and hosed well before the hour mark.

Prior to that episode the Wanderers were already two goals to the good, via a Davies penalty and a strike from Lee, both efforts aided by defensive incompetence.

Ex-captain Nolan received a warm and deserved round of applause before kick off, but nothing good happened to him for the rest of the afternoon.  What prompted the Newcastle midfielder to handle in his own penalty area when under no pressure can only be speculated on.  Perhaps he was distracted by the tray of Carrs Pasties that had been placed temptingly on the touchline in readiness for his visit.

If Andy Carroll’s consolation goal for the visitors triggered a period of anxiety it has faded in the memory, unlike Elmander’s second strike on 72 minutes.  When the ball landed just in inside Newcastle’s half, he and Fabricio Coloccini were there to compete for it.  On current form it was a mismatch similar to that between a Rottweiler and a poodle.

The Argentina international was left an agitated spectator as Bolton’s No9 slotted past a hopelessly exposed Krul.  Coloccini got revenge of sorts three minutes later, elbowing his nemesis in the face when about to be skinned again.  Some might judge the resultant sending off a suitable punishment, but it was more a merciful release.  The 34-times capped defender will spend the next month undergoing therapy before being allowed back on a football pitch, such was the tortuous nature of his day.

If the visitors thought their lot might improve with the exit of Lee, they were mistaken.  His replacement, Rodrigo Moreno powered through midfield before feeding Davies.  Jose Enrique obligingly upended the Whites captain, giving away another spot-kick, which was duly despatched after a brief comic interlude.

Enrique protested, in the manner of Emerson Thome, smiling, shrugging, pleading and clasping his hands in prayer, whilst Sol Campbell had a full blown hissy fit.  The mirth continued post match with Chris Hughton indulging in the rich Geordie tradition of delusion.

This man is mad

‘I don’t think it’s a true reflection of the game,’  said Newcastle’s manager, referring to the score.  He was right.  Bolton should have won by more.

The Whites had eighteen goal attempts, compared to seven from the visitors (with only two on target) but the most significant number came from the amount of tackles – thirty one by Bolton, to ten by their counterparts.

Coyle’s team play football that’s pleasing to the eye, but that luxury is allowed by a busy, harrying midfield led by Fabrice Muamba and Stuart Holden, or Mu and Stu, as they’ve been dubbed by a Wanderers fan elsewhere.  As long as the duo continue to prove their prowess, those facing Bolton can expect to be seriously inconvenienced.

- Richard McCormick

Manny Road gets ready for battle (Pic: Gidzy, some rights reserved)

The media are looking for a victim and the Bolton Wanderers boss might not get such an easy ride this season

Disclaimer: Before we get started, it’s worth pointing out that in preparation for writing this post Manny Road has kitted up in full body armour in anticipation of the backlash likely to come my way. Manny Road is well aware that it’s a marathon not a sprint, that it was only one game, and that but for the legs of Marton Fulop we might well have got a point against Sunderland on Saturday.

So what’s my point? Why is Manny Road stoking the fires of negativity after just one game?

The answer is that I’m not. I’m merely pointing out that others in the media are starting to sound a little less sympathetic towards Gary Megson, who I believe got a pretty easy ride in the press last season.

Here’s a rough sketch of the timeline of attitudes towards Megson during his time at Bolton Wanderers…

Phase 1: Bolton fans outraged by Megson’s appointment, the media – shocked that someone with his track record has been given another chance – are largely in agreement.
Phase 2: Megson keeps Bolton up, fans are still largely unsure but the media – probably just relieved that the lack of anything interesting happening at the Reebok means they don’t have to write about Bolton much anymore – think he’s done a great job.
Phase 3: Megson continues to keep Bolton on an even keel, the media still think he’s doing a great job and slag fans off for not supporting him.

But some of the reports over the weekend suggest we may now be entering a new phase, one in which the fans continue to be disillusioned with Megson (if you think it’s just me, see if you can find any optimism or positivity in reaction to Saturday’s result over on the BWFC Facebook page) and the media start to see our (well, some of us) point again.

Exhibit A: The Bolton News finally get round to pointing out how, despite slashing prices, the club can barely give season tickets away.

Exhibit B: Following on from Daniel Taylor’s pre-season mauling of Megson, The Guardian continues to stick the boot in in their Sunderland match report, saying Bolton were devoid of tactics, ‘insipid, pedestrian and uninspiring’, and that none of Megson’s summer signings made any kind of impact.

Megson got any easy ride from the media last season. There were enough managerial-merry-go-round type stories elsewhere (Newcastle, Tottenham, Portsmouth) to prevent the media from smelling blood at the Reebok. That meant that when the fans got on Megson’s back, it inspired sympathy for the Wanderers boss among the press rather than any kind of killer instinct.

But this season, with the usual candidates for implosion – Spurs, West Ham, Man City – all looking fairly well set, the press may need to seek its prey elsewhere. Newbies are the usual target, but Roberto Martinez (playing the kind of football Bolton fans can only dream of right now) got off to a flier with Wigan at Aston Villa, and most of the other teams of Bolton’s stature – Stoke, Hull, Wolves et al -are all still content enough in the ‘grateful just to be here’ stage of their Premier League lives to get rid of the managers that got them there just yet.

So far Phil Gartside has been able to stave off calls for Gary Megson’s head, but once the fans, media and bank manager (once he counts up those season ticket receipts) are in unison, the only thing that will save Megson is an above average run of results/league position over the next couple of months – and on Saturday’s evidence, it’s difficult to see how this season is going to be any different from last year’s stop-start campaign.

OK, Manny Road is braced… unleash your fury in the comments below…

Watch ‘highlights’ of Bolton Wanderers 0-1 Sunderland here

Image via Wikipedia

How the national press reported Bolton Wanderers 1-1 Aston Villa

It seems like we’ve been hearing this for weeks now, but yet again we’re told by the Mail that Bolton are just one win away from definite safety. The same paper also tells us that Gary Megson believes Bolton have “hearts as big as buckets all over the pitch.”

Big hearts maybe (although that wasn’t necessarily the case at Portsmouth last week), but the Guardian thought the Wanderers display lacked inspiration, saying that “the highlights of this encounter will not make it into any PowerPoint presentations put together for Bolton chairman Phil Gartside’s proposed two-tier top-flight that would include Celtic, Rangers and, of course, Wanderers.”

Clearly avoiding relegation from this version of the Premier League, or any other, is the only measure of Bolton Wanderers’ success as far as the Times is concerned. Their reporter, without any sense of irony, suggests that the fact no-one is talking about Bolton as serious relegation contenders is a “huge compliment to Megson”.

In recognition of the fact that there’s clearly nothing else worth talking about with Bolton (has he seen us play?), the Times dedicated almost their entire report to unpicking the collapse of Aston Villa’s Champions League aspirations instead.

Of course the Times could have questionned Megson’s wisdom for spending so much money on Johan Elmander, but instead – as usual – it was left to the fans in the Observer to make that point. As the Express points out, it’s now just five goals in 26 starts for Elmander.

The Times could also have noted Bolton’s failure to win any of their last three games, or their inability to string passes together, as the Telegraph did.

The Times weren’t alone, though. The News of the World seem to think Megson keeping Bolton up is a miracle (seriously, have you seen how bad West Brom, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Sunderland etc etc are?).

Disagree? Have your say on the game in the comment box below…

Read the fans’ view of the game here

Watch Bolton Wanderers 1-1 Aston Villa video highlights here

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Here’s what the various Bolton Wanderers message boards made of the 1-0 win over Newcastle United yesterday…

Positives
- “It was a seminal result. There’s no way we’re going down now” … “we only need seven more points from a possible 33″ … “in fact we might only need 37.”

- “Recent results against Spurs, West Ham and now Newcastle at home show that Gary Megson is doing a good job” …”he’s really ramming it back at his critics” … “it’s good to see the opposition manager getting it in the neck for a change.”

- “Mark Davies looks like a star in the making” … and “Ricardo Gardner was brilliant too” … “he’s been arguably our most important player this season.”

- “Gary Cahill was man of the match yet again.”

- “Ebi Smolarek looked sharp. Megson did the right thing bringing him on rather than Ariza Makukula.”

- “Kevin Nolan was in the stand and took the banter from the Bolton fans well.”

- “The fans got behind the team well” but…

Negatives
- “There are still a lot of empty seats” and… “the fans who seem to want the team to lose just so we can get rid of Megson are a disgrace” … as is “Phil Gartside, who threatened some fans with action from the stewards after they criticised team selection.”

- “Once again the midfield disappeared and we ended up getting pinned back in to our own half.”

- “Both teams were rubbish. Neither of them could pass a ball properly.”

- “The problem is we have players willing to run themselves in to the ground but no-one with the technical know-how to see out a game without the usual pant-shitting at the end.”

- “Johan Elmander worked hard but his finishing needs some work” … in fact “he’s a complete waste of money.”

Disagree? Have your say in the comments below…

Sources: BBC 606, The Bolton News, The Wanderer, Rivals, Bolton Wanderers Mad, Burnden Aces.

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Image by blenky64 via Flickr

How the national press reported the Wanderers 1-0 home win over Newcastle

Most of the papers concentrate primarily on the mounting woes at Newcastle in their match reports.

The Guardian went to town on them, cataloguing their many problems in great detail (not leaving much room for analysis of Bolton’s performance), whilst the Sun pointed out that the travelling Geordie fans turned on their team.

The Daily Mail and the Times are similarly grim about Chris Hughton’s struggling side, although they do both say that Newcastle were unlucky not to get a penalty for Jlloyd Samuel’s handball.

Of course, that injustice was evened up by Bolton’s own shout for a penalty in the first half – a point overlooked by many of the newspapers.

The Mirror says bringing on match-winner Ricardo Gardner at half time was a tactical masterstroke by Gary Megson. The Telegraph also heaps praise on Megson for this victory, claiming he is a “perfect fit for the Reebok Stadium” and praising Bolton for “cutting Newcastle apart.”

To his credit, though, Megson refused to take the plaudits, with most of the papers – including the Independent – reporting him as saying that “managers get too much praise when substitutions work.”

Share your views on the game in the comment box below…

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Your guide to all the Bolton v Newcastle previews and Mystic Meggery

Reasons to be cheerful…
1. Kevin Nolan will miss the game for his new club after he tried to maim Victor Anichebe last week. Joey Barton and Danny Guthrie will also be keeping their studs clean.

2. Newcastle fans may not be able to find the Reebok Stadium because of some typically piss poor transport planning. Unless, of course, Nolan has told them all his secrets.

3. Gary Megson wants to pick the same team that beat West Ham which, presuming they do what they did in the first ten minutes and not the remaining 80, should be a good thing.

4. As far as  I can tell, there’s no sign of Michael Owen doing much to earn his £110k a week this weekend. Some bloke called Andy Carroll might play though.

5. Without wishing to put too finer point on it, Newcastle are a mess. The following words give you a flavour of the problems: Keegan, Wise, Ashley, for sale, no takers, Joe Kinnear, heart bypass surgery. Oh, and did we mention that Kevin Nolan doesn’t score goals any more before we took 4.5 million of your English pounds for him?

Reasons to be fearful…
6. Gary Megson isn’t worried about setting Bolton a points total because “mathematics has no place in football.” Except of course when they’re deciding which team has scored more goals, and which place everyone should be in in the table… so nothing particularly important.

7. In fact Megson, in typically contradictory fashion, has also been telling the Manchester Evening News this week that 40 points is the magic number. Make your mind up!

Statements of the bleedin’ obvious
8. Here’s a whole load of really boring statistics which tell you absolutely nothing about what will happen in the game. I only bring this to your attention because people who write Wdrs instead of Wanderers really piss me off. It’s lazy and it’s inaccurate… or shld tht b inaccur8?

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How Alex Ferguson almost changed my mind about the Bolton manager

I’m keen for my view that Gary Megson should be sacked at the end of the season, even if we do stay up, to be proven wrong. Mainly because I want to see my team win and get behind them.

As well as asking my readers for reasons why I’m wrong, I’ve also been actively searching for excuses to change my mind. Here’s the nearest I came last week…

The Daily Mail reported that an incredible 923 managers have been and gone from clubs in the English league since Alex Ferguson took charge at Manchester United in 1986.

Just analysing the clubs in the Premier League, it’s certainly possible to see correlation between the number of managers and the level of success enjoyed during that period, i.e. that the fewer managers you’ve had, the more successful you’re likely to be.

Ferguson himself is the most obvious example. Elsewhere, only two managers have left Arsenal during Ferguson’s reign, and just four have departed Anfield.

In contrast, teams who it’s fair to say have underachieved over the last 20 years – Spurs, Newcastle, Man City – average 12 managers waving goodbye.

The anomalies in this theory, i.e. club’s who’ve enjoyed relative success in spite of a large turnover of managers – Chelsea (11), Fulham (12), Wigan (12) – have in common the presence of chairmen/owners who have been especially generous with the cheque book in recent years.

So where do Bolton sit in all this? Six managers have left Burnden/the Reebok in the last 23 years, which means only United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Middlesbrough have had fewer managers (West Ham and Aston Villa have had the same).

The conclusion would seem to be that calling in the hangman as quickly as Chelsea and Portsmouth did last week, and Blackburn did earlier in the season, is not necessarily in the best long-term interests of the club.

Having said that, if that logic had always been applied at Bolton, then Roy McFarland and Sammy Lee would both have lasted longer than they did. After all, what’s worse, not backing a manager for long enough or giving the wrong manager too much time?

What these figures actually suggest to me is not that we should blindly back Megson in the hope that loyalty will stand us in good stead, but that having made two bad appointments, Phil Gartside had better get the next one right.

What do you think? Have your say below…

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The final round of ins, outs and shaking it all abouts at Bolton Wanderers this January

Ins
With the three ins this year – Davies, Sebastien Puygrenier and Ariza Makukula – already in the bag, Bolton barely got a mention on Sky Sports News’ overly-dramatic transfer deadline day coverage (was the countdown of the last 10 seconds, accompanied by pictures from Big Ben, really necessary, especially as the Premier League had extended the deadline due to the bad weather?).

Gary Megson confirmed after the Spurs game that he was targetting two more signings before the window shut at 5pm yesterday, so the Wanderers failure to bring in any more new players has to be seen as leaving Megson short of what he feels he needs to keep us in the Premier League.

In particular, Kevin Nolan’s departure would now seem to leave a hole in the Wanderers’ midfield, in spite of Mark Davies’ impressive home debut against Spurs. The Bolton News said that Rangers’ Barry Ferguson was the man Megson had earmarked to fill Nolan’s boots, but in the end the Scottish club weren’t interested in selling either him or Pedro Mendes, another midfield target. The same was true of Portsmouth’s Sean Davis.

The Wanderers faced a different problem in their pursuit of Sporting Lisbon midfielder Miguel Veloso: a lack of cash, although many papers and websites continued to link Veloso with a move to Bolton even after Megson had said the deal was dead on Match of the Day.

Outs
Failing to field the full quota of subs at Arsenal in early January meant Bolton were never likely to offload too many players this January. Nolan’s departure to Newcastle came as a shock to many though, including some of the players. Heidar Helguson’s move to QPR caused less distress.

The key statistic here, though, is that for the second year running Bolton have made a profit in the January transfer window, despite Megson claiming he did have money to spend. And for the second year running we have sold – in the eyes of many – our most influential player (although Kevin Davies might have something to say about that).

Shaking it all abouts
A move for Henrik Larsson never materialised, and rumours of Fred’s imminent arrival at the Reebok Stadium also turned out to be pie in the sky. Ditto for striker Pavel Pogrebnyak and Marco Zorro.

The key questions that arise from all this are as follows:

1. If Megson had money to spend, why is it that he failed to bring in more players?

2. Is it Megson’s fault for not making Bolton an attractive enough proposition for players; is it Phil Gartside’s fault for not making even more money available for the likes of Veloso; or is it just unfortunate that other clubs weren’t willing to sell?

3. Given no-one else was brought in after his departure, was selling Nolan to Newcastle a bad move?

4. Does making a profit in the transfer window represent a lack of ambition or good business sense?

5. Is the January transfer window a welcome distraction or a farcical circus that should be abolished?

If you have the answers to any of these questions, please share your wisdom in the comment box below…