UefaCup
Top 10 Bolton Wanderers games of 2008: Day 10
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 | BWFC News, BWFC People, El-Hadji Diouf | No Comments
Celebrating the best Bolton Wanderers games of 2008
At number 1 in my countdown of the best Bolton Wanderers games of 2008 is…
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Top 10 Bolton Wanderers games of 2008: Day 5
Friday, December 26th, 2008 | BWFC People, Gavin McCann, Joey O'Brien, Kevin Nolan | No Comments
Celebrating the best Bolton Wanderers games of 2008
At number 6 in my countdown of the best Bolton Wanderers games of 2008 is…
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The Burning Question: Can Bolton make it in to Europe this season?
Sunday, December 21st, 2008 | BWFC People, Gary Megson | 3 Comments
Are Gary Megson’s team an outside bet for a Uefa Cup place?
It was unthinkable a few weeks ago, but after winning five of their last eight games (and only losing to teams you would expect to finish above them anyway: Chelsea, Liverpool, Aston Villa), Bolton are now up to 9th in the Premier League table.
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Lucky number seven gives Gary Megson a chance of redemption
Sunday, November 30th, 2008 | BWFC People, Gary Megson, Phil Gartside, Sam Allardyce | 1 Comment
Why the Bolton Wanderers manager must take the FA Cup seriously this season
The draw for the third round of the FA Cup takes place today at 2.15pm. Wanderers have been given the lucky number seven in the draw.
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Recommended reading (22.10.08): Kevin Nolan speaks for the fans, Rob Styles takes another victim and Phil Brown does his sums
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 | BWFC People, Gary Megson, Jlloyd Samuel, Kevin Nolan, Phil Brown, Sam Allardyce, Sammy Lee | No Comments
What Manny Road was reading (and thinking) about Bolton Wanderers yesterday…
- Wondering why the headline wasn’t ‘No shit Sherlock’ for this story in which Kevin Nolan says the Wanderers will not be challenging for Europe this season. Nolan also says:
We’re trying to change it slowly from the Sam Allardyce and Sammy Lee era. But the wheels are in still in motion trying to do that. The fans are starting to come round to the fact that it’s changing.
Really? Which message boards is he reading?
- Reading this brilliant dossier on the many cock-ups of Rob Styles after the hapless ref made another blunder during the Newcastle v Manchester City game on Monday night. The starting XI of Styles’ victims of course includes Jlloyd Samuel.
- And finally… after reading yet another interesting and engaging interview with the increasingly impressive Phil Brown (he came across brilliantly on the BBC’s Inside Sport programme the other night too), wondering why the answer to this equation (best young manager in the Premier League + long history with Bolton Wanderers + still lives in Bolton) isn’t Gary Megson sacked, Phil Brown coming home.
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Sorry seems to be the hardest word at Bolton Wanderers
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 | BWFC People, Gary Megson, Gavin McCann, Mustapha Riga | No Comments
Will Gary Megson take his own advice?
Tapping the phone call between Gary Megson and Rob Styles on Monday, when the whistle-happy referee phoned the Bolton Wanderers manager to apologise for giving Manchester United a penalty on Saturday, would have made interesting listening.
Megson made it clear after the game on Saturday that he was only interested in an apology from Styles if it was a public one. He said:
I don’t want him to ring me up. I would have more respect from him if he just holds his hands up and says he was wrong.
As Gordon Sharrock points out in The Bolton News, keeping the apology private suggests Styles is trying to save his own neck rather than clearing the air in any meaningful way.
Nevertheless, I would have thought that Megson is the last man to pass judgment on Styles when it comes to taking responsibility for your actions.
Perhaps Megson would like to show Styles how it’s done by making a public apology for the following:
1. Fielding an under-strength team against Sporting Lisbon last season when thousands of Wanderers fans had paid hundreds of pounds to travel to Portugal in the hope of seeing their team progress in the Uefa Cup.
2. Allowing his team to be knocked out of the Carling Cup without even a hint of a fight against Northampton earlier this season.
3. Continuing to play Gavin McCann when Mustapha Riga has looked about a million times better on the rare occasions he’s been given a chance.
4. Criticising the fans for making mountains out of mole hills.
5. Criticising the players for being ‘one dimensional’, despite the fact that he picks a teams with three defensive midfielders in them.
There’s probably more. Feel free to add your own in the comments below…
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Desert Island Goals: John McGinlay, Jason McAteer and Andy Walker
Saturday, September 20th, 2008 | Andy Walker, BWFC People, Gary Megson, Jason McAteer, John McGinlay | No Comments
Great goals from Bolton Wanderers history…
It’s sometimes difficult to explain why so many Bolton fans see the early to mid-nineties as the golden age, even though the last few years have – in theory – been even more successful.
I think part of the romance of that era was the idea of taking on the world and conquering it against all the odds. There was an ‘anything is possible’ attitude at that time that was epitomised by those great FA Cup performances against Liverpool, Everton, Aston Villa and this one in 1994, when goals from John McGinlay, Jason McAteer and Andy Walker helped knock out the holders Arsenal.
Seven and a bit years in to our current Premier League life, the novelty has definitely worn off. Then the Uefa Cup came along to reinvigorate us, but Gary Megson didn’t share our dreams. His team selection in Lisbon was more ‘anything is impossible’.
Ahead of what’s likely to be another 10-men behind-the-ball, attack-at-your-peril performance from Megson’s Bolton Wanderers against Arsenal this afternoon, now seemed like a good time to remember the days when we used to scare the life out of big teams with energetic, attacking football.
The club in its current incarnation was built on the back of nights like this. So when Megson complains about supporters getting on his and the team’s back, he should know that it’s not necessarily just about results, or even performances. It’s about the life and the optimism being sucked out of the club by a manager who has failed to understand what Bolton Wanderers is all about.
We don’t win European Cups and Premier League titles, and we don’t expect to. So please Gary, give us something else to get excited about.
These were the days…
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Smolarek’s website makes a right hash of it
Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 | BWFC People, Ebi Smolarek, Jaroslaw Fojut | No Comments
Although it is a jolly good weed, I mean read…
Ebi Smolarek was an idol at Borussia Dortmund, according to, er, Ebi Smolarek (Jaroslaw Fojut quite likes him too). In fact, the new Bolton Wanderers striker’s personal website speaks in glowing terms about his entire career.
The only problem is he appears to have suffered some short-term memory less about one particular incident. I’ll let his Wikipedia page shed more light on it…
In 2002, Smolarek was suspended by the UEFA for two European matches after he tested positive for cannabis. However, the amount found in his urine was very low, ruling out the possibility that he had smoked it. It was said he might had been eating a space cake or something similar, maybe without even knowing. However, after the incident, Smolarek inherited the nickname, “The Hash Bomber” and, as a result, missed Feyenoord’s UEFA Cup final match versus Borussia Dortmund, won by the Dutch 3-2.
In a totally unrelated incident, here’s the Hash Bomber kicking a ball around a supermarket for no particular reason, seemingly unaware that it’s not really the done thing…
Funnily enough, neither of these career highs are mentioned on ebismolarek.com. I don’t think opposition fans in England will be so quick to forget the drugs ban though.
I remember Bolton playing Spurs shortly after Chris Armstrong had been done for cannabis. When Armstrong came on as a sub, one Bolton fan near me shouted ‘f*** off Armstrong you f***ing smack head.’ A little over the top, but humourous nevertheless.
The only problem was that Armstrong left us with egg on our faces when he went on to score the equaliser (the first goal scored by an opposition player at the Reebok Stadium, incidentally). If the Hash Bomber responds to the inevitable taunts in similar fashion, then I’ll be as high as a kite.
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Gary Megson has seven games to save his Bolton Wanderers career
Saturday, August 30th, 2008 | BWFC People, Gary Megson, Sammy Lee | 5 Comments
The Wanderers boss could be getting his P45 if he doesn’t live up to his own self-imposed targets
Since taking over as manager of Bolton Wanderers last season, Gary Megson has made constant reference in interviews to the state the club was in when he arrived. His favourite line is ‘five points from 10 games tells its own story.’
This is the same as the Labour government making constant reference to the state the country was in when they took over from the Tories in 1997. It’s a thinly-veiled excuse for their own shortcomings. They may as well say ‘look, however bad you think this is now, at least it’s not as bad as it was then.’
So it was no surprise to hear Megson using his favourite line again this week after the Carling Cup defeat to Northampton. The problem for Megson, though, is that the point at which his record can be judged against Sammy Lee’s is rapidly approaching.
So far we have three points from two games, so in theory Megson has seven games (one of the 10 games he mentions was under caretaker boss Archie Knox, so Lee actually only had nine) to get at least two more points and avoid putting the club in exactly the same situation we were in 12 months ago.
Shouldn’t be too difficult, right? Not necessarily. If Bolton don’t beat West Brom today, Megson will come under tremendous pressure already, especially with much tougher games against Arsenal, Manchester United, Tottenham, Everton and Blackburn coming up before his nine-game deadline expires.
And don’t forget that the Wanderers’ one league win under Lee also came in the first four games of the season We were also still in the Carling and Uefa Cups when Lee left, which at least gave the fans something to look forward to. Megson will have no such luxury.
So, no pressure against West Brom today, Gary…
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Gary Megson has invisible gun held to his head…
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 | BWFC People, Gary Megson | 2 Comments
Bolton Wanderers’ Lisbon surrender explained
There was one interesting line in The Bolton News’ preview of the Carling Cup tie against Northampton. Amongst the usual run-of-the-mill quotes about Gary Megson ’setting his sights on glory’, the paper’s reporter wrote:
Megson was forced to field a weakened team in the UEFA Cup last season as Wanderers battled for their Premier League lives at home.
That’s funny, I don’t remember anyone holding a gun to Megson’s head that night at Sporting Lisbon. Who exactly was doing this ‘forcing’? It certainly wasn’t the Bolton Wanderers fans who paid good money to watch their team surrender their shot at European glory.
Apparently Megson is ’still haunted’ by what happened in Lisbon… he’s not the only one!
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