At number 1 in my countdown of the best Bolton Wanderers games of 2008 is…

1. Bolton Wanderers 1 Atletico Madrid 0

Who?
Little old Bolton against one of the favourites to win the Uefa Cup.

What?
A proper European night in front of a big crowd at the Reebok… and a great win too.

Why?
After playing Atletico off the park in the second half, El-Hadji Diouf gets Bolton their just desserts with a late (ish) winner.

Where?
Reebok Stadium

When?
February 14th, 2008

You can see the top 10 Bolton Wanderers games of 2008 in full here.

If you disagree with any of my choices or have any views on the games I’ve picked, please feel free to have your say in the comment box below. I might even argue back.

At number 6 in my countdown of the best Bolton Wanderers games of 2008 is…

6. Atletico Madrid 0 Bolton Wanderers 0

Who?
A Bolton that briefly dared to believe they could go all the way in the Uefa Cup against one of Spain’s top teams (although not the best team in Madrid).

What?
It wasn’t pretty, and the actions of the Spanish police towards Bolton fans in the stand wasn’t too clever either, but Bolton hung on to record their biggest European scalp.

Why?
For once the unashamed negativity of Bolton’s midfield three – Kevin Nolan, Gavin McCann and Joey O’Brien – worked in our favour.

Where?
Vincente Calderon Stadium, Madrid

When?
February 21st, 2008

You can see the top 10 Bolton Wanderers games of 2008 in full here.

If you disagree with any of my choices or have any views on the games I’ve picked, please feel free to have your say in the comment box below. I might even argue back.

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.

Last season it took 60 points for Villa to get in to the Uefa Cup and when Bolton qualified before it took 56 and 58 points.

On current form the Wanderers would only get around 48 points by the end of the season, but with so many teams beating each other the number needed to finish in the top six or seven is likely to be significantly lower than in previous years (Arsene Wenger has said it will take less points to win the title this season too).

Only last week Portsmouth, a team that Bolton beat comfortably yesterday, were being tipped for a European place. And the chairman of Hull City – who are only four points above us – has also said their priority now is getting in to Europe (it’s worth pointing out that while Bolton have picked up 15 of the last 24 points available to them, Hull have taken just 7 of their last 24 points).

Should Bolton now be looking to push on for the European places in 2009, or is survival in the Premier League still the main priority?

Who should Bolton sign in January to try to help continue Bolton’s rise up the table?

Could Gary Megson really lead Bolton in to Europe… or have I gone completely mad?

Have your say in the comment box below… I might even argue back!

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.

Recent results have bought Gary Megson enough time for us to now assume that he will still be manager of Bolton Wanderers by the time the third round comes round in January.

And after last season’s surrender at Sporting Lisbon in the Uefa Cup, when Megson fielded a weakened team, the FA Cup will give him a chance to redeem himself with supporters.

There really are no excuses this time, with no Uefa Cup commitments and after being dumped out of the Carling Cup by Northampton at the earliest opportunity.

Portsmouth’s success in the competition last season should give hope to clubs like Bolton that they do have a chance of winning it too.

Personally, I would rather win the FA Cup and be relegated than finish 10th and get knocked out of the Cup in the third round, but I know the board won’t see it like that for financial reasons.

But the board have also shown great willingness to reconnect with the needs of the fans this season, so let’s hope Phil Gartside instructs Megson to go for it regardless of where we are in the league come January.

After all, the defeat at Wigan following the Lisbon surrender demonstrated that resting players is no guarantee of winning the next game.

It’s a long time since we had a decent Cup run (eight years?), and taking the Cup seriously would give Megson a good way of differentiating himself from Sam Allardyce, who always saw the FA Cup as secondary once we got into the Premier League.

It might just win over a few more fans too, especially those who have found it hard to forgive him for his team selection in Lisbon.

Do you want Bolton to take the FA Cup seriously this season? Have your say in the comments below.

And in case Gary needs a reminder of the romance of the Cup, here it is…

[youtube=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Pldp3vIhHME]

- 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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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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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…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3e6kNpPPXc]

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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…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6jI0K_NoCQ]

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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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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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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