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Bolton 6-0 SAFC


mad how the team isn't even that much different

  • 39 Hoffmann
  • 15 Winchester
  • 5 Batth
  • 6 Doyle Booked at 78mins
  • 17 Cirkin Substituted for Pritchard at 53'minutes
  • 4 Evans
  • 24 Neil Substituted for Clarke at 53'minutes
  • 7 Dajaku Substituted for Roberts at 66'minutes
  • 8 Embleton
  • 1 Gooch Booked at 81mins
  • 14 Stewart
11 of the 14 regularly start for us this season when fit. other than dejaku, the other 10 all makes claims to still be in our best 11.

O'nien and Trai Hume on the bench too.

plus, i think this was the game that brought Patterson to the first team

We've only really added Diallo, Ballard and Alese into the mix as names in the first 11

funny old game
2-0 down at half time and still Johnson didn’t change it.

He should have been fired by full time for his ineptitude
 
One of the darkest days in the history of the club, yet only 1 year ago this week.

Within 12 months we've gone from that, to 1 point off the playoffs and 3 points off 3rd place in the Championship after 28 games, reducing the average age of the squad with what seems like every signing, and playing some of the best football in the division.

It's no mean feat. The days of clubs going straight from L1 to challenging for promotion are long gone and the highest any promoted L1 side has finished in the last 4 season was last year's Blackpool in 16th.

If anyone still doubts the credentials of Speakman and co, that should be all the evidence you need to realise he is doing a fantastic job.
Well put sir, have a like.
 
I'd left work just before kick off , and the reception was pretty poor so check the scores , by the time I'd picked up a Mcdonalds and got home, we'd conceded 4. :lol:
And the goals still kept coming
 
One of their best decisions was getting rid of Lee Johnson. If only they’d done it sooner.
If wed done it sooner, we wouldnt be where we are now.
It was he brave decision to sack him when 2nd in league that has got us to this point.
 
There were people shouting and screaming for us to go forward and try and get back into it at 3 and 4 nil, I was screaming for us to sit back and defend as there was only one team scoring more that day.
 
First time I have watched those goal’s since being there. Left at 4-0 like plenty of others.

We improved loads once Doyle was replaced, I think that got Cirkin his confidence back then too cos the pair of them were shot by the time Neil came in.
It was a shame they were LB and LCB. It meant there was no Wright or Batth to steady things between the two young uns
 
I still think Johnson had a part to play (hear me out). He arrived at the bleakest point in our history when we had an aged squad full of knackers like Graham, Grigg, Dobson, Scowen etc playing eye-wateringly bad football under a dinosaur in Parkinson. In conjunction with Speakman he oversaw the transition towards youth, blooding in the likes of Neil and Cirkin and putting faith in Stewart and Embleton. You could also argue (possibly tenuously) that he aided Patterson's development - I believe he wanted to start last season with him as number 1 but Speakman identified Hoffman just before the start of the season so they went with Burge until the deal was done rather than start Patterson then drop him and kill his confidence, and also allowing him to go out on loan where he thrived.

Now, obviously he failed and results speak for themselves, but I don't think any other manager who we could have realistically appointed at the time would have went along with that. Alex Neil certainly didn't - the first thing he did was drop Dan Neil and Doyle and go with experience. We needed a manager who would see the bigger picture rather than go with League One battlers to grind our way out of the division otherwise the project would have failed. Mowbray is benefiting from some of the work Johnson did.

But he was fatally flawed. He believed he was some sort of football genius and I really think he completely neglected coaching them the basics. We looked great at home but panicked against anyone who pressed us, particularly away where if we couldn't play out from the back against big, physical opponents we would wilt, drop deeper and deeper, leave Stewart completely isolated and put ourselves under more pressure. He had to go, but I think Neil benefited from taking over a talented but disorganised squad and steering them in the right direction but would have failed if he'd inherited the post-Parky shitshow.
 
This was my sons first away game - we left at 4-0 and were staying at the Premier Inn opposite - 6-0 by the time we got in the room. My son said can I support Bolton dad, he has since seen sense and enjoyed 3 away victories and a Wembley win!
 
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