"Robbed" - Bolton Match Report
Sep 11, 2006
Author: "Callys_Disco"

My first ever visit to the Reebok, then. We get to the ground rather closer to kick-off time than we would have liked, having spent longer in the pub than originally intended. My head is still thumping from the effects of the previous night’s beers as we climb the unfeasible number of stairs to the upper tier of the away end.

The ground is impressive, but virtually all the noise is coming from the away end – the home fans were only roused into vocal support on a few sparse occasions for the first 95 minutes of the contest, as it turns out.

Our line-up shows a number of changes from the Man Utd game – some predictable (Foster for Lee), some less so (Stewart for Powell, Mackay for DeMerit and Tommy Smith for Bouazza).

For their part, Bolton make an early bid for the World’s Unhappiest Forward Line, by pairing Diouf and Anelka, on his debut.

But it is Watford who start by far the brighter. Twice within the first 5 minutes, Ashley Young crosses cause panic in the Bolton box and sliced clearances provide early set-piece opportunities. Both are, however, squandered, setting the theme for the rest of the afternoon.

The quality of the passing from both sides leaves something to be desired – Bolton look like a team who have never previously met each other, whilst we are neat and tidy only up to the penalty box….Our final balls are consistently being over-hit and mis-directed. Are we still getting used to the supposed different flight of Premiership footballs ? Or do we just lack the necessary composure in the final third of the field?

Then, after 20 minutes, we introduce ourselves to the woodwork for the first, but not the last, time in the match. Marlon does well to retrieve a Foster free-kick at the by-line, pulls a cross back for Darius who heads into the path of Tommy Smith. In the ensuing scramble, the ball breaks for Damien Francis, whose shot strikes the right-hand post and comes back to Young who fires the rebound wide via a deflection. The corner again comes to nothing, naturally.

The defence is looking pretty solid, though, until Mackay catches his studs in the turf which allows Campo’s pass to reach Anelka, but he slices his shot wildly past Foster’s left-hand post.

It had all been unexpectedly comfortable up until that point, but when Bolton bring on Vaz Te after 35 minutes, they begin to enjoy their best spell of the match, up to half-time.

The action becomes concentrated in front of the away supporters now, as the home side steps up a gear, look more inventive and we seem to lose concentration a little. Vaz Te (twice), Faye and Speed all go close before the break, and we are hanging on.

The second half begins in the same vein, certainly territorially, as we are under consistent pressure, not helped by our inability to retain possession on the few occasions we have it. Despite the pressure, Bolton don’t really create that much during this spell, until nearly the hour mark, when Anelka gets free and fires in a fierce shot, which Foster does well to parry.

After 70 minutes, the tiring Smith is replaced by Albert Jarrett, who to me still sounds more like a 1940s big band leader than a footballer. The evidence of Smith’s “debut” is inconclusive – he worked hard and occasionally linked up well, especially with Henderson on the left, but I still cannot see him terrorising Premiership defences. The same must also be said of Jarrett, who showed one or two nice touches, but had a tendency to give the ball away, sometimes in dangerous situations.

By now though, we are back in the ascendancy – Mahon and Francis, having been over-run for a period of 25 minutes or so, have re-established some authority in midfield and we had begin to break with some real energy. The movement from King, Henderson and especially Young is causing problems down their left and with just under 10 minutes left our best move of the match results in Young firing against the crossbar from 15 yards with Jaaskelainen beaten.

For the next 10 minutes, we continue to get into some good positions, but almost invariably the final ball goes astray, to the frustration of the away supporters behind the goal we are attacking.

Our intitial and, as it turned out, ultimately well-founded dismay at the announcement that there would be 4 minutes of stoppage time, was forgotten as we come forward in search of a winner.

After 98 minutes, Henderson flicks a header through to Marlon, who gets really free of Faye for the first time in the match, but, unmarked and 18 yards out, he curls it just past the post, again with Jaaskelainen beaten.

Then from a set-piece in the 122nd minute, Malkay’s header loops up onto the crossbar before being cleared to safety.

After these late scares, Bolton seem content for a point and amble forward, more for the sake of form than with real intent. Then, in 237th minute of added time, substitute Tal sets off on a sort of languid dribble which takes him into the box, towards goal and then away again, towards the corner flag…where Shittu’s ill-judged and ill-timed tackle, brings him down. Whilst there may be some justification in complaining to the officials about their time-keeping, there can be doubt, even from our view at the far end of the ground, that it is a foul.

Speed despatches the penalty high into the net (off the underside of the crossbar from my view at the other end) and that’s that. The Bolton fans celebrate, somewhat self-consciously and we leave in various states of disbelief.

Most of the Bolton fans we met outside were slightly embarrassed and apologetic – not reactions you often encounter after a football match – and on the balance of play, we should have won this, not just got a point and certainly not a defeat.

But already there is a theme developing this season. Unlike our previous visit to the Premiership, the defence, somewhat against expectations, looks fairly solid : 6 goals conceded in 4 games is not perfect, but not disastrous. However, our goal-scoring is a weakness this far, particularly if you view the conversion rates of good situations into chances created and chances created into goals scored.

Marlon has found it far tougher this year, as the difference in class between Championship and Premiership defenders and defending is already clear. Our striking options do look thin too – woe betide us if Marlon or Ashley get a significant injury.

Whilst we could have 9 points by now, we have only one and are bottom of the fledgling table. Not that this is a cause for panic just yet – I would much rather be creating loads of chances than none at all, but we do need a little more composure with our final ball and in front of goal. The problem with not winning games like this one is that it puts more pressure onto subsequent games, which in turn means we are more likely to snatch at chances, hurry the final pass.

The upside is that somebody is going to get a pasting one day – Villa anyone ?



Player ratings (out of 10) :

Foster 6, Doyley 7, Stewart 5, Mackay 7, Shittu 6, Mahon 5, Francis 5, Smith 5 (Jarrett 70 mins 4), King 6, Henderson 7, Young 8.

Subs (not used) : Lee, Bangura, DeMerit, Spring

Referee : M. Clattenburg (4)

Attendance : 21 140