Saturday 13th August 2022

[BarrieOwl]

Oxfor

In fairness, two not very good sides. It just looked like two bottom half sides with nothing to offer.

We offer absolutely nothing right now and it’s not surprising. We won’t concede many but we just won’t score as we are currently set up. We also don’t have the right personnel to threaten.

Which is mad given you were very proficient goal wise last year

 

[Gassy]

I would agree if that happened. But it didn’t? Never mind. Best of luck for the season.

So your player didn’t stamp on ours and he didn’t push our players head into the ground? What was he booked for then?

In fairness, two not very good sides. It just looked like two bottom half sides with nothing to offer.

We offer absolutely nothing right now and it’s not surprising. We won’t concede many but we just won’t score as we are currently set up. We also don’t have the right personnel to threaten.

I think you absolutely have the right personnel to threaten tbh. You have a great squad for L1. You do seem to usually start off slow though and I have no doubt you’ll beat us back at your place and kick off sooner rather than later, it’s a long old season

 

[David Brent]

Regards new signings I really like the look of Massey. When he came on he was really asking them questions with his directness. Once he gets matchfit I can see him a big problem for opponents.

DC did a great job with his changes as well. Taking off Forrester he was on a yellow etc. Got all the calls right.

Massey was very good when he came on. A real coup of signing that for you and I suspect he’ll do very well for you this season.

Harrison also looked pretty lively, think Clarke will get the best out of him as he has done before. You’ve got a decent squad with the likes of Massey, Wilson, Hall and Conlon, so I think you’ll be relatively comfortable in mid-table come the end of the season.

 

[Stroud]

 

[kieran_vale]

Massey was very good when he came on. A real coup of signing that for you and I suspect he’ll do very well for you this season.

Harrison also looked pretty lively, think Clarke will get the best out of him as he has done before. You’ve got a decent squad with the likes of Massey, Wilson, Hall and Conlon, so I think you’ll be relatively comfortable in mid-table come the end of the season.

Best thing about Massey is he’s prepared to try and take a man on, defenders hate that. Would be very happy with that at the end of the season if so. Up top obviously is the area we need to add to and though we have some willing workers in Proctor and now Harrison just having that game changing option is something we maybe need. Wilson can do that but an extra one on top would be useful.

Could tell with Bolton yesterday the difference in terms of L1 and what we faced in L2 that the established players at this level are just that bit smarter tactically and how they keep the ball. Think Iredale for you was very good and shows your bench strength if can bring on the likes of Bodvarsson who I quite liked.

 

[leedsvaliant]

That 2nd yellow for Santos looks bizarre.

The thing that they didn't show on the highlights was that this was probably his 4th offence. The ref warned him about 5 minutes before. Evatts mistake and then he tries to deflect it by saying how easily they would have won otherwise. They were out on their arse at the end and fair play to them, they denied space in and around the area.

It'll probably benefit Bolton. Santos is a liability anyway.

Thought the number 9 for them looked useful and the fantastic goalkeeper.

Little bit disappointed we didn't win against 10 men but have to remember that their budget is probably several million more than ours.

 

[masi51]

The thing that they didn't show on the highlights was that this was probably his 4th offence. The ref warned him about 5 minutes before. Evatts mistake and then he tries to deflect it by saying how easily they would have won otherwise. They were out on their arse at the end and fair play to them, they denied space in and around the area.

It'll probably benefit Bolton. Santos is a liability anyway.

Thought the number 9 for them looked useful and the fantastic goalkeeper.

Little bit disappointed we didn't win against 10 men but have to remember that their budget is probably several million more than ours.

Dont know if you have rose tinted glasses ....We will start on the player you slated
Understand this Hall your best centre back cannot lace Santos boots.....He has been in the pfa team of the year for the last two years and was courted this summer by several championship teams.
4th offence??????
It was not a offence he dived.
Another of the so called offences was asking about why a goal was not given despite it being three foot over the line. As a captain i would expect him to pull the ref about this.

Blowing out of our arses yes that was because we played with a player less
Our budget which you harp on about every post wont be in the top 6 in this league.
This summer we have brought in Iredale on a free who i think was outstanding and Trafford and Bradley on loan
No coincedence that both Klopp and Guardiola have trusted us to bring on two of there outstanding young talents.

 

[kieran_vale]

Dont know if you have rose tinted glasses ....We will start on the player you slated
Understand this Hall your best centre back cannot lace Santos boots.....He has been in the pfa team of the year for the last two years and was courted this summer by several championship teams.
4th offence??????
It was not a offence he dived.
Another of the so called offences was asking about why a goal was not given despite it being three foot over the line. As a captain i would expect him to pull the ref about this.

Blowing out of our arses yes that was because we played with a player less
Our budget which you harp on about every post wont be in the top 6 in this league.
This summer we have brought in Iredale on a free who i think was outstanding and Trafford and Bradley on loan
No coincedence that both Klopp and Guardiola have trusted us to bring on two of there outstanding young talents.

If you have a hold of someone’s shirt which he did that’s a foul. Stupid to do that having been warned what would happen if he was involved in anything else.

 

[masi51]

If you have a hold of someone’s shirt which he did that’s a foul. Stupid to do that having been warned what would happen if he was involved in anything else.

Dont see two bookings in anything he did.....We move on

 

[SVH]

Iredale keeping the best left back in the league John out the team? No surprise there.

 

[kieran_vale]

Dont see two bookings in anything he did.....We move on

The first one I’m afraid to say he got suckered into a response. The player he pushed over Smith is a master of needling opposition players and in full view of the ref he got the retaliation he wanted. The second was just a culmination of things, in isolation I would agree. Thought though you did a very good job with 10 men so fair play. We will take a lot ourselves and onto the next.

 

[stevowanderer]

If you have a hold of someone’s shirt which he did that’s a foul. Stupid to do that having been warned what would happen if he was involved in anything else.

But on the other side of it how many shirts were your players holding trying to defend our set pieces? It’s no different. They’re either all a foul or none. For the exact same offence we could have had 2/3 penalties but not even a foul is given.

That being said Santos shouldn’t have pushed the guy over in the box whilst he was being held and that is a booking for me and that’s on him… stupid so early in the game. One of the warnings came after he complained that a goal hadn’t been awarded when pictures show it well over the line. How can a captain not talk to a ref anymore? And that isn’t just us… happens all the time now.

As for Evatt red card… i don’t know what happened but I do feel he goes OTT sometimes and needs to control himself better. He’s admitted that but he does it for the right reasons. Defending his players and his club. At least he cares and that’s not an excuse but to be honest if he has a touchline ban on Tuesday against Derek Adams that may be a blessing in disguise as they always go after each other.

On Santos and some people saying they dont know what we see in him. He’s a much better player than what you saw in league 2 (especially first half of season) where he was still finding his feet after a cruciate injury and coming back from non league. He was voted in the pfa league 1 team of the season last season by his fellow professionals who play against him week in week out. That says it all. He definitely has a bad game every now and then but virtually every Bolton fan that sees him every week wouldn’t swap him. He’s hands down one of our best players.

 

[masi51]

Iredale keeping the best left back in the league John out the team? No surprise there.

John came off at half time against Salford with a virus. Hence he never started yesterday
Iredales performance yesterday will do him no harm.

Not the best lwb in league1 that comment was when he was in lge2

 

[SF_]

That Santos is one of the worst centre backs I've seen live when he was at Peterborough.

 

[kieran_vale]

But on the other side of it how many shirts were your players holding trying to defend our set pieces? It’s no different. They’re either all a foul or none. For the exact same offence we could have had 2/3 penalties but not even a foul is given.

That being said Santos shouldn’t have pushed the guy over in the box whilst he was being held and that is a booking for me and that’s on him… stupid so early in the game. One of the warnings came after he complained that a goal hadn’t been awarded when pictures show it well over the line. How can a captain not talk to a ref anymore? And that isn’t just us… happens all the time now.

As for Evatt red card… i don’t know what happened but I do feel he goes OTT sometimes and needs to control himself better. He’s admitted that but he does it for the right reasons. Defending his players and his club. At least he cares and that’s not an excuse but to be honest if he has a touchline ban on Tuesday against Derek Adams that may be a blessing in disguise as they always go after each other.

On Santos and some people saying they dont know what we see in him. He’s a much better player than what you saw in league 2 (especially first half of season) where he was still finding his feet after a cruciate injury and coming back from non league. He was voted in the pfa league 1 team of the season last season by his fellow professionals who play against him week in week out. That says it all. He definitely has a bad game every now and then but virtually every Bolton fan that sees him every week wouldn’t swap him. He’s hands down one of our best players.

Don’t disagree with you about players having a hold of others shirts but in his case to do it so blatantly after being given the final warning he’ll probably want that back. He wasn’t kidding anyone with his raising his hands in the air afterwards to pretend he hadn’t done it.

Suppose it depends on what he actually said on questioning it to the ref. On a hot day like that with tempers flaring maybe he pushed the boundary? I don’t know. The final warning I think it was involved with Smith again (there’s a pattern there granted ).

No real opinion on Santos as a defender as to be honest I haven’t seen him enough. Yesterday I think Evatt should maybe take some responsibility and taken him off as DC did to Will Forrester after his booking. As it happens with Evatt he may not necessarily get a touch line ban. DC get sent off after losing it in the playoff semi last year and learned afterwards there’s nothing really in the laws about suspensions for managers getting a red and is on a case by case basis, he was back in the dugout for the final.

 

[PlymouthCasual]

One of the most complete performances I have seen from us in a long time. We limited a fancied Peterborough side too just a couple half chances which was testament to how we played.

Thats two of last seasons Championship sides in Barnsley and Peterborough already dispatched with relative ease at Home Park this season. Onto Charlton at The Valley on Tuesday

 

[bigfatron]

As a neutral that Santos second yellow sending off looked harsh - I've seen a card given for that, sure, but I've also seen a lot of yellows not given, especially when the player is already on a yellow. I'd have been a bit pissed off if that had been one of our lads being sent off...

We had an 'interesting' ref too - should have booked/sent off our centre back Okadina for a hold on Brown, then lets their forward put in what is nine times out of ten a foul on the other centre back and take an open goal. I suspect the ref felt he was evening things up after getting the first one wrong.

First half we weren't good enough, too many players having an off day. Second half much better; two great goals to win it - good quality off the bench and a strong second half. We would have lost that last season.

Exeter will be OK, looked decent on the break and when we let them play first half, but struggled with our increased intensity after the break. I suspect that they'll win a few surprise victories, get spanked once or twice, and finish mid table. Although I'm pretty sure that they won't trouble the promotion spots!

 

[Moomin]

Exeter will be OK, looked decent on the break and when we let them play first half, but struggled with our increased intensity after the break. I suspect that they'll win a few surprise victories, get spanked once or twice, and finish mid table. Although I'm pretty sure that they won't trouble the promotion spots!

A pretty fair assessment of how I feel at present. When we’re backing ourselves and we’re on the ball, we’ll win a fair few games this season. Taylor was annoyed after yesterday’s game as he felt a large number of our players didn’t do themselves justice, which you can’t get away with at this level. Our home form will be huge for us.

Cambridge are the exact blueprint of what we can aspire to. They’re hard to beat, play some good football and have excellent attacking options.

We’ve got a number of academy players in our team, who will show their inexperience at times and they need to learn from yesterday’s game quickly and we move on.

On to Wycombe this Tuesday

 

[Luke Imp]

Bristol Rovers pitch looking a bit ropey for so early in the season?

 

[YEO YEO YEO]

Bristol Rovers pitch looking a bit ropey for so early in the season?

Looks like a carpet compared to Coventrys!

 

[Soz]

having seen the still picture it did look about 2-3 foot over the line, but it is a bit of an optical illusion when you see the video replay as that appears to show that it probably didn't cross:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1558758578843942912

that might change things with regards to santos getting a warning for protesting too.

classic nathan smith though, god knows how professional footballers can't manage to not hit/push/elbow him for 90 minutes just because he's winding them up that much.

 

[valefan16]

Santos first yellow is as straight forward as they come, the second is for persistent fouling as much as anything so was the correct decision. Guarantee if our player does the same and doesn’t see red Evatt is raging about that.

He was warned seconds before then does that? Ridiculous. Felt like an entitled club unhappy they didn’t get away with it against little old Port Vale to be honest.

We targeted him as a weak link like we did in the 6-3 and it worked a treat. Can’t comment on how good he is week in week out as I’m not a Bolton fan but against us he’s probably been the worst centre half I’ve seen over the past couple of years. Maybe it’s just we are his bogey side but Rodney bullied him and tore him to pieces and yesterday he was just a liability.

That said he can’t be that bad every week or he wouldn’t get in team of the year.

As for the “goal” I’ve seen the picture and it’s look in but then on the slow mo video clip it doesn’t, the image appears to show it is beyond the keepers arm which would put it miles in, but in the video Smith hooks his right boot to clear it with his left on the line so without the angle on the line it’s hard to say either way. As the ball is off the ground from that angle it’s deceptive as the clearance would require Smith to have some weird joints in his knee to clear it like that!

 

[valefan16]

having seen the still picture it did look about 2-3 foot over the line, but it is a bit of an optical illusion when you see the video replay as that appears to show that it probably didn't cross:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1558758578843942912

that might change things with regards to santos getting a warning for protesting too.

classic nathan smith though, god knows how professional footballers can't manage to not hit/push/elbow him for 90 minutes just because he's winding them up that much.

Yeah love Smudge! Winds them up they hit him and he just laughs with that gap in his teeth. He’s a bit of a nutter!

 

[kieran_vale]

having seen the still picture it did look about 2-3 foot over the line, but it is a bit of an optical illusion when you see the video replay as that appears to show that it probably didn't cross:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1558758578843942912

that might change things with regards to santos getting a warning for protesting too.

classic nathan smith though, god knows how professional footballers can't manage to not hit/push/elbow him for 90 minutes just because he's winding them up that much.

I think the only way to be 100% sure is if there was a view of it directly along the line. Realtime I thought it was actually Santos who cleared it himself which would have been ridiculous.

Smudge has turned it into an art form really. Like one of those old school Italian type centrebacks how he does it. Apparently he’s like that with our own players in training also. Think it was FGR away last season he wound up Jamille Matt into clocking him one.

 

[valefan16]

I think the only way to be 100% sure is if there was a view of it directly along the line. Realtime I thought it was actually Santos who cleared it himself which would have been ridiculous.

Smudge has turned it into an art form really. Like one of those old school Italian type centrebacks how he does it. Apparently he’s like that with our own players in training also. Think it was FGR away last season he wound up Jamille Matt into clocking him one.

And the Crawley lad following by the Stanley lad a week later. Not to mention the first yellow for the Mansfield lad in the semi!

On the goal video Smudges boot is on the line as he connects (with his shin).

 

[BarrieOwl]

having seen the still picture it did look about 2-3 foot over the line, but it is a bit of an optical illusion when you see the video replay as that appears to show that it probably didn't cross:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1558758578843942912

that might change things with regards to santos getting a warning for protesting too.

classic nathan smith though, god knows how professional footballers can't manage to not hit/push/elbow him for 90 minutes just because he's winding them up that much.

Won't change anything re Santos, two bookings can't be appealed.

 

[K-Win]

One of the most complete performances I have seen from us in a long time. We limited a fancied Peterborough side too just a couple half chances which was testament to how we played.

Thats two of last seasons Championship sides in Barnsley and Peterborough already dispatched with relative ease at Home Park this season. Onto Charlton at The Valley on Tuesday

Must admit, that's an impressive start against two fancied teams. Looks like I may have goofed again not putting Argyle in the top six.

 

[masi51]

Won't change anything re Santos, two bookings can't be appealed.

Nope will serve his one match ban Tuesday at home to Morecambe and be ready for you lot come Saturday
Either Aimson or Iredale will play Tuesday more likely Iredale which would allow John to come in at lwb

 

[masi51]

having seen the still picture it did look about 2-3 foot over the line, but it is a bit of an optical illusion when you see the video replay as that appears to show that it probably didn't cross:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1558758578843942912

that might change things with regards to santos getting a warning for protesting too.

classic nathan smith though, god knows how professional footballers can't manage to not hit/push/elbow him for 90 minutes just because he's winding them up that much.

No optical illusion it went over even MR Magoo can see that !!

 

[valefan16]

No optical illusion it went over even MR Magoo can see that !!

So how come his boot is on the line that kicks it then!