My take on the game Vs Dougie's

Dougie: We created enough opportunities going forward to win the game easily. It will come with practice. The only thing I am disappointed with from today is that we didn't win because it was disappointing to concede the way we did. The players response after it went to 1-1 was superb. So were the fans. They were with us all the way and we gave them a real grandstand final 10 minutes. We did enough to deserve the win. But it's very much so a work in progress, we are only 4 games in.

Me: We created some opportunities but never did enough really to seal the win. We didn't at any point look like we had enough of a REAL goal threat to make things count up top. I am not only disappointed that we didn't win. There is plenty to be unhappy with about todays game. We took off Butterfield for Andrews. Poor. We removed Ngog and left K Davies on for a full 90 again. We could have easily lost but for a goal line clearance/deflection by Ricketts. Our players moaned at the ref constantly. There was a poor attitude on the pitch. If I were the manager I would have said after the game "it's not good enough yet, that's why I am here though. To make it better." From the sounds of things Dougie thinks things are actually ok. The away team can safely say they did enough to deserve the point. Grandstand final 10 mins? When was that then? Oh dear. A lot of huff and puff and not much progress. Plenty of squandered passes. The players response after it 1-1 was the MINIMUM you would expect from a professional football team. The MINIMUM. If Coyle was in charge today he would have been boo'd for the exact same performance.

Yes but you need perspective.

With Coyle it was 18 months of complete disarray.

With Dougie we're 4 unbeaten with The absolute shower of shit that Coyle left us.

There was a lot of booing at the full time whistle. I don't think it was all aimed at the Refs.

I didn't stay and clap, but I'm certainly not going to boo the team off after a draw (even if it's a shite draw), especially when it's the managers 4th game in charge and he's actually unbeaten. As Hipster says, we as fans need to get some perspective.

Someone behind me was even suggesting we shouldn't have bothered sacking Coyle! How does that attitude help? Coyle was sacked, get over it. We have Dougie now, and he has a lot of work to do to change the fortunes of this very poor Bolton team (the worst is a very long time IMHO!)

You have to wonder what people expected.....

oh yeah, to win every game by 5 and a "proper" clean sheet every time, no saves or blocks.

dickheads.

It's work in progress, dissappointing result, but we are still unbeaten since he's taken over - I'm looking forward to January, to see what he does.

I couldn't follow the game today ....but now I come home to read the reports. SKD a full 90 ...no Sordell in the squad.....and we can't beat a pub team. From reports it sounds like OC is still in charge.

Well I stated during the week that if we didn't hammer Barnsley that was that for this season..... I was hoping not to have to stick to my prediction....but I will.....no promotion and dooogie out!!!

It was a very even game - worrying, considering the difference in aspirations between the two sides. Barnsley were shaky as hell defensively yet we struggled to threaten their goal from within the penalty area. Eagles and MDavies were the only dangerous looking players of our's. KDavies' overall play was quite diabolical, with a constant flow of uncalculated wasteful flick-ons and Ngog didn't get on the ball often enough. In true Coyle fashion, when the game was crying out for a change in attacking approach, DF failed to make the obvious changes.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:You have to wonder what people expected.....

oh yeah, to win every game by 5 and a "proper" clean sheet every time, no saves or blocks.

dickheads.

We shouldn't be happy drawing 1-1 at home with the team near the bottom of the Championship.

I can take the shit players because that's what Coyle left us with - but there is no excuse for the continued use of Kevin Davies and picking players out of position.

But what pisses me off the most is the complete lack of effort in the last 10 minutes. There was a day when we used to throw everything at the opposition in the closing minutes to try and get a goal - now we just play as though it's the first 10 minutes.

.

If Freedman thought Kevin Davies was fantastic then I don't think he was at the game either.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:You have to wonder what people expected.....

oh yeah, to win every game by 5 and a "proper" clean sheet every time, no saves or blocks.

dickheads.

Listen pal, we are not expecting miracles. I am not even expecting results. Although a win would have been nice it's not what I am going to judge the manager on. I am judging on the mentality and set up of the team. The substitutions made and whether they ere the right changes imo. The tactics used. The inventiveness. The improvements from the last manager. I am not seeing enough of them at the moment.

And dickheads = rude.

Biggie wrote:

Hipster_Nebula wrote:You have to wonder what people expected.....

oh yeah, to win every game by 5 and a "proper" clean sheet every time, no saves or blocks.

dickheads.

Listen pal, we are not expecting miracles. I am not even expecting results. Although a win would have been nice it's not what I am going to judge the manager on. I am judging on the mentality and set up of the team. The substitutions made and whether they ere the right changes imo. The tactics used. The inventiveness. The improvements from the last manager. I am not seeing enough of them at the moment.

And dickheads = rude.

That's about right and Natasha is also right in pointing out that we have the players we have and need to accept that fact. It's about getting the most out of them. Two points spring to mind:

* It's slightly worrying that DF has adopted the same approach to handling the media as OC did. As commented when OC was in charge, I don't mind the manager doing a PR job in front of the cameras providing he bollocks the players in private when their performances are substandard, so TBF we don't know if this is happening or not - but it should be. That said, most seemed to work hard - toiling away in an unproductive system so maybe DF should be bollocking himself for not changing things.

* I don't mind poor results either providing that I can see youngsters blooded, effort all round, some imaginative experimentation with systems and clever tactics to address the needs of each game. Not much of that was in evidence and I can understand why when there is obviously huge pressure on the manager to get us promoted this season. What the club don't seem to accept is that we're not good enough and no amount of effort under this system will produce consistent results unless our passing improves dramatically and our finishing suddenly becomes far more clinical. There's a lot of focus on movement - which is not bad - but what's the point if passes go astray and there's no ruthless finishing on the end of it? Earlier in the season we were topping the league in "efforts on goal" but as we weren't/aren't putting them away it's obvious that the quality of those efforts was/is poor. Scuffed shots and weak headers are our forte and we aren't good enough to walk the ball into the net. Add that to a fragile (if slightly improved) defence and we're not talking about promotion material.

Given that we can't throw cash at the problem unlike our wealthier neighbours, we surely have to look at rebuilding with the assets we have i.e. our younger talent. I just don't think the management will accept that we have to rebuild before we can push on, so we're likely to continue flogging this particular horse for some time to come. Hopefully we won't lose our "future" - our younger talent - in the process or then we really will have nothing.

Lt. Boon wrote:There was a lot of booing at the full time whistle. I don't think it was all aimed at the Refs.

I didn't stay and clap, but I'm certainly not going to boo the team off after a draw (even if it's a shite draw), especially when it's the managers 4th game in charge and he's actually unbeaten. As Hipster says, we as fans need to get some perspective.

Someone behind me was even suggesting we shouldn't have bothered sacking Coyle! How does that attitude help? Coyle was sacked, get over it. We have Dougie now, and he has a lot of work to do to change the fortunes of this very poor Bolton team (the worst is a very long time IMHO!)

I heard the booing as well. On the plus side I thought Butterfield had a decent debut but I am still baffled as to the situation ( or lack of it ) regarding Sordell. I noticed Petrov wasn't even on the bench so I assume he was injured ?

Petrov was dropped not injured. He should be starting games imo.

Bernard Dennis Park wrote:Petrov was dropped not injured. He should be starting games imo.

How very very odd.

In reality the Doog has at least 18 months to make a diference and nowt will be done until then no matter what happens. But the worry is after 4 games he reverted back to a classic OC team. The banter was that other players would get the chance......now if you are not going to show us Riley, Wylde, Sordell etc etc againt Barnsley, when are you going to do it...... Palace away maybe?

I can't see Dougie making any changes at Brighton away next weekend. Depending on how we go next weekend and the Wed night game against Blackburn, we could see some changes for our home game against Ipswich on the 1st December.