Falkirk 1-1 Bolton

Wednesday game is being streamed live for £3.00 if anyone is interested -

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How many will we get beat by this time? if we lose them all maybe he will get the sack.

haha, can you imagine a manager getting the sack for a poor pre season.

The way football is going i wouldn't be surprised if it happens at one of the big clubs soon.

"Andre Villas Boas has been sacked as manager of Spurs after a demoralising 3-2 defeat at the hands of Guangdong Tigers Shingchang"

"An angry Spurs chairman Daniel Levy described the defeat at the Chew-Me Stadium as 'the darkest day in the club's footballing history'"

1-0 down apparently!?

1-1 Eagles

Only a friendly with all the associated to-ing and fro-ing, but Falkirk played Middlesbrough in a friendly on Sunday.

Falkirk 3 : 7 Middlesbrough

Just saying.

Can i take back my "we're the new middlesborough" statement?

Full time 1-1

Blimey only 1-1 and yet Middlesbrough can score 7 againsy them - it does look as though we could be in trouble next season (cue "its on friendlies" abuse) - just doesn't help the morale or the cohesion of the team.

We managed a draw despite going 1-0 down after what was probably the first attempt at goal in the first minute. They have scored 3 goals against Championship opposition as recently as Sunday and are more match-ready than they were then, so that's encouraging. COYWM!

Couldnt score in a brothel.Pratley missed 3 a tame shot that any pro footballer should have buried ther goalie saved one and then he cocked an header up.Petrov looked in form running past players and creating chances.Mark Davies should of scored just after half time.I know its just friendly matches but Bolton dominated.Goalscorer badly needed.Hope Sordell smashes a few in tommorow.KD was labouring and must be an impact player last 10-15 only not a starter.Jury is still out.Zat Knight was Well Zat Knight bad passing from the back and never looked like a defender who is capable against a decent team.But its another run out and after being 1-0 down after 15 seconds it could have been worse.

Born to be a wanderer wrote:Couldnt score in a brothel.Pratley missed 3 a tame shot that any pro footballer should have buried ther goalie saved one and then he cocked an header up.Petrov looked in form running past players and creating chances.Mark Davies should of scored just after half time.I know its just friendly matches but Bolton dominated.Goalscorer badly needed.Hope Sordell smashes a few in tommorow.KD was labouring and must be an impact player last 10-15 only not a starter.Jury is still out.Zat Knight was Well Zat Knight bad passing from the back and never looked like a defender who is capable against a decent team.But its another run out and after being 1-0 down after 15 seconds it could have been worse.

Hmm... Shit performances from Pratley, SKD and Knight (all Coyle signings/resignings he should never have made). I wonder how many more shit performances from this trio we will have to endure.

They are all contracted for 2 or more years I think (or did Davies only sign on for one more year?).

Anyway this bit from Wotsup from the Bolton News Forum who watched the match on the stream -

"We had 161 on! Any of our faithful there care to give a match report? The Falkirk team were all academy graduates apparently".

"Took us 26 mins to get our first corner. Andrews headed over with a free header.
What's bothering me in this game, is that they can put several good passes together in midfield and we can't do anything but rely on the long ball. Kight is more than guilty of this, but is he really at fault. Are we not showing ourselves for the pass? I thought, if anything we could increase the pace to control the game, which we have at times (control the game that is, not increase the pace), but not enough. They are a very young team, full of p and v., whereas we are playing the same football that took us down".


Worrying!

Doesn't surprise me in the slightest sadly.

I will reserve judgement until i see how we shape up after a few games.

but if we come out kicking long aimless garbage into the corners again i will be seriously displeased.

I am sure we would all be happier with a win out of three friendlies against nothing teams with our full squad.

There is often the excuse that it is pre season and they are not match ready - well, why are middlesbrough scoring 7 - they are not ready either?

Why are Hamilton beating us - surely it is pre-season for them too and they could argue that they are not match fit.

Yes, I know that historically, pre-season friendly results do not appear to reflect on the season, however, some wins would certainly be making us feel more confident right about now. Or maybe not that - perhaps it is more a case of draws and losses against lowly opposition with poor performances on the ball do not give us anything to hope for for the coming season...

Look we were crap during the season and are still crap ....that's all there is to it. A decent pub team on a Sunday morning would get a result against us.
No need to panic but very worrying so far. Imagine what a powerhouse team like Barnsley away will do to us.
Unless we see evidence of change soon how can anybody in there right mind pick us for promotion.

Unless we see evidence of change soon how can anybody in there right mind pick us for promotion.

It's pre season! Chelsea lost 3-2 to an MLS all star team last night, do you think any of them are worried?

Friendlies mean absolutely fuck all, I can't grasp why anybody's trying to read anything into the results. They allow the manager to experiment with formations and the players to build some match fitness. These players just took a month off which most of them will have abused in terms of getting pissed, going on holiday and eating rubbish. Having had 11 months of training hard (supposedly anyway) this is what most footballers do with the time, so they use pre season to get back up to speed.

I also think that if we'd had N'gog and Sordell playing (probably our two best strikers at this point. However worrying that may be) we'd of finished off some more of the chances we've had. Even so none of this matters, judge the side come Burnley away because that's when they should be up to it, not now.

bwfc1874 wrote:Unless we see evidence of change soon how can anybody in there right mind pick us for promotion.

It's pre season! Chelsea lost 3-2 to an MLS all star team last night, do you think any of them are worried?

Friendlies mean absolutely fuck all, I can't grasp why anybody's trying to read anything into the results. They allow the manager to experiment with formations and the players to build some match fitness. These players just took a month off which most of them will have abused in terms of getting pissed, going on holiday and eating rubbish. Having had 11 months of training hard (supposedly anyway) this is what most footballers do with the time, so they use pre season to get back up to speed.

I also think that if we'd had N'gog and Sordell playing (probably our two best strikers at this point. However worrying that may be) we'd of finished off some more of the chances we've had. Even so none of this matters, judge the side come Burnley away because that's when they should be up to it, not now.

There is some truth to what you say, but the other argument is that winning breeds confidence. If we'd been banging in the goals pre-season everyone would go into the new season with fresh confidence. Don't underestimate confidence, teams have gone a long way on it.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

bwfc1874 wrote:Unless we see evidence of change soon how can anybody in there right mind pick us for promotion.

It's pre season! Chelsea lost 3-2 to an MLS all star team last night, do you think any of them are worried?

Friendlies mean absolutely fuck all, I can't grasp why anybody's trying to read anything into the results. They allow the manager to experiment with formations and the players to build some match fitness. These players just took a month off which most of them will have abused in terms of getting pissed, going on holiday and eating rubbish. Having had 11 months of training hard (supposedly anyway) this is what most footballers do with the time, so they use pre season to get back up to speed.

I also think that if we'd had N'gog and Sordell playing (probably our two best strikers at this point. However worrying that may be) we'd of finished off some more of the chances we've had. Even so none of this matters, judge the side come Burnley away because that's when they should be up to it, not now.

There is some truth to what you say, but the other argument is that winning breeds confidence. If we'd been banging in the goals pre-season everyone would go into the new season with fresh confidence. Don't underestimate confidence, teams have gone a long way on it.

I agree to an extent, hammering a few in may have give them some extra confidence, but not a huge amount I think the players don't give friendlies a huge amount of importance either. Had we beaten these teams by a few goals we'd probably be saying it's only pre season, they haven't proved anything and we'll judge them at Burnley on the 18th.

End of the day this season will be down to Coyle and if he's learnt anything from last season, we have the players to be challenging, it's down to the manager now in my opinion.