Bolton 1-1 Ipswich

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Take a lead, Miss a bunch of chances. Get pushed back deeper and deeper. Concede. 

Same old story.

Report: Bolton Wanderers 1-1 Ipswich Town

Wanderers were denied all three points late on against Ipswich Town at Macron Stadium on Saturday afternoon in their latest Sky Bet Championship encounter.

Following a goalless first period, the deadlock was broken shortly after the restart when Gary Madine turned the ball home from close range after Josh Vela had flicked on Antonee Robinson’s cross.

The Suffolk outfit were level with eight minutes of the game remaining however as Joe Garner was given the simple task of tapping home from a yard out, ensuring that the spoils were shared come full time.

TEAM NEWS

Karl Henry made a return to the starting line-up for Wanderers, with Dorian Dervite and Will Buckley also coming in from the off for Phil Parkinson’s men.

FIRST HALF

The Whites started brightly, with Josh Vela being denied by Bartosz Bialkowski inside 20 seconds when finding himself in on goal after good work from Gary Madine.

That sprightly beginning however was halted soon after, with Sammy Ameobi requiring some lengthy treatment after seemingly sustaining a blow to the face. Luckily however, the wideman was fit enough to continue.

Thereafter, the flow of the game ebbed somewhat with neither side able to make their mark inside the opening ten minutes or so.

Will Buckley did enjoy a sight of goal shortly afterwards having shrugged off the challenge of a couple of Ipswich shirts before cutting inside and unleashing an effort goalwards from the edge of the box, but it was a shot which failed to trouble Bialkowski.

Wanderers did have the ball in the back of the net with 15 minutes gone meanwhile, but the whistle was long blown for a foul by Madine on Martyn Waghorn before David Wheater hooked an effort home.

Buckley meanwhile had another chance of his own halfway through the first period, with his cut inside and subsequent driven effort deflecting off an Ipswich man and into the waiting arms of the Tractor Boys’ keeper.

It was very much fits and starts in terms of meaningful action, with Ipswich really unable to make any inroads into Bolton territory while the Whites were struggling to find the target once inside Town’s box.

The visitors however enjoyed arguably the best chance of the half in the 40th minute, with captain Luke Chambers seeing his close-range effort somehow kept out by Ben Alnwick, with Waghorn’s follow-up failing to trouble the shot-stopper.

That opportunity certainly livened the game up meanwhile, and with three minutes of additional time indicated at the end of the first period courtesy of the stoppage for Ameobi’s injury, Bolton pushed to open the scoring but to no avail.

SECOND HALF

As the second half got underway, the visitors appeared with renewed vigour and looked set to potentially open the scoring early on, only for Dervite to calmly dispossess Waghorn at the crucial moment.

Those inside Macron Stadium however didn’t have to wait much longer for the game’s first goal, with Madine – who else – calmly slotting home from close range after Vela had flicked on an Antonee Robinson cross.

And it was almost two just a matter of minutes later, with Derik seeing a header from a corner cleared away for a corner with Bialkowski stranded.

It was certainly the confidence boost that the Whites needed after a testing first half, and Madine came agonisingly close to his second with 22 minutes remaining as Wanderers’ No.22 Filipe Morais – a second half substitute – whipped in a delightful cross to the back post which the big man narrowly headed wide.

Having scored a free-kick in the Trotters’ last home league game against Hull City, Madine tried his luck once again with 15 minutes left on the clock, but Bialkowski got down well at his near post to parry his thunderous effort away from goal.

Morais almost put the result to bed shortly after too after collecting an Ameobi cross on the edge of the 18-yard box, but his drive whizzed agonisingly wide of the upright with Macron Stadium on its collective feet.

But with eight minutes remaining, the visitors were level as Garner turned the ball home from a yard out after collecting McGoldrick's cross.

A goal which came against the run of play, they almost had another on the stroke of the 90 as Waghorn's thunderous drive rattled the woodwork with Alnwick stranded.

But come the full time whistle, the spoils were shared at Macron Stadium.

FULL TIME

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Chelsea preparing a bid for Madine if they can't get Crouch.

Cajunboy wrote:Chelsea preparing a bid for Madine if they can't get Crouch.

  I can't find an emoji pissing itself otherwise I'd have used it. Conte really has gone daft if he's in for Madine.

Terrible performance. Why do we have so many players who can't control a fucking football? Shouldn't it be a given that a "professional" footballer can control a football? And then pass it 5 yards to a white shirt?

Dervite was outstanding, Wheater pretty good, Madine quite good. The rest of the shower? Utter shite.

The full backs were caught out of position time and time again, Little seemed to give up defending for the last 15 minutes. Henry had his worst game in a Bolton shirt, Derik was ok but clearly out of his depth. Ameobi was fucking dire, Buckley is fucking useless, and Vela mis-controlled the ball more times than KP's given out blow jobs.

We have absolutely no quality on the ball. I'm not asking for Ronaldo or Messi, just a player who doesn't shit himself when that white round thing appears at his feet. It's a good job Ipswich were absolute garbage because a decent team would have had a sackful.

Parkinson needs to fucking wake up over the next two weeks and find a proper midfielder, but his history of bringing in shite (Noone, Buckley, Wilber, Darby etc) means I won't be holding my breath.

Twats!

Pretty much what Nat said.

Oh how I thrilled when Wilbraham came on.

boltonbonce wrote:

Oh how I thrilled when Wilbraham came on.

There surely can't be 3 teams in the division with less attacking quality than we have.I can't see us getting away with it over 46 games

Growler wrote:

boltonbonce wrote:

Oh how I thrilled when Wilbraham came on.

There surely can't be 3 teams in the division with less attacking quality than we have.I can't see us getting away with it over 46 games

We only have to get away with it more than 3 other teams!  It will be a long season... and had we not played so poorly for the first eleven games, we would be okay.  We need a finisher.

I disagree. We haven't missed many easy chances in recent games, our failing is creating those chances. We have no left winger/midfielder and central midfield is all holding players.

I agree with everything Nat said apart from her comment on Ameobi- he was just dire but produced the odd bit of football that resembled what you might call 'skilled'.
The first half today was about as bad as I've seen all season. Why can't they just get the ball on the ground and pass it. 95% of todays headers were misdirected.
Ipswich were utterly mediocre(apart from their No.10 who I thought was the best player by miles!)
Waste of a day today

Highlights here -

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Madine missed a straightforward header at 1-0 yesterday. He also fluffed it from a yard out v Wednesday.

Kane57 wrote:Madine missed a straightforward header at 1-0 yesterday. He also fluffed it from a yard out v Wednesday.

No he didn't he scored a good goal and got on the end of a decent cross, the header was almost on the by line at an angle that would have been difficult for any striker. Fair point on the other game he should have scored.

I agree our short passing game is woeful at times(all the time), even players who should be able to pass just never found a white shirt, Vela, Buckley, Derik etc, it should be second nature to these guys but it never happens.

If Vela uses his left foot first minute he scores but he pokes at the ball with his good foot instead.

wessy wrote:I agree our short  passing game is woeful at times(all the time), even players who should be able to pass just never found a white shirt, Vela, Buckley, Derik etc, it should be second nature to these guys but it never happens.

If Vela uses his left foot first minute he scores but he pokes at the ball with his good foot instead.

That's because hoof is the tactic of choice, you feel that professional footballers should be able to pick out a short pass, but if tactics dictate otherwise then you get the feeling they have lost that skill of a short pass, just my opinion but it makes sense.

MartinBWFC wrote:That's because hoof is the tactic of choice, you feel that professional footballers should be able to pick out a short pass, but if tactics dictate otherwise then you get the feeling they have lost that skill of a short pass, just my opinion but it makes sense.

What a load of shite. When you went 5 years without intercourse, did you forget how to do it?

Natasha Whittam wrote:

MartinBWFC wrote:That's because hoof is the tactic of choice, you feel that professional footballers should be able to pick out a short pass, but if tactics dictate otherwise then you get the feeling they have lost that skill of a short pass, just my opinion but it makes sense.

What a load of shite. When you went 5 years without intercourse, did you forget how to do it?

I wouldn't know, please let us all know how it feels.

MartinBWFC wrote:I wouldn't know, please let us all know how it feels.

I'm a virgin, as you well know.

We are a very long way from the quality of football that is played in the Premiership these days and if we are ever going to compete at that level again we will need an entirely new squad, however that's for the future because right now we are struggling to survive in the second tier with players that have no transfer fee,, will accept relatively low wages and TBH nobody else wants. It's difficult to say if Parky is getting the best out of them or not, but in all honesty he doesn't have much in the way of raw materials to work with.
So when we talk about needing more quality and consistency etc and yet are within our budget, I reckon we'd be very lucky indeed to pick up players who genuinely meet those criteria.
Whilst we all have opinions on what needs to change, I think we need to be realistic about what we can get.