Home
STILL in disbelief at our amazing escape in the last minutes of last season, we hit the road again, wondering what kind of a season we’ll be in for this time.
After receiving a tip-off from a Baggies friend, lunch was haute-cuisine at the Vine; chicken kebab and chips, washed down with Bantham bitter.
It’s a real football pub where both sets of fans mixed well.
The Baggies fans were excited at the prospect of a successful season and overjoyed at their first full house for ages.
Obviously, we pointed out, they’d only turned out in force to see the Wanderers.
After so many comings and goings over the summer, we needed to buy a programme to see who was in our squad and even then, some late additions were not included.
The Bolton fans were up for this match, still buzzing and singing about Aaron Wilbraham.
Adding to the excitement was the presence of Stelios Giannakopoulos, who travelled and sat with the Bolton fans. We’d preferred him out there on the pitch, but it was great to see him with the fans.
There was huge anticipation over what team Phil Parkinson would select for the first match in our new era.
Debutants Jason Lowe, Josh Magennis, Luke Murphy and Pawel Olkowski, all made the starting line-up, while Jack Hobbs, Gary O’Neill and Yanic Wildschut were on the bench.
We were under the cosh a bit, early in both halves as expected. We rode our luck late on as West Brom hit the bar and Ben Alnwick pulled off a fantastic reaction save.
But overall, this was a deserved victory and the most encouraging away performance for a long time.
We grew into this game, defended well and looked dangerous when attacking. Josh Magennis won most things in the air. He just needs to find a Bolton player with his headers but that will come. He did find the net with a header for his first of hopefully many goals for Bolton.
The other debutants fitted in well and gave us better control in midfield. Olkowski looks solid at right back with an attacking flair.
This team will get better as the new arrivals blend in but this was a brilliant start. Wildschut’s winner filled us with optimism, which is something we generally don’t do well. But we left the Hawthorns with rousing choruses of ‘We are staying up’.
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/16400130.alan-houghtons-fans-view-yan-the-man-sent-us-all-home-happy/?ref=mr&lp=7
After receiving a tip-off from a Baggies friend, lunch was haute-cuisine at the Vine; chicken kebab and chips, washed down with Bantham bitter.
It’s a real football pub where both sets of fans mixed well.
The Baggies fans were excited at the prospect of a successful season and overjoyed at their first full house for ages.
Obviously, we pointed out, they’d only turned out in force to see the Wanderers.
After so many comings and goings over the summer, we needed to buy a programme to see who was in our squad and even then, some late additions were not included.
The Bolton fans were up for this match, still buzzing and singing about Aaron Wilbraham.
Adding to the excitement was the presence of Stelios Giannakopoulos, who travelled and sat with the Bolton fans. We’d preferred him out there on the pitch, but it was great to see him with the fans.
There was huge anticipation over what team Phil Parkinson would select for the first match in our new era.
Debutants Jason Lowe, Josh Magennis, Luke Murphy and Pawel Olkowski, all made the starting line-up, while Jack Hobbs, Gary O’Neill and Yanic Wildschut were on the bench.
We were under the cosh a bit, early in both halves as expected. We rode our luck late on as West Brom hit the bar and Ben Alnwick pulled off a fantastic reaction save.
But overall, this was a deserved victory and the most encouraging away performance for a long time.
We grew into this game, defended well and looked dangerous when attacking. Josh Magennis won most things in the air. He just needs to find a Bolton player with his headers but that will come. He did find the net with a header for his first of hopefully many goals for Bolton.
The other debutants fitted in well and gave us better control in midfield. Olkowski looks solid at right back with an attacking flair.
This team will get better as the new arrivals blend in but this was a brilliant start. Wildschut’s winner filled us with optimism, which is something we generally don’t do well. But we left the Hawthorns with rousing choruses of ‘We are staying up’.
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/16400130.alan-houghtons-fans-view-yan-the-man-sent-us-all-home-happy/?ref=mr&lp=7