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For some, tonight’s pilgrimage to the Potteries will evoke memories of the day Wanderers’ Premier League dream ended.
In the wider football world, May 13, 2012, will forever be associated with Sergio Aguero’s late winner for Manchester City against QPR, replete with Martin Tyler’s iconic soundtrack.
Bolton only played a peripheral part in one of English football’s most thrilling climaxes. Yet their failure to take advantage of City’s victory, leaving 11 years of top flight football in tatters, still hurts.
Some six years and four months later they go back to the scene of the crime, a team and club barely recognisable to the one which walked off that day at the Britannia Stadium, as it was then known.
Just two players remain from the squad who had to drive embarrassingly back up the M6 to attend a glitzy Player of the Year awards night just hours after their fate had been confirmed.
David Wheater watched on TV, laid-up with a ruptured cruciate ligament sustained the previous weekend against West Brom. A teenage Josh Vela was an un-used substitute.
It is often discussed how much misfortune Owen Coyle and his team had suffered that season, which had started on such a bright note with an emphatic 4-0 victory at Loftus Road.
Injuries had stacked up – leaving the likes of Stuart Holden and Chung-Yong Lee out of action for the most part – while the circumstances of Fabrice Muamba’s collapse at Tottenham in March would have tested the mettle of any club in the land.
But in hindsight, the quality of Wanderers’ recruitment in summer and winter windows must also be questioned. Big money had been spent to bring in the likes of Marvin Sordell, Ryo Miyachi, Tuncay, David Ngog and Dedryck Boyata – and the return was debateable.
Gary Cahill’s departure to Chelsea for a paltry £8million also looked bad business when you consider three times that amount had been offered several months earlier by Tottenham and Manchester City.
The same bravado which had promoted the club not to cancel their gala ‘celebration’ that night had been Wanderers’ undoing.
Coyle’s side went down despite having lost just once in their final six games. Their solitary defeat had been to a Luka Modric-inspired Tottenham on the night Fabrice Muamba made an emotional return prior to kick-off.
Draws against Swansea, Sunderland and, in particular, West Brom, had done the damage – and a failure to hang on to winning positions reflected badly on Coyle’s tactical prowess.
Wanderers are unlikely to attempt to out-score Stoke tonight, rather they will seek to frustrate in the same manner they did against Derby County on Saturday.
Phil Parkinson’s team may have limitations but the lack of a tactical plan, or a surplus of bravado is not one of them.
Source
In the wider football world, May 13, 2012, will forever be associated with Sergio Aguero’s late winner for Manchester City against QPR, replete with Martin Tyler’s iconic soundtrack.
Bolton only played a peripheral part in one of English football’s most thrilling climaxes. Yet their failure to take advantage of City’s victory, leaving 11 years of top flight football in tatters, still hurts.
Some six years and four months later they go back to the scene of the crime, a team and club barely recognisable to the one which walked off that day at the Britannia Stadium, as it was then known.
Just two players remain from the squad who had to drive embarrassingly back up the M6 to attend a glitzy Player of the Year awards night just hours after their fate had been confirmed.
David Wheater watched on TV, laid-up with a ruptured cruciate ligament sustained the previous weekend against West Brom. A teenage Josh Vela was an un-used substitute.
It is often discussed how much misfortune Owen Coyle and his team had suffered that season, which had started on such a bright note with an emphatic 4-0 victory at Loftus Road.
Injuries had stacked up – leaving the likes of Stuart Holden and Chung-Yong Lee out of action for the most part – while the circumstances of Fabrice Muamba’s collapse at Tottenham in March would have tested the mettle of any club in the land.
But in hindsight, the quality of Wanderers’ recruitment in summer and winter windows must also be questioned. Big money had been spent to bring in the likes of Marvin Sordell, Ryo Miyachi, Tuncay, David Ngog and Dedryck Boyata – and the return was debateable.
Gary Cahill’s departure to Chelsea for a paltry £8million also looked bad business when you consider three times that amount had been offered several months earlier by Tottenham and Manchester City.
The same bravado which had promoted the club not to cancel their gala ‘celebration’ that night had been Wanderers’ undoing.
Coyle’s side went down despite having lost just once in their final six games. Their solitary defeat had been to a Luka Modric-inspired Tottenham on the night Fabrice Muamba made an emotional return prior to kick-off.
Draws against Swansea, Sunderland and, in particular, West Brom, had done the damage – and a failure to hang on to winning positions reflected badly on Coyle’s tactical prowess.
Wanderers are unlikely to attempt to out-score Stoke tonight, rather they will seek to frustrate in the same manner they did against Derby County on Saturday.
Phil Parkinson’s team may have limitations but the lack of a tactical plan, or a surplus of bravado is not one of them.
Source