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We made our way down to the Unibol stadium with saddened hearts as the off-the-field pantomime continues to dominate the news about our beloved Bolton Wanderers.
Our chairman, Ken Anderson, has been cast as the villain for all our financial woes, and John McGinlay has been cast as the hero who is going to rescue the club.
With a few hundred protesters huddled around the Nat Lofthouse statue, it just did not feel like there was a match on.
Phil Parkinson made four changes and put a couple of youngsters on the bench in a positive move for the club’s future.
As the match was about to kick off, the protesters lobbed a few tennis balls onto the pitch, which were quickly cleared up by the stewards.
To their credit, the players seemed up for this game, and certainly matched West Brom for effort.
But it turned out to be an all-too typical performance, where you cannot fault the workrate, but you can lament the lack of quality, where it really matters in the final third of the pitch.
Poor defending let us down for both goals, albeit their first one appeared to be offside.
It was another wasted opportunity to pick up some points against a below-par West Brom side.
On the plus side, it was encouraging that Joe Pritchard got on for the last 10 minutes.
Putting faith in the youngsters has worked well for us in the past, started by Nat Lofthouse in the turbulent early-1970s, although we had to go down to come back stronger.
Another defeat, and another nil return leaves us in the relegation places.
We have got to find someone to bang in the goals in the remaining 18 matches.
Eighteen goals from 28 matches has relegation written all over it.
The only glimmer of hope is we have to face most of our relegation rivals at home in the remainder of the season.
Whether a productive goalscorer can be brought in, remains to be seen, but the players brought in last January gave us nothing.
I share everyone’s frustrations at our current plight and I respect the fans’ right to peaceful protest.
I’m not sure what it will achieve, other than an outlet for our frustrations, just as I’m not sure what banning personalities will achieve, other than martyrs for the protesters to rally around.
We need solutions, not more problems.
Source
Our chairman, Ken Anderson, has been cast as the villain for all our financial woes, and John McGinlay has been cast as the hero who is going to rescue the club.
With a few hundred protesters huddled around the Nat Lofthouse statue, it just did not feel like there was a match on.
Phil Parkinson made four changes and put a couple of youngsters on the bench in a positive move for the club’s future.
As the match was about to kick off, the protesters lobbed a few tennis balls onto the pitch, which were quickly cleared up by the stewards.
To their credit, the players seemed up for this game, and certainly matched West Brom for effort.
But it turned out to be an all-too typical performance, where you cannot fault the workrate, but you can lament the lack of quality, where it really matters in the final third of the pitch.
Poor defending let us down for both goals, albeit their first one appeared to be offside.
It was another wasted opportunity to pick up some points against a below-par West Brom side.
On the plus side, it was encouraging that Joe Pritchard got on for the last 10 minutes.
Putting faith in the youngsters has worked well for us in the past, started by Nat Lofthouse in the turbulent early-1970s, although we had to go down to come back stronger.
Another defeat, and another nil return leaves us in the relegation places.
We have got to find someone to bang in the goals in the remaining 18 matches.
Eighteen goals from 28 matches has relegation written all over it.
The only glimmer of hope is we have to face most of our relegation rivals at home in the remainder of the season.
Whether a productive goalscorer can be brought in, remains to be seen, but the players brought in last January gave us nothing.
I share everyone’s frustrations at our current plight and I respect the fans’ right to peaceful protest.
I’m not sure what it will achieve, other than an outlet for our frustrations, just as I’m not sure what banning personalities will achieve, other than martyrs for the protesters to rally around.
We need solutions, not more problems.
Source