Bolton 1-0 Carlisle

Decent first half, utter dire second half. Have we ever played well for two consecutive halves? What does Evans say to them at half-time?

I cannot see this team stopping the Morecambe charge. I couldn't see this team stopping a Bolton Nuts XI spearheaded by Bonce & Sluffy.

Natasha Whittam wrote:Decent first half, utter dire second half. Have we ever played well for two consecutive halves? What does Evans say to them at half-time?

I cannot see this team stopping the Morecambe charge. I couldn't see this team stopping a Bolton Nuts XI spearheaded by Bonce & Sluffy.

I'd put three in the net while Sluffy kept them talking.

boltonbonce wrote:

Natasha Whittam wrote:Decent first half, utter dire second half. Have we ever played well for two consecutive halves? What does Evans say to them at half-time?

I cannot see this team stopping the Morecambe charge. I couldn't see this team stopping a Bolton Nuts XI spearheaded by Bonce & Sluffy.

I'd put three in the net while Sluffy kept them talking.

Which net though?

And as a former defender I think all I would be required to do is stand firm at the apex of the penalty circle and simply watch them keep passing it from left to right then back again, repeatedly, in front of me, as that's all we seem to do most of the time anyway!

Hope we beat Moecambe though and end up promoted.

A draw on Saturday Is not the end of the world

Watching us should come with a health warning, we were hanging on for dear life last night and it was very uncomfortable viewing.

Morecambe is our biggest game since the Forest game in the Championship and we have to make sure we don't get beat. If we try to sit back and defend then we are in big trouble as they are scoring for fun at the moment.

Report: Bolton Wanderers 1-0 Carlisle United

Eoin Doyle’s 18th goal of the season sealed a sweet victory for Bolton Wanderers as they continued their pursuit of automatic promotion.

The Irishman showed his natural instinct to convert Dapo Afolayan’s rebounded effort in the first half to put a play-off chasing Carlisle United to the sword at the University of Bolton Stadium.

Wanderers showed their resilience right up until the final minute to keep a clean sheet as the visitors even threw their goalkeeper Paul Farman forward for set-pieces late into the game as they attempted to salvage a point.

But it was to be Wanderers' night with a deserved three points in the bag heading into the weekend's trip to Morecambe.

Ian Evatt named an unchanged team as Wanderers looked to bounce back from Saturday’s narrow defeat to Grimsby Town.

An early chance fell the way of the visitors when Josh Kayode met Callum Guy’s corner at the near post. He should have done better with a header which he couldn't get on target.

Carlisle lost the services of defender Rod McDonald after eight minutes who suffered a knock and was replaced by Nick Anderton who slotted into central defence.

Matt Gilks got hold of Lewis Alessandra’s deflected shot when George Thomason lost possession in a dangerous area. Ricardo Almeida Santos tracked back and got in the way of the effort.

At the other end, Wanderers raced away and carved open a chance when Gethin Jones crossed into the box, with the ball evading everybody.

Doyle had a header cleared off the line by substitute Anderton as he rose to meet Declan John’s superb cross from the left-hand side as Wanderers knocked on the door for the opening goal.

Lloyd Isgrove had a shot charged down when Kieran Lee’s pass found his fellow midfielder just outside the box as Wanderers moved up the field with a flowing move.

Wanderers opened their account after 28 minutes when Doyle slot home his 18th goal of the campaign. The Irishman was aptly placed to fire past Farman after Afolayan saw his long ranger crash off the post and into his path.

Isgrove charged upfield to latch on to Thomason’s expertly weighted layoff, but his strike from distance went across the face of goal and wide of the target.

Guy’s corner was cleared importantly by Man of the Match Alex Baptiste at the expense of another corner as the visitors went in search of an equaliser.

Doyle and John combined well on the left which culminated in the Welshman fizzing a dangerous ball into the Carlisle box with Kieran Lee not far away from connecting.

Joe Riley had his name taken for a cynical challenge on Gethin Jones as the full-back charged up the Carlisle half in what was a marauding display against his former club, and then the visitors survived a huge penalty shout when Afolayan went down under a clumsy looking challenge by George Tanner.

Wanderers made their first change just before the hour mark after John limped off with what appeared to be a leg injury. Harry Brockbank came on in his place at left-back.

Isgrove continued his good run of former with another admirable display, and he did stupendously well to keep in Afolayan’s pass before sending in a delightful ball into the box which was thumped away by a United defender.

A well-worked short corner from Isgrove to Thomason was squared to the edge of the box and into the path of Brockbank whose long-range strike didn’t trouble Farman.

Wanderers made their second change with just under 20 minutes remaining when Nathan Delfouneso came on for Afolayan and Gilks was called into action shortly afterwards.

The hosts had trouble clearing the threat from Alessandra who latched on to Jack Armer’s centre, but Gilks eventually blocked the attacker's eventual strike at the expense of a corner.

Carlisle came close to a leveller on 76 minutes with Kayode inches away from turning in Omari Patrick’s angled shot.

Evatt made his final substitution a moment later when Zack Elbouzedi came on for the hard-working Isgrove and with Carlisle champing at the bit to get themselves back into the game, Jon Mellish beat the offside trap only to see Gilks turn away his effort at the near post.

A spell of pressure from the visitors ended in a corner after Baptiste produced an important block to get in the way of a Mellish effort.

But Wanderers stood firm and repelled Carlisle every time they went forward to earn their victory and preserve their spot among the automatic promotion places.


Bolton Wanderers:

Gilks, Jones, John (Brockbank 58), Williams, Almeida Santos, Baptiste, Isgrove (Elbouzedi 76), Lee, Doyle, Thomason, Afolayan (Delfouneso 72).

Subs Not Used: Tutte, Delaney, Miller, Gnahoua.

Goal: Doyle (28).


Carlisle United:

Farman, Tanner, Hayden, McDonald (Anderton 9), Armer, Riley (Furman 57), Guy, Mellish, Alessandra, Kayode, Patrick (Toure 76).

Subs Not Used: Norman, Devine, Charters, Walker.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Carlisle were worth at least a draw as we somehow scraped through with yet another unconvincing performance.
First half we played some attractive stuff but whilst some of the moves were very easy on the eye (even the Carlisle commentators were gushing about it FFS) they petered out when we neared their box. Same old story, much discussed on these pages.
Second half - we knew Carlisle would have to come at us to keep their hopes of a playoff place alive but instead of switching things around we stuck with the same players who got increasingly tired as we were pushed back deeper and deeper. Why we tried to play the same way despite the change in circumstances I just don't understand.
Not a huge fan of Elbouzedi but he is super fast and a willing runner and knowing how Carlisle were going to come out in the second half I'd have bunged him on at HT. Sure enough there was acres of space behind their back line for practically the entire half and his pace would have massively eased the pressure and maybe led to that second goal (that we really should have had before HT!)
Instead, Evatt's first choice team were put through the wringer - hardly good preparation for the big game to come.

At least we learned why Evatt hasn't had a goalie on the bench all season - apparently Brockbank is ace between the sticks if called upon.

Hope that's true about Brockbank, Lusty.

My nerves are shredded after last night and feeling anxious about Saturday already; we're supposed to enjoy watching!

But at least we are not part of that shameful episode involving six of the prem's "top" clubs. Friends of mine who support respectively Spurs, Arsenal and Man Utd have been in touch to say that they have now lost faith in anything their favourites do or say, and that their clubs' reputation has been tarnished to the point where they fear it can never be recovered. I've advised them to switch their interest to us...... My wife is from a family of Villa fans and is just grateful that they were not involved, as they might have been a few years ago as European Cup winners under Ron Saunders and Tony Barton. Not sure how owner Doug Ellis would have reacted to inducements to join the ESL though....

This was a difficult match to watch but I take great heart from a few things. Mainly that we ground out a result in our favour despite not playing well and that we clearly have mentally toughened up as the season's gone on. Let's face it a year ago the loss to Grimsby would have set off a run of four or five bad results as our confidence would have gone down faster than the Titanic. Instead the lads have rolled up their mental sleeves and bounced right back.

Yep, it was ugly and perhaps even undeserved but we got the win despite a performance that will be forgotten long before the result. I'll take that.

luckyPeterpiper wrote:This was a difficult match to watch but I take great heart from a few things. Mainly that we ground out a result in our favour despite not playing well and that we clearly have mentally toughened up as the season's gone on. Let's face it a year ago the loss to Grimsby would have set off a run of four or five bad results as our confidence would have gone down faster than the Titanic. Instead the lads have rolled up their mental sleeves and bounced right back.

Yep, it was ugly and perhaps even undeserved but we got the win despite a performance that will be forgotten long before the result. I'll take that.

I don’t think you can say it was undeserved piper, we should once again have sealed it by HT and obviously the players tired later, but some of our play in the first half was sublime. If only we could apply the finish. Actually, I’m not unduly worried about Saturday, I think we’ll win the game comfortably, depending of course on everyone being fit. Either way it’s a must win if we seriously want to go up automatically because Morecambes final 2 games are definitely easier on paper than ours. Good team the Shrimpers but not good enough to live with us if we repeat that first half and actually score this time.