Rochdale 0-3 Bolton (EFL Trophy)

I will not be wasting a tenner on ifollow for this!

Me neither.

And here's me thinking you were both die hard fans...

karlypants wrote:And here's me thinking you were both die hard fans...

The only one around here likely to die hard is Eric.

We’ll I’ve invested my tenner, call it being a glutton for punishment but I just have a feeling we will pull this one off and find a bit of form. I just hope Evatt doesn’t make wholesale changes because the first team need as many games as possible to get their confidence back, so leaving key players out will just be counter productive in my opinion. Soon see anyway!!

Whitesince63 wrote:We’ll I’ve invested my tenner, call it being a glutton for punishment but I just have a feeling we will pull this one off and find a bit of form. I just hope Evatt doesn’t make wholesale changes because the first team need as many games as possible to get their confidence back, so leaving key players out will just be counter productive in my opinion. Soon see anyway!!

That's the spirit!

A good watch.
Strong team out against Rochdale reserves and following 5 minutes of pressure we took control.
Great goal from Dapo got things really moving although I thought he dived for the penalty that gave us our third.
Key points for me were:
Playing both Thomason and MJ in midfield gave us far more bite than we've had recently and they bossed it throughout the game. OK it was Rochdale reserves but even so we looked far less vulnerable and it allowed Isgrove and John to get forward more - and 3 goals resulted.
Doyler was again a bit isolated and had to run his socks off, but Kacha played well and got up in support more than in any recent game. Only criticism is that they tried one too many passes on a number of occasions when they might have had a shot.
Quite a few long balls to chase tonight which was a surprise for an Evatt team. I guess that without a "target man" it made sense to play it over the top from time to time to give Doyler etc something to run on to instead of trying to hold it up with a big CB all over his back. It was good to see the lads mixing it up a bit.

Whether or not Evatt will revert to type against Stockport remains to be seen, but at least he tried a different way of playing and it worked well albeit against poor opposition.

I suppose 2 games so close together will probably mean squad rotation.

We should have been 2 down after 10 minutes.......however we escaped that and went on to control the game. Kach had his best game in a bolton shirt - he needs to start shooting though.
Otherwise a workman like showing. Good for moral etc.

terenceanne wrote:We should have been 2 down after 10 minutes.......however we escaped that and went on to control the game. Kach had his best game in a bolton shirt - he needs to start shooting though.
Otherwise a workman like showing. Good for moral etc.

I really do wonder why we always seem to start so slowly.

I know we have a decent passing game when it's settled down but every team has a go at us in the first 10 minutes and there's no chance of us playing it around when the opposition is bombarding us.
Maybe Evatt should accept that for the first 10 minutes we should stay in shape, play the occasional long ball behind the opposition to keep them honest and try to enforce midfield dominance instead of trying to play pretty from the off.
It's a 90+ minute game so there's plenty of time for pretty shapes but we have to earn the right to do that first.

wanderlust wrote:
I really do wonder why we always seem to start so slowly.

I know we have a decent passing game when it's settled down but every team has a go at us in the first 10 minutes and there's no chance of us playing it around when the opposition is bombarding us.
Maybe Evatt should accept that for the first 10 minutes we should stay in shape, play the occasional long ball behind the opposition to keep them honest and try to enforce midfield dominance instead of trying to play pretty from the off.
It's a 90+ minute game so there's plenty of time for pretty shapes but we have to earn the right to do that first.

At kick off we had a good 20 passes around the back line and never crossed the half way line......they latched on to a mistake and should have scored.....a few minutes later same again.
It's fine to play like Man City....if you have the players to do it .....we don't. Surely a mix of possession and longer balls is in order. I can not remember how many times we have put Dixon in trouble where he has to hoof it up the field. 
We need to start games the way we finish games --- that being put their defense under pressure from the get go - do that and we we can play with anybody in league one.
By the way we are 16th in the league and 4 points above a relegation spot. We better get our heads down after this cup nonsense. Keep an eye on the big picture.

terenceanne wrote:
At kick off we had a good 20 passes around the back line and never crossed the half way line......they latched on to a mistake and should have scored.....a few minutes later same again.
It's fine to play like Man City....if you have the players to do it .....we don't. Surely a mix of possession and longer balls is in order. I can not remember how many times we have put Dixon in trouble where he has to hoof it up the field. 
We need to start games the way we finish games --- that being put their defense under pressure from the get go - do that and we we can play with anybody in league one.
By the way we are 16th in the league and 4 points above a relegation spot. We better get our heads down after this cup nonsense. Keep an eye on the big picture.

Totally agree - the start of games are always a battle to set the tone.
BTW I also get very nervous when Santos gets too cocky at the back - he's great defensively but I wish he wouldn't try to beat players when there is no cover. Did it again last night and had to foul the guy he lost it to to prevent a clear opportunity.

terenceanne wrote:
At kick off we had a good 20 passes around the back line and never crossed the half way line......they latched on to a mistake and should have scored.....a few minutes later same again.
It's fine to play like Man City....if you have the players to do it .....we don't. Surely a mix of possession and longer balls is in order. I can not remember how many times we have put Dixon in trouble where he has to hoof it up the field. 
We need to start games the way we finish games --- that being put their defense under pressure from the get go - do that and we we can play with anybody in league one.
By the way we are 16th in the league and 4 points above a relegation spot. We better get our heads down after this cup nonsense. Keep an eye on the big picture.

Yes, we saw the best....and worst...of our team and tactics last night.

I've watched the first 15 mins or so up to now. And we passed well for most of it. But they could have had two, three or four if they had got the penalty that they deserved (afolayon foul in the box).
I don't think anyone would have been impressed if we had gone behind, let alone two or three down.