Bolton 1-1 Portsmouth

Had a real end of season feel to the game but a point was a fair result, They caused us issues on the break but didn't test Trafford that often.

I thought Morley had his poorest game so far for us and Dapo again is really struggling. If he's injured then leave him out and give him a break and give someone else a try there. We need to hope Santos isn't too badly injured as we looked very nervy when he went off. Aimson is not good enough and we need to sign at least 2 CB's in the summer i think.

Exactly as I expected it to be last night. Didn’t bother going, didn’t listen or watch and only looked at the result this morning. You could see it on Saturday that half the players had given the season up, one more indication that there’s no bottle in this side and something Evatt’s going to have to work on in the summer. It’s ok keep saying well we fought back and got an equaliser but we needed to be winning these games yet for the last month the players seem to have been really lack lustre. Do we really think this squad could have delivered the Coventry kids fight, the Reading play off result or before that the Swindon semi final comeback or many other games you could name where bottle and attitude got us through? I don’t think so. A Bolton Wanderers team needs to fight but I’m afraid I just don’t see any of that in this team. In fact the only one who seems passionate is Evatt and I sometimes wonder if he’s raging against his own side as much as the refs and opposition. Am I misreading it, being too hard, or does anyone else think there’s a weakness in this team?

Whitesince63 wrote:Exactly as I expected it to be last night. Didn’t bother going, didn’t listen or watch and only looked at the result this morning. You could see it on Saturday that half the players had given the season up, one more indication that there’s no bottle in this side and something Evatt’s going to have to work on in the summer. It’s ok keep saying well we fought back and got an equaliser but we needed to be winning these games yet for the last month the players seem to have been really lack lustre. Do we really think this squad could have delivered the Coventry kids fight, the Reading play off result or before that the Swindon semi final comeback or many other games you could name where bottle and attitude got us through? I don’t think so. A Bolton Wanderers team needs to fight but I’m afraid I just don’t see any of that in this team. In fact the only one who seems passionate is Evatt and I sometimes wonder if he’s raging against his own side as much as the refs and opposition. Am I misreading it, being too hard, or does anyone else think there’s a weakness in this team?

There's strengths and weaknesses. Take Santos out and there's a huge weakness.  

There's definitely summat to build on but it will need more money and I rather doubt that FV have it. Do they even have enough to fulfill existing obligations let alone increased ones?

The audited accounts would tell us more but FV are keeping those under wraps.

Whitesince63 wrote:Exactly as I expected it to be last night. Didn’t bother going, didn’t listen or watch and only looked at the result this morning.

If you didn't go, listen or watch how are you in a position to claim there isn't any fight in the team?

Poor game, poor teams, poor officials.

Poor.

I don't remember much of the game, pretty sure I slept for at least half of it. But that's football when you have nothing to play for. Charles still can't score, midfield creates very little, and sadly most of the recent signings look average at best.

Unless the three players that are going to help us "walk this league" next season are De Bruyne, Kane and van Dijk I can't see it myself.

Whitesince63 wrote: Do we really think this squad could have delivered the Coventry kids fight, the Reading play off result or before that the Swindon semi final comeback or many other games you could name where bottle and attitude got us through? I don’t think so. A Bolton Wanderers team needs to fight but I’m afraid I just don’t see any of that in this team.

Dempsey and MJ both worked hard and got stuck in to the midfield battle - problem is they weren't on the pitch at the same time.

There were other issues though, the worst of which was basic controlling the ball and passing it accurately. We weren't great at either end but not doing the basic stuff like that winds me up. Even more so as some of the movement off the ball to find space was very good.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

If you didn't go, listen or watch how are you in a position to claim there isn't any fight in the team?

Fair question Nat but I’ve been to more than enough games, especially the recent ones, to glean what was wrong last night from other posters views and write ups in the BN. My opinion isn’t a snap judgement I’ve made it numerous times before after games I have been to or watched in iFollow. We are weak all over the pitch in my opinion and Evatt needs to address that in the summer if we’re to do better next year.

wanderlust wrote:
Dempsey and MJ both worked hard and got stuck in to the midfield battle - problem is they weren't on the pitch at the same time.

There were other issues though, the worst of which was basic controlling the ball and passing it accurately. We weren't great at either end but not doing the basic stuff like that winds me up. Even more so as some of the movement off the ball to find space was very good.

I’m not really talking so much about working hard Lusty, I accept most of the players do but my fear is that we’re weak all over the pitch. You can look at your stats but the simple fact is, we don’t win many 50/50 tackles or headers in either box. We don’t have anyone who knows how to put their foot in or win a battle consistently and against the better teams in L1 it’s really shown. We have lots of skill but that only takes you so far and sometimes you need to win dirty if you’re going to be successful and I just don’t see that in us I’m afraid.

Whitesince63 wrote:Fair question Nat but I’ve been to more than enough games, especially the recent ones, to glean what was wrong last night from other posters views and write ups in the BN. My opinion isn’t a snap judgement I’ve made it numerous times before after games I have been to or watched in iFollow. We are weak all over the pitch in my opinion and Evatt needs to address that in the summer if we’re to do better next year.

Fair points, and I agree with you 100%. We need an experienced midfield leader, it must be top of the "want list" come the Summer, but I fear the manager has other ideas.

Sluffy wrote:

clip of the goal for anyone wanting to see it [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

— nath (@nathjnzy) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I'm no expert on offside these days since the rules were changed but is the rule something to do with players NOT being offside UNTIL they play the ball (assuming they are not interfering with play or whatever the definition is).

In the old days at least three Portsmouth players are clearly offside when the ball is kicked but non of them play the ball until AFTER the Bolton defender touches it - and in doing so plays one of the 'offside' players 'onside' (and in doing so the other 'offside' players too) who goes on to play a big part in the build up to the goal.

If so then the goal should stand.

Basically. It should have been offside. 
I can't be bothered looking for clips to prove it but there were a couple of instances in the last two matches where, the flag didn't go up, but then went up belatedly, once a defender or gk had full control of the ball. And I thought to myself, why bother pulling it back instead of just playing on.

 I think this was just a case of the linesman missing it.

Biggie wrote:
Basically. It should have been offside. 
I can't be bothered looking for clips to prove it but there were a couple of instances in the last two matches where, the flag didn't go up, but then went up belatedly, once a defender or gk had full control of the ball. And I thought to myself, why bother pulling it back instead of just playing on.

 I think this was just a case of the linesman missing it.

Sorry Biggie, even Ian Evatt now agrees the referees decision was the correct one.

What I posted above was indeed the correct interpretation of the rules that applied to this incident.

Evatt thinks the rules need changing (so do I fwiw) but the referee correctly interpreted the current offside laws and quite rightly allowed the goal to stand.

I think you may need to brush up on the current offside rules mate before you ref your next match!

Read what Evatt says here -

Ian Evatt's view on Portsmouth goal and offside controversy
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Sluffy wrote:

Biggie wrote:
Basically. It should have been offside. 
I can't be bothered looking for clips to prove it but there were a couple of instances in the last two matches where, the flag didn't go up, but then went up belatedly, once a defender or gk had full control of the ball. And I thought to myself, why bother pulling it back instead of just playing on.

 I think this was just a case of the linesman missing it.

Sorry Biggie, even Ian Evatt now agrees the referees decision was the correct one.

What I posted above was indeed the correct interpretation of the rules that applied to this incident.

Evatt thinks the rules need changing (so do I fwiw) but the referee correctly interpreted the current offside laws and quite rightly allowed the goal to stand.

I think you may need to brush up on the current offside rules mate before you ref your next match!

Read what Evatt says here -

Ian Evatt's view on Portsmouth goal and offside controversy
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Very interesting indeed. 
I'll look into it. And I may also find those instances I was taking about too. 
Its ludicrous if that's not offside, how can the defender possibly risk leaving it? He can't be certain that the linesman will flag if he does leave it.

Biggie wrote:Very interesting indeed. 
I'll look into it. And I may also find those instances I was taking about too. 
Its ludicrous if that's not offside, how can the defender possibly risk leaving it? He can't be certain that the linesman will flag if he does leave it.

They can't - and that's why Evatt (and fwiw myself) believe the rule is wrong and needs changing.

I could understand why the original rules were changed - you could have a player on the far touchline not being remotely interfering with play, to be flagged offside - which was a ridiculous - but now you can have players deliberately standing offside (but not deemed to be interfering with play - like we have in this example) where a defender is left in two minds what to do - cut out the ball or hope the linesman will flag when they touch the ball.

Maybe the rule could be in circumstances like this that there has to be TWO defenders touching the ball before 'offside' players are played 'onside' again?

To be fair though, the goal still needed to be scored after our defender touched the ball and we did have plenty bodies in the penalty area at the time - maybe we could have done better but I though their players finished it well.

As it happens it didn't mean much to either team - neither of us are going up or down this season.