Bolton 2-1 Northampton

I honestly thought Northampton were a League 2 side. I couldn't name a single player past or present.

But the BBC says they are in our league and we are playing them.

Apparently the players were tired against Carlisle. Pathetic excuse, but there can be no similar excuses this week.

Dempsey is out for a few weeks. No big loss, he's been pants since Wembley (as have most of the squad). Surely Maghoma should step in seeing as Evans has been talking him up, but we all know it will be Morley instead.

We should be smashing Northampton.

We won't smash Northampton. 1-1.

As much as I hate to say it, you’re almost always right about games against the bottom teams. I can’t understand why Evatt hasn’t accepted that he needs to find a solution to it instead of being so stubborn.  But, I’m going with a narrow 1-0 victory due to the shame they must feel about the last disgraceful performance. If we don’t win this there need to be some serious changes underway.

We do seem to struggle against the lower teams but hoping after their little rest (poor lambs they were so tired   ) they come back all guns blazing.

Northampton will be a top half team at the end of the season. Most of their games so far have been against top half teams - whereas we've only played 2 top 10 teams and most of our games have been at home. Only the top two teams have conceded less goals than Northampton.
They are likely to be without their captain CB Guthrie, but otherwise they are a very handy team not to be underestimated.
Dempsey has been playing with a fractured vertebra so it's unsurprising his performance level has slipped recently and he needs time to recover - but otherwise we have no excuses.
We have Rico, DJ and Paris back, we have the incentive to bounce back from recent losses and we've had two weeks to rest up and sort out the mistakes so this game will be a proper reality check for the team and a real indicator of where the team is really at.
All about our performance - especially finding our ability to score against one of the best defences in the league - and an early goal would be especially useful.

Need to get back to winning ways!

Natasha Whittam wrote:I honestly thought Northampton were a League 2 side. I couldn't name a single player past or present.

But the BBC says they are in our league and we are playing them.

Apparently the players were tired against Carlisle. Pathetic excuse, but there can be no similar excuses this week.

Dempsey is out for a few weeks. No big loss, he's been pants since Wembley (as have most of the squad). Surely Maghoma should step in seeing as Evans has been talking him up, but we all know it will be Morley instead.

We should be smashing Northampton.

We won't smash Northampton. 1-1.

To be honest I couldn’t name a single league one player. When I look at the Bolton side it really is a shame how far we’ve fallen. Our squad is absolutely terrible.

Can’t say I’m filled with much confidence for this one but then these days I’m never confident of anything, more hopeful but come on, without being disrespectful to The Cobblers we really should be beating teams like this comfortably. Even the rest they’ve had worries me because they usually come back all chilled then show it on the pitch with a lacklustre performance. I’m afraid that despite having Rico, Jones and Paris back I just don’t see any better than against Carlisle though we may just manage to hand on for a draw if we’re lucky. I shouldn’t be this pessimistic but I’m afraid between Evatt’s continuance of walking football and our lack of striking power I’m just getting more frustrated by the week and with a tough run of games coming up anything less than a win today could be seriously costly.

I can see you getting a win today

FT: Bolton 2-1 Northampton

Getting to be the same old story......we looked like Barca in the first half then totally fade in the second.
Ian says we are tired but how come the opposition is not tired --- seems we are hanging on for the last 15 minutes.  Sheehan MOM for me.
Take the three points and run....... looks like Pompey are the favorites for the title at this point.

Amazing really how Wanderers can be so good and so bad in the same game. Another late extra time goal saving Pompey. Not sure they’re as good as their position suggests but as Napoleon said, he’d rather have lucky generals than skilful ones. Question is, can they continue being that lucky?

The goals -

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Brilliant first 25 minutes, best we've played all season.

Remaining 65 minutes were probably the worst we've played all season.

Like always, we just seem to run out of steam in the second half. Is it lack of fitness or a mental thing? Whichever it is, it's a tough watch for the paying fan.

Two big away games coming up, if we're the promotion candidates the happy clappers think we are then 4 points is the minimum requirement. Personally I think we'll get naff all.

Whitesince63 wrote:Another late extra time goal saving Pompey. Not sure they’re as good as their position suggests, can they continue being that lucky?

You're bonkers.

Ignoring the fact you've probably never seen them play, they're 23 games unbeaten. That's a hell of a lucky run to be on.

The fact they're scoring injury time winners suggests they keep going until the end, unlike our own team that haven't scored a late winner all season.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

You're bonkers.

Ignoring the fact you've probably never seen them play, they're 23 games unbeaten. That's a hell of a lucky run to be on.

The fact they're scoring injury time winners suggests they keep going until the end, unlike our own team that haven't scored a late winner all season.

I’m not denying they must be a decent team Nat, nor that scoring late goals isn’t an indication of their players commitment but all runs come to an end and whilst I haven’t seen full games, they do seem to have had the run of the ball more than normal. Anyway, if we’re going to catch them it’s down to what we do and is why our next run of games is so critical if we really are going to challenge the automatics. A win at Wycombe tomorrow would be a big confidence boost so let’s hope the boys pull it off?

Natasha Whittam wrote:
Like always, we just seem to run out of steam in the second half. Is it lack of fitness or a mental thing? Whichever it is, it's a tough watch for the paying fan.

"Lack of fitness" after an international break? I just don't buy this tiredness thing - if they're tired after 25 minutes, someone wants shooting.

Personally I suspect it's a case of some players with big egos believing their own hype.
We started quick, go two nil up, could have been 5, but instead of putting them to the sword they seem to think they can pass it around like Brazil and slow the pace down.
Runs don't get made to find open space, which narrows the margin of error for passes, which in turn leads to them giving the ball away and suddenly we're in an unnecessarily uncomfortable fight when we should have been out of sight.

Great teams and great players are great because they put the work in to find the spaces - sure they make it look simple, but that's because they've worked hard to get into space. Stop running and we're easy to close down and sloppiness sets in as it did on Saturday. At least our discipline was slightly better and George - one of the few who kept going - managed a whole game without getting booked, which is a bonus.