Bolton (30/4/2006) - Match Thread

[Neil_Vaughan]

Talk about the game in here. Before, during and after!

[AndyHarker]

COME ON YOU SPURS
About time we took all three points against Bolton

I've heard the Diouff isn't playing, so at least we are not gonna get spat at during the match

[highlander]

my guess at the starting 11 would be;

robbo
stalteri
gardner
dawson
lee
lennon
carrick
murphy
tainio
keane (c)
defoe

bench; cerny, kelly, davenport, reid, barney/mido - ive heard he may be in the squad

id like to see andy reid play in place of tainio as apparently tainio isnt quite fit but i think he'll play anyway.

[SurreySpur]

If Mido is fit i'd like to see him in instead of Defoe. His physical presence will be useful against boltons centrebacks both in and around there box and defending set-pieces in ours.

[Welsh Spur]

I read that Ghaly was in today's squad....

[SurreySpur]

It'd be good to get a glimpse of Ghaly today. He's meant to be very good in the air so this could be the kinda game to bring him in.

[highlander]

the starting 11 is;

robbo
stalteri
gardner
dawson
lee
lennon
carrick
murphy
tainio
keane
defoe

as i said, fortunately reid is on the bench and i hope he plays. mido doenst make the 16

[highlander]

on the bench is;

cerny
davenport
huddlestone
reid
barney

[SurreySpur]

0-0 Half-time. This is painful to watch, the lads look so nervous. For a classy midfielder with bags of experience, Danny Murphy looks completely lost and out of his depth.

[SurreySpur]

After a heavy night last night i told myself i wouldn't have a drink today, that lasted until the 7th minute!!

[shoot_ffs]

bench looks very weak compared to boltons too. i think vaz te will come on and shred stalteri for the last 15 mins. We haven't been in the game at half time, and it's all tactical problems which the players don't seem to be able to figure. To be fair to sam he's got his strikers doing the business, davies covering lee and borgetti on dawson. gardner and stalteri can't start a move to save their lives. disappointed jol think we can take the piss by playing players out of position. swap murphy and tainio, or better still stick reid on the left, atleast he can pass.

[highlander]

exactly reid needs to come on and possibly huddlestone for tainio, tainio looks a bit out of the game, huddlestone can bring a more physical presence to the light-weight midfield amd can really pass.

[SurreySpur]

Barney on for keano??

[highlander]

Keano OFF?????????????. half time change for Barney, im shocked

[highlander]

Tainio's moving quite well, jol seems to have given them a half-time bollocking

[highlander]

Jol's half time tactical changes have worked wonders so far, now its carrick, murphy & tainio accross the centre, defoe on the left lennon on the right and barney up top on his own. working well, tainio getting forward superbly

[Aussiespur]

Need to feed Lennon the ball more.

[highlander]

look what happens when they do, 1-0 COYS

[proto]

Woooooooooooo :)

feeding him the ball at 6yards is great tactic.

these web reports are killing me

[highlander]

woohoo, reidy's on at last

[highlander]

Davenport on for injured Murphy. looks like its only cramp, nothing serious

[proto]

yeah baby! http://photos.imageevent.com/proto/misc/stevie1.gif

but were we really on the back foot as bad as the bbc live match reports read for the last portion of the game? :eek:

[highlander]

we did all the ugly things well today. we completely shut them out at the end and withstood the onslaught. excellent game from lennon, robbo, tainio, stalteri in particular, they were great today.

[Houdini logic]

Victory, and I have no nails left! ahhhhhh!

COYS!

[Keanoldinho]

Great win but we were very lucky with that peno decision going our way Dawson didn't even touch the ball. Any way glad we beat them fouling bunch of b@stards

[Houdini logic]

Dawson was fantastic as usual and deserved a bit of luck, but it was a penalty, so sorry Sam!

Excellent battle the in second half, I wanted to cry at half time and comtemplated about switching off the TV!

[shoot_ffs]

hey it makes up for their home decision up there. i think he didn't give it as stelios dropped to the floor so theatrically and their players didn't complain too much. also from behind, where the ref was standing, it may have looked like he blocked the ball. Fair play to dawson for having the guts to make the challenge, he was odds on to bury it from there. hee hee
dreading harewood and ashton playing against gardner next week doh!

[SurreySpur]

Well done to Stalteri and Lee, they got singled out by davies/Vaz te/borgetti/stelios and they coped really well. What does andy gray have against spurs, he was so pro Bolton it was unreal.The Commentary was so biased. Really pissed me off!! Also......80% of the build up was about wayne rooney's foot.

[Keanoldinho]

I thought our defense was amazing all game Gardner included, but our midfield mainly Murphy and Tainio were pretty sh!te for long periods of time. I didn't even see Tainio till the 44th min and he wasn't much better in the 2nd half. Dawson was MOM in my opinion closely followed by the goal scorer Lennon who deserves to go to the World Cup ahead of SWP without a doubt.

[Spur]

What does andy gray have against spurs, he was so pro Bolton it was unreal.The Commentary was so biased. Really pissed me off!! Also......80% of the build up was about wayne rooney's foot.

The commentary is always biased, and when they have Alan Smith in there its even worse - the bloke does not have a clue.

[Spur]

Also forgot to mention - did anyone else see after the game when MJ was talking to Stelios G? Wonder what he said. They went and had a big laugh with one another... done deal perhaps? :D

[SurreySpur]

Yeah, when were on prem plus we have to look at george graham and alan smith, how does that work? Give Jamie redknapp credit though, he always sticks up for us.

[Houdini logic]

Gotta love Jamie, he's so honest too!

[Danishspurs]

Robbo, Dawson and Lennon played very well... Murphy and defoe were sh!t today... Quiet impressed with Barnard, it looks like he got a good first touch, very aggressive and brave... played better then defoe today...

[shoot_ffs]

yeah spur i noticed that too, i think he was saying you gave us nightmares and making me bald like you. I remember him being pally with pablo angel after the villa game which is a bit scary. I should imagine if sam became england manager that that squad would dispand, so maybe jol knows what he's doing. Although he bought murphy DOH!

[highlander]

i think the purchase of murphy wasnt the best idea but all credit to him he played very well today in my opinion.

[Houdini logic]

Murphy played well second half, a lil shocking in the first.

[sundancer]

:( Could not understand why we signed Murphy and sold Mendez, after todays game I am more mystified

[Spur]

He did have a shocking first half...but then who didn't? He brightened up for the second, but if someone came along with a bid and we made a profit, i'd be happy to wave him goodbye.

[Keanoldinho]

Murphy and Tainio were equally sh!t today and our worst players, but the rest of the team pulled their weight and we got a good result. Dawson, Lennon, and Carrick played class and won the game for us.

[shoot_ffs]

yer it's annoying to think we flogged mendes for murphyas they are much the same type of player. i'm not gonna defend murphy's purchase or performance as he wouldn't get a game over hudds if i was manager. But, he was played out of position in his defense and he obviously hasn't settled yet. From memory he played left midfield for crewe and then right midfield for the scousers, and he took a year to settle at the scousers and charlton. He looks overwhelmed tho. I don't understand jol playing murphy left side when tainio has played there quite well, or when we have reid on the bench. Anyway we were sh1t lucky today and be grateful for that. Think it will be equally tough next week, as both big sam and pardew are astute tacticians. The FA cup final could be our saviour. Thought barney played well for his second half which would have been under a lot of pressure, showed willing and able in my opinion. Bit lacking in pace tho so think he may be overlooked for next year.

[JuicE]

The whole team were overwhelmed in the first half. They couldn't keep the ball for more than a minute and Bolton just kept hoofing it into the box. Boring Bastards! We were lucky when the Jap fella hit the bar, that might of ruined the whole game if it had gone in. Barney did bloody well considering he was being pushed and pulled around all the time. the Ref was a F**king joke at times and took him aside once or twice and booked him for pushing back when he was being attacked by that Bolton neandathol. He took a long high ball sweetly out of the air and left Faye (i think) in a heap. Nothing wrong with it as Faye had over commited and was beaten easily. Barney had a great chance to run on and score and the ref called a foul on Faye. Idiot F**king ref!:mad:
Come on Sunderland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:D

[DarlinginJapan]

It's good to see us playing badly and getting a result against a team like Bolton. This was a tough one for us and at this stage of the season results matter, performance comes second! Just one more result to get!

COYS!

[Welsh Spur]

True...For the last game I'd happily get played off the park if we managed to not concede and sneak one....the result is what matters next week, especially as the arse are playin shit right now vs sunderland and still 3-0 up....

[TomMcLaren]

Bolton did well against us in the first half, mainly by sticking the ball on Davies head in the left back position - I don't think Lee won a single header against him all afternoon! Second half Jol had obviously told Lee to stand off and win the second ball, and that's why we managed to contain them so much better. That tackle on Stelios was a stick on pen from my viewing point, papers seem to agree - but having a perfectly good goal given offside at the Reebok, I'll take it! Most disappointing thing in the first half was that we weren't up for it at all, no pressuring in midfield, so frustrating. When we sorted that out, we looked like we would get three points, and I'm extreemly happy we did!!

[dommo]

Dawson was immense. Stood up to be counted and threw himself at everything. It was a definite pen but Murphy was fouled just before the ball was played to Stelios. Nerves got the best of us and we played as poor as I've seen us but the character shone through and this is a game we would have lost in the past. Fair paly to Barney he worked his socks off when he came on. Hope Robbie is ok for hammers game !!!!!

[Welsh Spur]

Start Barney v West Ham...

[reaper_1]

how many times have we seen man yoo , chelski or the scum win when they didn't deserve it? I'm glad to see us do it we deserve the luck after all these years! this year we played well both matches against the top 3 and got, i would say, a total of 6 or 7 points less than we deserved . we need is one more big result ... hopefully city will do it for us, if not we have to show west ham what we are capable of!!!!