Exciting game for a start, but maybe fair result as we didnt come to life til half time. I will take a point and we learnt much.
1-1 it is then. Good game from us, Bolton weren't that great and only managed to score from a penalty. I thought Evans had a good game except for some poor deliveries and TJJ is going to be our Celina for this year. A couple of unneccessary mistakes at the back that did no harm but were noticeable. Looks like we're going to be in for an entertaining season!
Wolfy and the fridge need to take less bloody chances!! Other than that ...a very entertaining game, second half there was only gonna be one winner, sadly we couldn't take any of our chances. Aluko and JJ need to start, harness looked bang average! Still think we need a better quality striker but not sure who is available tbh.
I agree about Aluko & JJ starting. Woolfy again almost cost us dearly. Entertaining game, in spite if f...ng iFollow, and showed much promise against a top team. Bring on the Forest..
Just home from the game -managed to make it albeit I spent a total of 11 hours out. 1 game in so don’t want to be too harsh but there are similarities to last season - we haven’t got an out and out goal scorer. Of the new players, TJJ was far better than Harkness, Leigh was better than Davis and Ladapo didn’t work hard enough. Morsy MOM for me - just a shame he missed that late chance. Not a big fan of the formation with 2 number 10s behind Ladapo but a lot of positives in the 2nd half especially how we kept going for the full 90 whereas Bolton looked knackered at the end
Sounds like we can go to PR now and at least know we're likely to get an entertaining game, it's been years since we've said that. Still haven't heard anything from today which makes me think differently to what I thought about us last season, although obviously very early days which currently is style over substance. 2 number 10s is trying to be too clever for this league, anyone we seem to play there generally like running at players, for me that type of player is generally best out wide, we need players in that position who constantly run beyond the main striker. From what I saw last season playing 2 10s (even though I like Chaplin) appears to also take space away from Burns. As I've said many times I don't think the problem has been the quality of the striker, we've had some decent strikers for this level, we're never gonna get a striker who takes the majority of his chances. If we're going to be serious about promotion this season we need to get the ball forward quicker, get the ball in the box quicker and also have players who do more to support the striker and run beyond them to open up the pitch. And be alot better at set pieces (good to see us score from one today...is that the first McKenna set piece goal?)
Also seen a stat somewhere that McKennas last 10 games he has the same record as Paul Cook's last 10 games before he got the sack....should he be worried?
Shame we couldn’t get all three points, but good to see us react positively after going a goal down and getting something out of it. We played very expansive, easy-on-the-eye football in the second half. Hopefully we can add a bit of firepower in the final third to take some of the chances we created. Plus points for me was the improved motivation and character of the side to not get too disheartened going a goal down - which has been all too familiar after the last few years. Defensively we were solid and restricted Bolton to the only shot on target they had all match from the penalty. The penalty decision looked a bit soft, but it was probably a fair call in my opinion and we would’ve been livid had that gone against us. Morsy was a class above - again - who continues to make the right decision on the ball nine times out of ten. He belongs in the Championship, at least. Aluko and Leigh looked good coming off the bench. For me, the negatives were the new boys that started. Davis looked like he was struggling for match fitness and seemed to take an age to complete a throw in (how we take throw ins over the last few years has been a continual bug bear of mine). I thought Harness was anonymous and heavy footed. Lapado was full of beans, running around and feeding off scraps in that first half - but he struggled to impress. This Bolton side beat us twice, convincingly, last season. So signs of development and hopefully we continue to push on.
Good summary Nuggets, tho I am easier on the debut players. Some like Davis had just got back from Oz and had v little pre-season with us. Others were not bad, and just need time to bed down. TBH, they came up against a very experienced Bolton defense, who saved them shipping a load more goals.
Apart from the first 20 minutes we dominated the game and thats not easy against Bolton, but our finishing let us down again coupled to some good defensive blocks and a couple of good saves, all in all an entertaining game against a big, physical, time wasting Bolton side who will im sure be up there at the end.
