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Post match analysis - Bolton



RM-Taylor

He's Magic.... You Know
Jan 7, 2006
15,266
On the train home now, feels like a defeat with the result at the end but can't dwell too much on that as we are still unbeaten and still top.

Hughton appeared to be very unhappy on the sidelines in the final stages as March was informed to go up front but didn't and we played like last 15 minutes with no striker on the pitch and just cleared the ball forward straight to the Bolton defence inviting pressure on. For the life of me I can't understand why he didn't bring Elvis on instead of either March or Calderon, at least we would have had someone in the final third who could have held the ball up top for a while, ultimately I think this is the decision that cost us.

First 30 mins or so of the game it was pretty much all Bolton, exploiting the wings and playing good possession football. Madine was a handful for them up front and won the majority of battles in the air. We had a good 10 minute spell after that and credit to Zamora for being the creative one today. Could have been 3 up after 40 mins with Greer's glorious chance with a header from a corner. Bolton got their goal before half-time against the run of play but nothing Stockdale could do to stop it going in to the bottom corner.

Second half we came out on the front foot trying to put the game to bed and find the third, we had a few chances but couldn't just find that final touch. Ince coming on after 60 mins was so predictable and took the attacking intent right out of us and then Botlon began to boss the game.

Murphy's red card at the time looked like the right decision by the referee - whom I may add was very poor and certainly favoured the home team - as it appeared he went in with both feet. Pretty much every one around us agreed it was a straight red however reading through Twitter it appears it may have been the wrong decision. After that we played with no one up top, much to Hughton's dismay and you could see him on the sidelines shouting to both Calde and March to push further forward but neither player did. After that you could sense the equaliser was coming as we were just inviting so much pressure on to us. I fully expect Hughton gave the team a good earful in the dressing room after the final whistle.

Disappointed but still happy at the end of the day as we are still top. On to Cardiff next week and hopefully we can put our October hoodoo to bed, hopefully Leeds can do us a favour tomorrow.

Credit to Botlon, they played a good game today and on that performance they should do fine this season.
 

RM-Taylor

He's Magic.... You Know
Jan 7, 2006
15,266
Forgot to say, Bolton should have had a stonewall penalty early in the second half when Bruno stupidly jumped up for a header with his hand in the air, ball hit his hand. How it wasn't given I'll never know
 

moggy

Well-known member
Oct 15, 2003
5,050
southwick
Forgot to say, Bolton should have had a stonewall penalty early in the second half when Bruno stupidly jumped up for a header with his hand in the air, ball hit his hand. How it wasn't given I'll never know

So the ref wasn't really a homer then ???
 

Lifelong Supporter

Well-known member
Aug 4, 2009
2,045
Burgess Hill
On the train home now, feels like a defeat with the result at the end but can't dwell too much on that as we are still unbeaten and still top.

Hughton appeared to be very unhappy on the sidelines in the final stages as March was informed to go up front but didn't and we played like last 15 minutes with no striker on the pitch and just cleared the ball forward straight to the Bolton defence inviting pressure on. For the life of me I can't understand why he didn't bring Elvis on instead of either March or Calderon, at least we would have had someone in the final third who could have held the ball up top for a while, ultimately I think this is the decision that cost us.

First 30 mins or so of the game it was pretty much all Bolton, exploiting the wings and playing good possession football. Madine was a handful for them up front and won the majority of battles in the air. We had a good 10 minute spell after that and credit to Zamora for being the creative one today. Could have been 3 up after 40 mins with Greer's glorious chance with a header from a corner. Bolton got their goal before half-time against the run of play but nothing Stockdale could do to stop it going in to the bottom corner.

Second half we came out on the front foot trying to put the game to bed and find the third, we had a few chances but couldn't just find that final touch. Ince coming on after 60 mins was so predictable and took the attacking intent right out of us and then Botlon began to boss the game.

Murphy's red card at the time looked like the right decision by the referee - whom I may add was very poor and certainly favoured the home team - as it appeared he went in with both feet. Pretty much every one around us agreed it was a straight red however reading through Twitter it appears it may have been the wrong decision. After that we played with no one up top, much to Hughton's dismay and you could see him on the sidelines shouting to both Calde and March to push further forward but neither player did. After that you could sense the equaliser was coming as we were just inviting so much pressure on to us. I fully expect Hughton gave the team a good earful in the dressing room after the final whistle.

Disappointed but still happy at the end of the day as we are still top. On to Cardiff next week and hopefully we can put our October hoodoo to bed, hopefully Leeds can do us a favour tomorrow.

Credit to Botlon, they played a good game today and on that performance they should do fine this season.

Thanks for this. It is a good read. On the highlights Bolton were very spirited and deserved a draw, thus the result as pretty fair at the end of the day. I do not expect the red card to be rescinded. We are looking for technicalities to do that and they will not work. It was not an obvious mistake by the referee. Given our position we must expect this in away games whilst we are at or near the top. The trick is though to win at home.

I think our lack of strength in depth up front showed today. We were looking to put square pegs in round holes at the end and it did not work.
 


LamieRobertson

Not awoke
Feb 3, 2008
46,415
SHOREHAM BY SEA
On the train home now, feels like a defeat with the result at the end but can't dwell too much on that as we are still unbeaten and still top.

Hughton appeared to be very unhappy on the sidelines in the final stages as March was informed to go up front but didn't and we played like last 15 minutes with no striker on the pitch and just cleared the ball forward straight to the Bolton defence inviting pressure on. For the life of me I can't understand why he didn't bring Elvis on instead of either March or Calderon, at least we would have had someone in the final third who could have held the ball up top for a while, ultimately I think this is the decision that cost us.

First 30 mins or so of the game it was pretty much all Bolton, exploiting the wings and playing good possession football. Madine was a handful for them up front and won the majority of battles in the air. We had a good 10 minute spell after that and credit to Zamora for being the creative one today. Could have been 3 up after 40 mins with Greer's glorious chance with a header from a corner. Bolton got their goal before half-time against the run of play but nothing Stockdale could do to stop it going in to the bottom corner.

Second half we came out on the front foot trying to put the game to bed and find the third, we had a few chances but couldn't just find that final touch. Ince coming on after 60 mins was so predictable and took the attacking intent right out of us and then Botlon began to boss the game.

Murphy's red card at the time looked like the right decision by the referee - whom I may add was very poor and certainly favoured the home team - as it appeared he went in with both feet. Pretty much every one around us agreed it was a straight red however reading through Twitter it appears it may have been the wrong decision. After that we played with no one up top, much to Hughton's dismay and you could see him on the sidelines shouting to both Calde and March to push further forward but neither player did. After that you could sense the equaliser was coming as we were just inviting so much pressure on to us. I fully expect Hughton gave the team a good earful in the dressing room after the final whistle.

Disappointed but still happy at the end of the day as we are still top. On to Cardiff next week and hopefully we can put our October hoodoo to bed, hopefully Leeds can do us a favour tomorrow.

Credit to Botlon, they played a good game today and on that performance they should do fine this season.

Interesting as people who were also at the game and phoned in to RS felt Murphy shouldn't have been sent off and that is what changed matters ...game of opinions.
 

nwgull

Well-known member
Jul 25, 2003
13,632
Manchester
Forgot to say, Bolton should have had a stonewall penalty early in the second half when Bruno stupidly jumped up for a header with his hand in the air, ball hit his hand. How it wasn't given I'll never know
I was in the home end, at that end of the pitch: it wasn't a penalty - not even close.
 

El Presidente

The ONLY Gay in Brighton
Helpful Moderator
Jul 5, 2003
39,688
Pattknull med Haksprut
It looked a straight red at the time to me. Murphy lost possession with poor control and lunged in to recover the ball. It was frustration with himself rather than malevolent but could see why it was given.

Bringing in a clearly disinterested March for the hard working Baldock effectively made it 11 v 9.
 


Gazwag

5 millionth post poster
Mar 4, 2004
30,086
Bexhill-on-Sea
Forgot to say, Bolton should have had a stonewall penalty early in the second half when Bruno stupidly jumped up for a header with his hand in the air, ball hit his hand. How it wasn't given I'll never know
Are you sure my eyes from that far away felt the ball was kicked by him and it just looked like his hands were close to it. The fact that I didn't see any bolton player complain to their 12th man confirmed this.
 

lovelyboy

Active member
Nov 17, 2005
221
It looked a straight red at the time to me. Murphy lost possession with poor control and lunged in to recover the ball. It was frustration with himself rather than malevolent but could see why it was given.

Bringing in a clearly disinterested March for the hard working Baldock effectively made it 11 v 9.

Completely agree. March was frankly appalling when he came on, the least you expect is a player to put a shift in and he didnt even do that. Quite amazing that Elvis didnt come on instead
 


Bodian

Well-known member
May 3, 2012
11,546
Cumbria
I thought Bolton were good value for their draw, and really, apart from the brief spell when we scored two, and could have had a third, I reckon they shaded it.

We shouldn't have let them back in it at 2-0. Although they had lots of the ball, and showed attacking intent, they showed a lack of confidence in front of goal and kept making the wrong decisions, or taking one too many touches. It was pretty poor that after a super tackle by Greer, Kayal shoddily gave it away - and it just let them get their confidence back. Stockdale wasn't at fault for either goal, and indeed made a great stop when 0-0 - the angle the highlights are filmed from don't show the deflection or reflect how close it was to the corner.

The red card was a shame, but in real-time, most around me weren't surprised at the time. The highlights show it was just a slip. Ref wasn't great all the match though.

Second half was end-to-end for quite a while, but I think the biggest thing was the timings of the events. If the red card had come a few minutes earlier, I don't think March would have been sent on - Hughton hopefully would have put someone on who could hold the ball up (and maybe run a bit?). Because from the moment we went down to 10 men, we hardly touched the ball in Bolton's half. The equaliser was not a surprise, just a disappointment - Bolton gave a textbook display of how to play against 10 men.
 

Papa Lazarou

Living in a De Zerbi wonderland
Jul 7, 2003
18,822
Worthing
Just watched the highlights on Ch5, and that was never a sending off challenge.
 


Giraffe

VERY part time moderator
Helpful Moderator
NSC Licker Extraordinaire
Aug 8, 2005
26,421
1 Not allowed!
Thought we had the game sown up at 2-0 and event 2-1 I was confident.

I see Hughton says the game changer was the sending off but I'm not so sure. I think he changed the game when he took Bobby Z off and left just one up front which was before the sending off.

This defensive substitution when we were on top and pressing for the third changed the pattern of play and brought Bolton into the game.

Yes the sending off looked soft, but Hughton seems to be deciding to play out games from earlier and earlier in the second half.

Was Bobby injured/tired because he didn't look it. Thought he held the ball up better than anyone since Ulloa left and worked well with Baldock.

Good game for Stephens too. Kayal has looked less impressive by comparison in the last two games.

Defence didn't really look too troubled other than when Greer got beaten for pace.

Would like to have seen Elvis instead of Murphy who faded again.

And finishing with Solly March as a lone forward shows where our weakness still lies.

But top and unbeaten says it all. Can't moan at this start. Keep winning at home and drawing away and we will be very close come the end.

Small footnote, I thought the stewards were far too heavy handed with the teenage boys they were removing fr the Bolton stand.
 

RM-Taylor

He's Magic.... You Know
Jan 7, 2006
15,266
Are you sure my eyes from that far away felt the ball was kicked by him and it just looked like his hands were close to it. The fact that I didn't see any bolton player complain to their 12th man confirmed this.
Haven't got the best eyesight, even with my glasses so I maybe wrong but I initially thought it hit has hand but happy to be proven wrong
 

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