Davies admits 'I deserved the elbow'

[Sluffy]

I think we all could see that weeks ago apart from Mr Coyle!


KEVIN Davies accepts he deserved the axe from Owen Coyle after admitting he had started to take his place in the Wanderers line-up for granted.

The Wanderers skipper was a high profile casualty in the recent 3-0 defeat at Arsenal, starting on the bench for a Premier League game for the first time in nearly three years.

Davies had no complaints and concedes that his standards had slipped since the start of the season – but after being restored to the team against Chelsea, he is now determined to lead the side out of their current slump.

“I don’t think my form has been great and I rightly found myself out of the side,” he told The Bolton News. “Maybe because I was playing consistently, I took my eye off it. There is competition for places now and I found myself out of the reckoning.

“Maybe that’s what I needed. I felt I performed a little better against Chelsea.

“Perhaps I lacked a little bit of confidence in myself, I’m not too sure, but I’m back in the side and I’m captain of the club so I feel I have got a big part to play.

“We have to get on with our work because we’ve got some important fixtures coming up.”

Wanderers prop up the table after seven games, having conceded 21 goals – more than any other team at this stage of the season in Premier League history.

With the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City now out of the way, the pressure is now on the Whites to improve quickly in the coming weeks.

And Davies believes a change in fortune is just around the corner if the team can keep their heads.

“It’s not a time to start panicking,” he said. “We haven't been good enough and we haven’t competed against some top teams. But I have never been one to make excuses or hide behind things. We have to put this all behind us and get a positive result against Wigan in a couple of weeks.

“With the fixtures coming up I think we can get on a bit of a run, but we do need to stand up and be counted.

“I’ll be working as hard as I've ever done and hopefully the boys will stick together.

“We have a good set of boys and a good manager, so it’s just a case of making it happen now.”

Coyle said after Sunday’s 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Chelsea that the improved second-half performance is likely to give a hint to his selection plans against Wigan when the teams reconvene after the international break.

The Wanderers boss is desperate to plug the gaping holes that have emerged in the current six-game losing streak as has Ivan Klasnic, David Wheater and Gael Kakuta to come back into the equation at the DW Stadium.

“I don’t think anybody can say their spot is safe, really, which is good in a way,” Davies said.

“The manager has a lot of options in all positions and he keeps tinkering with it.

“But it's not just the defence or the goalkeepers who should be defending, it's the whole side, and it's something we'll be working on.”

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/wanderers/wanderersnews/9288041.Davies_admits__I_deserved_the_elbow_/

[Outpost]

SKD : what are the fans saying then ?

BN : SKD is taking his place in the Wanderers line-up for granted. SKD’s standards had slipped. SKD’s form hasn’t been great. The team aren’t working hard enough. The team hasn’t competed against some top teams. The players need to stand up and be counted. OC keeps changing the line-up. And so on.

SKD : Really ?   Cheeky bastuds.  OK, right ..... how about an interview along the lines of ........

[DaveBWFC]

SKD : what are the fans saying then ?

BN : SKD is taking his place in the Wanderers line-up for granted. SKD’s standards had slipped. SKD’s form hasn’t been great. The team aren’t working hard enough. The team hasn’t competed against some top teams. The players need to stand up and be counted. OC keeps changing the line-up. And so on.

SKD : Really ?   Cheeky bastuds.  OK, right ..... how about an interview along the lines of ........

You're giving the Bolton News too much credit there.

They don't have a fúcking clue what we think. They're clueless.

[jayjay23]

They don't have a fúcking clue what we think. They're clueless.

Like. Because it's simple and funny.

[spike]

I've always wondered how (a) KD never gets injured....and (b) how is it that the player who commits most fouls every season - and at times flies in with a 1970s lunge - never serves a ban for amassing five yellow cards???

[Outpost]

You're giving the Bolton News too much credit there.

They don't have a fúcking clue what we think. They're clueless.

I would imagine even the BN know how to log onto a fans' forum for 5 minutes.
Where do you think some of the stories come from ?

[jayjay23]

I've always wondered how (a) KD never gets injured....and (b) how is it that the player who commits most fouls every season - and at times flies in with a 1970s lunge - never serves a ban for amassing five yellow cards???

Good point. But I noticed this last season.
Don't quote me on this as I can't remember the exact requirements for bans or exactly what happened but...

If a player get 5 yellows between opening day and 31 Dec - he misses 1 game.
If a player reaches 10 yellows between opening day and 2nd week in April he misses 2 more games (assuming he already was suspended once it would be a 1 game suspension for the first 5 and an addition 2 game suspension for the second five).
If a player reaches 15 yellows in a season he will be given a three match ban at the start of next season.

Davies got 13 or 14 yellows and no bans last season, and stopped just short of getting a 3 match ban for the start of this. How?

He got 4 league yellows between August and Dec 31st. (all within the first 4 weeks of the season) (He got 2 more but one was league cup and one was for England) - so no 1 match ban. He then SOMEHOW managed to go yellow card free until....

THE FIRST GAME IN JANUARY (lo and behold, just outside the cut off period for getting a ban)

He then managed to get up to something like 9 yellows in time for the second week in April.

And then, once the second deadline had passed (so also just scraping away from a 2 game ban) he went on a yellow card spree picking up a further 4 bookings in the final 4 games of the season.

Bringing him up to 14ish bookings for the season. (if you add on the International) So again, just missed out on the third cut off for a ban. Which would have been 3 games.

It's as if he knows the yellow card rules inside out. He gets a tonne of bookings and then tones it down until the deadline passes. Then he starts getting yellows again until he is up to the threshold. Then he holds back again. I find it pretty sneaky and a bit rubbish that one of our players is so bad at getting booked he has to effectively play the system to avoid bans and action!

(like I said before, I dont know the exact regs or the exact timings of bookings he got but it worked out something like that! - it is possible that he got a ban at some point but may have been the season before where he made sure he got his 5th yellow in time for a lowly cup game which he was unlikely to be selected in)

[bwfcbob123]

Good point. But I noticed this last season.
Don't quote me on this as I can't remember the exact requirements for bans or exactly what happened but...

If a player get 5 yellows between opening day and 31 Dec - he misses 1 game.
If a player reaches 10 yellows between opening day and 2nd week in April he misses 2 more games (assuming he already was suspended once it would be a 1 game suspension for the first 5 and an addition 2 game suspension for the second five).
If a player reaches 15 yellows in a season he will be given a three match ban at the start of next season.

Davies got 13 or 14 yellows and no bans last season, and stopped just short of getting a 3 match ban for the start of this. How?

He got 4 league yellows between August and Dec 31st. (all within the first 4 weeks of the season) (He got 2 more but one was league cup and one was for England) - so no 1 match ban. He then SOMEHOW managed to go yellow card free until....

THE FIRST GAME IN JANUARY (lo and behold, just outside the cut off period for getting a ban)

He then managed to get up to something like 9 yellows in time for the second week in April.

And then, once the second deadline had passed (so also just scraping away from a 2 game ban) he went on a yellow card spree picking up a further 4 bookings in the final 4 games of the season.

Bringing him up to 14ish bookings for the season. (if you add on the International) So again, just missed out on the third cut off for a ban. Which would have been 3 games.

It's as if he knows the yellow card rules inside out. He gets a tonne of bookings and then tones it down until the deadline passes. Then he starts getting yellows again until he is up to the threshold. Then he holds back again. I find it pretty sneaky and a bit rubbish that one of our players is so bad at getting booked he has to effectively play the system to avoid bans and action!

(like I said before, I dont know the exact regs or the exact timings of bookings he got but it worked out something like that! - it is possible that he got a ban at some point but may have been the season before where he made sure he got his 5th yellow in time for a lowly cup game which he was unlikely to be selected in)

Davies you crafty bugger!

[Keegan]

Strangely enough - if this is accurate, this raises my estimation of the man. As long as he doesn't do something Beckham-esque and give and interview saying "...and you guys in the Press didn't think I was clever enough to do that!"

[DaveBWFC]

Ofcourse he knows what he's doing. And he's done it well for years now.

Jayjay stop trying to find things to have a dig at him for.

You pathetic bastard.

[jayjay23]

It is still crafty though.