Pompey 1-0 Bolton

[DannyW]

Didnt realise we didnt have a match thread so ill start one:

Team is in, Basham in for Muamba, AOB in for the injured Shittu:


--------------------Jussi---------------------

Steinsson---Cahill---A O'Brien---Samuel

------------------Basham-------------------

-------------McCann---Gardner------------

Davies--------------------------------Taylor

-----------------Elmander-------------------

Subs: Al Habsi, Hunt, Muamba, Smolarek, Puygrenier, Makukula, Cohen.

Have been optimistic about this game since Chelsea and im still feeling fairly confident now so...

C'mon you White Men!!!!

[Sluffy]

I have a stream - pm me if anyone wants details.

[DannyW]

Apart from Elmander producing a good save out of James, we've created nothing and looked very poor in doing nothing. AOB started off very well in defence with some great headers but has let himself down again as usual as the half went on. Samuel has been poor all game, getting into some good positions then not producing a single good cross so far.

I hope Gardner's injury isnt as bad as it looks otherwise he's out for the rest of the season id reckon. Hopefully we come out and be a little more attacking in the 2nd half. Pompey dont look that great defensively so we just need to start creating a few more chances and getting hold of the ball abit more.

[Sluffy]

HT 0-0.

Pompey had the best of the half - Glen Johnson hit the post and had two other good chances to score - whilst Nugents - last kick of the half - swerving shot just goes past the post with Jussi beaten.

Gardner off with a season threatening injury after just ten minutes - with Muamba on to take his place.

Andy O'Brien watch - four good headers but a muffed back pass almost allowing Johnson to score.

Good old Andy picked up a daft booking also.

I like O'Brien but he's got to cut out the errors in the second half.


Edit  - Danny's beaten me to the HT Summary!!!

 

[Sluffy]

Oh fcúk!

No one on the near post at a corner - and it looks as though the ball goes in straight from the corner kick!

Jussi tangling with Kanu - possibly a push on him - but result was no one to stop the ball going into the goal!

Poor, poor defending.

[DannyW]

FT 1-0 to Pompey 

Very poor, i think we managed one shot on target all game and i dont actually remember us creating any other real chances of note.

Cant think why there was nobody one the post for the goal but Jussi looked like he was being fouled to me, any other team or any other referee and the slightest bit of contact on the keeper is a free kick.

If Gardner is out for the rest of the season then we can only hope M. Davies is back soon as without him our midfield is capable of nothing apart from winning the ball. McCann, Muamba and Basham are all good players IMO but they all do exactly the same job so it just doesnt work having them all in there.

[Sluffy]

Jussi (nor any other of the team) complained about the goal - so I've put it down to bad defending.

There must have been a reason why there was no one on the post - but I don't know what it was.

Villa up next (gulp!).

 

[Manny]

Watched the game in the pub again and have nothing to add really.

Only created one real chance with Elmander forcing James into a decent stop but nothing else. Gardner looked to have hurt his hamstring.

Hermann Hreidarsson needs to stop complaining aswell and actually play the game. He tried his best to get Davies and McCann sent off. Highlight of the game was Hunt getting booked! His sole contribution of the season!

[DannyW]

Megson's take on the game:

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11672_5205764,00.html

Bolton manager Gary Megson has expressed his disappointment at the display which saw his side lose 1-0 to Portsmouth.

The Trotters were second best throughout the afternoon and barely had a shot on goal before Kanu claimed all three points for Pompey late on.

The day had begun with Bolton fans confident of reaching the magic 40-point mark, but it instead ended with renewed fears over the prospect of securing survival.

"It was a poor result for us," Megson conceded to Sky Sports News.

"The performance was not good enough, not coming up to the standard that we've set for most of the time this season and certainly not what we need at this stage of the season.

"It's purely and simply about results and for the life of me and probably everybody else I thought that was going to be a 0-0, and yet we've probably been responsible for our own downfall."

Indeed, Bolton conceded late on in rather bizarre fashion as a whipped corner was bundled in over the body of Jussi Jaaskelainen by substitute Kanu.

Infuriated by the manner of the goal, Megson concluded: "It's a poor corner, there's no height on it and for it to go in like that is just not what I would expect."

Sounds like we'd settled for a point towards the end of the game which is disappointing. Pompey wernt that great today and if we hadnt given them so much possession i dont think they'd have had as many chances as they did and we might have managed more than just the 1 shot on target.

[Manny]

It was two poor sides playing a poor game really. Nothing really stood out apart from Hunt getting booked! 

[bwfc1106]

Poor poor poor poor!!!
Pompey were shíte we were worse no tactics yet again no subs to change the game couldnt keep the ball Elmander was wank think he needs to spend more time training his football skills rather than his cricket ones wtf was all that about!! Mcann was shíte yet again fuckin wank! 6 hours on a coach for fcúk all!!!

now in 13th place 37 points pompey have a game in hand on us so do newcastle and theres always one team that slips down into the relgation battle if we play like that villa will turn us over as they have pace and will rip us apart and so will wigan so thats 4 games without a point... so really all that is seperating us with the bottom 3 is two wins lets say the lucky one against hull away when jussi kept us in it and say city at home dunne scored an own goal othwewise we'd be in the bottom 3...great Manager Megson o and Elmander will come good next season not if were in the championship because he will fcúk off before july sick of every 1 getting behind megson because he is two lucky wins away from the relegation zone i could understand if it looked like he was getting tactics right and we were playing well but were not were shíte and scraping reesults most of the teams around us are in better form and a few are coming good where as we are going in the opposite direction!

ahhhhhh rant over! on the bright side i won £350 on an accumilator cant wait too go and get my money off that bald old man betfred!!!!

[DannyW]

Fair play to you for going, im guessing 12 hours or so sat on a coach contributed to just how annoyed you are, however:

I dont see how you can just say "we're two lucky wins out of the relegation zone". It was a deserved win against City and i dont think anyone would disagree and as for Jussi's heroics at Hull, every team in the league would have had games like that where they havent deserved to win, we've been on the recieving enough times, it nice to see them go our way occasionaly. You almost seem to be moaning that we actually won them games, would you be happier if we'd have lost perhaps?

Yes Pompey have a game in hand, at Old Trafford, hardly 3 points in the bag is it? Pompey were just as poor as us today in my eyes, but they got a lucky goal, we didnt and yet you seem to think we're now the worst team in the league and we're doomed to relegation. You probably heard the Pompey fans chanting 'we are staying up...' and yet we're above them so if they can be optimistic then really, i fail to see why our fans cant be optimistic, just once, it'd make such a nice change.

Oh and what you say about McCann goes against what i saw watching the game and what other people who went to the game say. Most people seem to think McCann was our best player today and from what i could tell from watching my stream, i dont see too many reasons to disagree.

[Sluffy]

Fair play to you 118, a six hour coach journey to Pompey takes some doing - and another six hours back too I guess.

Fratton Park is a crap ground too - did you get stuck behind any of the pillars holding up the roof like I did the last time I went?

Yes another bad game - I can't understand why we did not have anyone on the near post?

Clearly Kanu was told to stand in front of Jussi - just like Davies does against opposition keepers - to make it harder to get to the ball - but where was his marker and why was he not in front of him - and thus covering the near post?

Basic football tactics to my way of thinking - somebody wasn't doing their job.

As for two lucky wins - well yes they were - but all teams get them - Portsmouth goal yesterday was lucky - they certainly did not plan to score and inswinging corner by one of their subs - he would not have been on the pitch if it was not for an injury to Kranjcar.

Well we have five games - three of them at home to get three points (more would be better) - we should do that easily enough.

As the fella in 'Dad's Army' used to say - "Don't panic, don't panic!"

Oh and great result on the accumulator - I bet you had Portsmouth to win didn't you!

 

[bwfc_Djorkaeff]

pretty awful game...portsmouth were better but were hardly causing us massive problems bar glen johnson. The match proved how 4-5-1 really doesn't work for us especially without gardner as no one has the pace to help support the lone striker whether it be elmander or davies. I'm not panicing aslong as we have the two home game against hull and sunderland which we really should be winning. Picking up 1 win and a draw from them will see us safe and we could still get something from wigan villa and city.

Gardner will be a big miss unless we can get mark davies back. Maybe Riga should get another chance as at least he has some pace unlike most of the midfield.

[bwfc1106]

didnt realise there game was against united so not 2 bad i suppose...

not saying im not glad to be winning them of course not but just in the manor we won them against hull, they were by far the better team just saying if he hadnt won those two games that well frankly could of gone either way and were not down to GM really then we would be in the bottom 3 and im sure more people would be anti megson fair enough we won them but surley you can see were a poor team that have scraped results we seriously cant keep the ball for more than two passes you just cant give the other team that much possesion in the premiership and expect go get a result added to the fact that the squad he has assembled lacks depth and real quailty meaning he cant change games as they progress, and meaning the same players play week in week out whether they play shíte or like pele!

dont talk about optimism m8 as for going down to pompey thinking if we win were safe so not as if i dont have that unless wouldnt have travelled but to have optimism you need reasons for that

as pompey have....there in a good run of form 7 points out of last nine(i think) have good players kanu penant campbell james krankjear plus they can actually play football and keep it so ye they are going to be optimistic

where as on the other hand well think  ive told u above but weve picked up 3 points out of the last 9 were not playing well and dont have the same amount of quality as pompey do.

sluffy....noo i never bet on bolton results ha dont kno why just dont bit of an oman and no seats wernet too bad and the weather was good and the beer was cold! pity about the result

[Manny]

We won't go down but its games like yesterday that we need to be picking up points from next season.

We've won a decent number of games, but only West Brom have lost more. We need to sort the defence out over the summer and hopefully turn some of these odd goal defeats into draws.

[bwfc_Djorkaeff]

as manny said its the lack of draws thats doing us this season. Far too many 1-0 defeats this season. 8 games this season have been lost by 1 goal converting half of them to draws suddenly we're at 40 point mark. Many of them have been in the final quarter of games too.

I fully see 1106s point its hard to defend us after performances like that. But i still have confidence (maybe blind confidence) that megson knows exactly what we need in the summer. A PASSING midfielder...seen enough grufters and workhorses in this squad to last a lifetime.

On a side note Huddlestone had a great game for spurs today and isn't a regular. Seems to be exactly the type of defensive passing player we need to fill the hierro/campo role. Harry could be tempted to sell with the right offer. No doubt he won't be so keen to leave london though. Just a thought if gary fancies having a read on here ha. Also Bale on loan next season may not be a bad shout.

[bwfc1106]

How can you say we wont go down were getting dragged into it deeper and deeper every week with no sign of it getting better

apart from west brom we have lost more games than any other team this season
i dread it in matches when we go 1-0 down as i no we can never come back from it.. why do we never seem to be able to turn matches around?
why cant we pass the ball?
why do'nt we have any quality in our squad?
why dont we have a large enough squad?
theres only one answer for all these questions because its ultimatley up too one person

Out of our last 6 games we have picked up out of a possible 18, 4 points!
in these last 6 games 5 of the teams have been in the bottom half of the table and 1 was chelsea facts dont lie and show altough we arn'et in a disastrous position we have had a poor season maybe people would be prepared too accept things more if the football wasnt as diabolical as it is

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/wanderers/livecommentary/matchdayupdates/4301468.Portsmouth_1_Wanderers_0/

i no most of you dont like the ben forum and ye some people make daft comments without backing them up but these are still Bolton fans that care about the club and pay or did pay money to watch them so really there comments cannot be ignored and if well by the sounds of most on here wont be going next season if the crowds fall dramatically surley wholesale changes must be introduced either to the mangment team or hopefully investment in players to attract fans and make the team play more attractive football

[Sluffy]

...altough we arn'et in a disastrous position we have had a poor season maybe people would be prepared too accept things more if the football wasnt as diabolical as it is.

I think you sum it all up here 118.

We are not - and for most of the season have not - been in a bad position - but have not been playing sexy football - and hence people moan.

Let me be honest - if Bolton was not my club, I would not watch them.  As it is I watch very little Premiership football - you can predict the top four clubs - and there is very little attractive football games to watch outside the big 4 games.

The massive amount of money for simply staying in the Premiership as ruined the game for me - and if I wasn't a Bolton addict for getting on 50 years, I would have walked away a long time ago - but I can't and I’m still following them.

I wouldn't take too much heed from the moaners on various sites - its my guess that many of them don't actually go to the games - you see loads of them posting on the various forums during game time at home matches!

Anyway as I've said countless times - the club gets far more from being in the Premiership than all the money the fans pay to go into the games, buying the shirts, and having a pie and pint at half time - so keep these fans happy is simply not a priority to the club.

Football fans are fickle - win a few games then they are happy, lose a few they want to sack the manager - its always been like this.  One of my earliest Bolton Wanderers memories is that of fans outside Burnden chanting for the manager - Bill Ridding - to resign - the same manager who a few seasons before could do no wrong as he led us to a cup final win and third in the first division!

Similarly a few years later when the fans turned against Alf Ramsey - who had won the World Cup for us!

We won't get relegated - we will strengthen the squad for next season - hopefully we will play a bit better - but we won't get relegated next season either.

Look what Wolves fans are saying - and they have just got promoted and will be champs of the Championship soon! -

"In 12 months time, Molineux may well be reverberating to the strains of the Great Escape. And if that's our aspiration for the spring of 2010, I don't think that's being defeatist. It's being realistic".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A50111911.

The Premiership is filling up with mediocre clubs - Wolves plus Birmingham and say Reading - plus Stoke, Wigan (they will lose a few of their players in the summer), Blackburn, Hull if they don't go down, Portsmouth (they'll be selling too), Sunderland (if they stay up) Blackburn, maybe even Fulham and West Ham who have probably both overachieved this season, as well as us!

Not got the makings of a great season really.

More of the same for the foreseeable future - not an appealing thought really.

Oh and attractive football - not done West Brom much good as it?  Are Stoke attractive - but they'll be staying up!

[bwfc_Djorkaeff]

How can you say we wont go down

For Four reasons i think i can say that. (its my opinion so i can say what i want)
1. We have two teams below us still to face at home. One of which has won 1 premierleague game since the start of december..yes 1! Hull don't even bother trying to tell me we're in a worse position than them.

2. We have won more games at home than any team below us. Leading to suggest we can win at least one of the remaining home games.

3. Middlebrough have to get 6 points to just catch up with us assuming we get no more points and they are playing arsenal, man u, newcastle away, villa and west ham. There are hardly signs they are suddenly going to turn it around and beat these sides. 

4. Even if we are in bad form the teams below are hardly ripping up trees. It may be we stay up just because there are teams worse than us but so be it aslong as we stay up.

and in terms of your qs about why can't we keep the ball etc. Because we have no good midfielders as megson prioritised rightly or wrongly signing players like cahill, taylor, steinsson and elmander in positions we also badly needed players. He couldn't sign a whole new team in 12 months.

Also 1106 can i just ask purely out of my own interest at the start of the season just before we played stoke what were your expectations this season? where did you think we would finish?

[bwfc1106]

As i have said in many posts before its not the position were in that i have the biggest problem with nor is it the points total as we have more than last season whcih shows improvement but the football hasnt changed in the slightest, the passion from the last few games of last season has not been carried into this season, we dont just play poor football we play the worst im sick of actually being bored watching Bolton...

Before the stoke game id have been happy to see improvement yes in terms of points we have have improved but in any other areas has the club moved foward? id have been if we could see glimpses of the football chaanging evolving the players geling and us to attack with a bit more pace and conviction but none of these has improved.

I'm not saying i expect to see us like united ripping teams apart every week as i dont unless id go 10 miles the other way and watch them...no he couldnt have changed a whole team but these are proffesionals were talking about they arnet bad players so should therefore under the guidance of a decent manager would evolve both individually and as a team meaning we do not need to keep buying also before the Stoke game with us breaking our trasnfer record (for an unproven player) id have expected him to impress and do his upmost to win the fans over but hes only played well in about two maybe 3 games this season and his total of goals is a joke nobody would pay 8 million for Davies and hes our top scorer.

Just out of interest bwfc_djorkeaf what did you expect before stoke? us to still be in danger of being relegated this season, or was it for us to still be playing the sunday league big striker and long ball routine we have been so priveleged to see this season as your name suggests you like to see a bit of flair sureley you cant be happy to sit and watch the football we are being given?

not having a go at you and dont want you to think im muppet but if we as fans dont take the warning signs that are there and flashing now that the team is not improving under this managment team and fans at the club are not happy then what if next season we go down because if other teams strive to improve and we move foward as much as we have done this season then we'll be in serious trouble and it will to be too late. i can understand to get behind the team as i do and dont boo Megson or berate him during matches but you cant be happy at just staying up and avoiding relgeation thats no way to be a fan of the club were not on the board we are fans and pay too be entertained not to balance the books yes its important and thats why they get paid big wages to do so but peopel will just stiop going if the football doesnt improve.

[Manny]

Sluffy actually posted something a couple of weeks ago that showed we have the biggest attendance increase in the league this season compared to last year. Cheaper kids season tickets might be the main reason, but the support is still there (most of the time).

At the start of the season I predicted us to finish around the position we are in now, we won't go down but we need another few points sooner rather than later to avoid being dragged back into it. While the football still isn't the prettiest, at times this season it's been better than the last few years, we've scored some damn good goals this year, it's just a shame our defence like to give them away like Christmas cards.

[Sluffy]

I don't think you're a muppet at all 118 and I agree with a lot of what you write.

A lot of fans aren't happy with the football we play (I'm one of then) and many fans will stop going BUT as far as the business side of the club is concerned - it simply will not matter because they no longer are its major customer - the Premier League itself is - simply because of the vast amount of money it gets from being there.

Let me try and explain it another way - below is an article from a Celtic site that compares us with Celtic -

If we were in Scotland the money we are earning (from the Premiership) would mean that we would be the second biggest club behind Celtic and bigger than Rangers (at the end of this season).  So we are a crappy small English club, 13th in the league - still not clear of relegation - but we are now a bigger club than Champion League regulars Rangers!  

Our income also went up by 16% even though our match day revenue FELL by £6.8 million.

This probably doesn't mean much but let me explain the significance - firstly if Celtic's match day revenue fell by £6.8 million - (they currently get £38.5 million match day revenue) - they would go out of business!

That is because Scottish clubs - just like English clubs prior to the invention of the Premiership - depend on the fans money.  

BUT Bolton last season dropped £6.8 million from the fans and still increased turnover by about £8 million (so they must have earned approximately a further £14.8 million in just that year from Sky, but loss £6.8 million from the fans - but overall made £8 million nett!!

So they happily pissed off nearly £7 million pounds of Season Ticket sales and non capacity games BECAUSE it didn't matter - they were getting twice that amount from the increase in Premiership income.

Why do you think Celtic and Rangers are desperate to play in the Premiership?

Here is the article in full -

I think we are all becoming familiar with the income streams flowing in Scottish football but I thought it would be interesting to highlight Bolton Wanderers figures, which were released yesterday.

For year end June 2008 show a turnover of £59.1m, an increase of nearly 16%.  A repeat performance this season would put them in second place in the Scottish money league behind Celtic, who earned £72.9m last season, but Bolton still made a loss of £8.1m and saw debts rise to a staggering £53.5m.

It's when you break the figures down that contrasts become acute.  Bolton saw match day revenue drop to £6.8m, a figure which would wipe Celtic, who earn £38.5m on match days, out of business.

However, Bolton's income from Sky TV was a fantastic £34.2m, up over £8m as a result of the new TV deal.  Celtic earned £18.2m from all multimedia sources, mostly through the Champions League but including Setanta and Channel67.

There is something inherently unstable about the Bolton business model.  They are losing money, are deeply in debt and have one single debtor to thank for the majority of their income.  A blip in the wrong place would be fatal.

This story is not uncommon; in fact it is the norm in the FA Premier League, where enormous increases in income have been squandered without producing sustainable business models.  When borrowing conditions tighten (sound familiar), or Sky TV decide they don't want to pay just as much money for a product whose market has matured, English football will be bankrupt.  

http://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/2009/01/debt-mountain-continues-to-dwa.php

[bwfc_Djorkaeff]

No 1106 i don't think your a muppet at all i'm glad for the differing opinions people have. As sluffy said i understand alot of your points and find myself agreeing with most of them in alot of matches and for your interest ha I expected the season to turn out much the way it has with us not scrapping for our lives in 16/17th place but not fully safe yet.

I just think megson plays the way he thinks we can best get results with the team we've got. As in playing a passing game with mccann muamba and earlier in the season nolan just wouldn't work in my eyes. Unless they choose not to show us their ability these players really can't pass so megson tries to get the guys playing to our so called strengths. Course i don't like it, anyone who plays football probably can't believe some of the passing our team does with some really basic errors and easy passing going ridiculously astray. I will probably find myself agreeing with you more and more next season if megson doesn't target the type of player i expect him too...creative players, in the summer. I think just one player we could get to build the team around (the way fulham do with danny murphy) would have a massive difference and see massive improvements next year. As manny said we've played this badly under allardyce but people weren't so quick to criticise the guy who'd taken us to challenging for europe and understandably so.

But hey you don't want megson and i can understand that but i just think aslong as we stay up we have a decent foundation for a good team just lack the extra quality to set us apart from the guys around us. Also i have faith elmander will be better next season but i may end up being way off the mark there.

[bwfc1106]

Granted Sluffy think it is quite a good article and is true the premierhsip would be fucked without sky which has inflated costs and made average players alot im afraid in our squad drive about in lamborghinis...

I dont admit to knowing alot about behind the scenes of the club but its obvious you do...just with Eddie Davies although a business man he was born in Little Lever and is a Bolton fan so would hope he doesnt let the board loose sight of the fans which at the moment are no not the biggest financial asset to the club but are still a big part of the club and if you think about it with most teams getting the money from sky the fans are what sets teams apart from each other and gives the club character and really determines whether people percieve them as a big club small club or whatever, so just saying they shouldnt be overlooked to much as it would rip the heart of the club.

As for Megson although not happy when he first came its wasnt just him i didnt like and i gave him time as i didnt want to just judge him but a fair few incidents this season has just put me right off him added to the fact i dont see us improving as a team and moving foward thats why i dislike him...i dont just call him a ginger muppet for no reason as alot of idiots at the games do but i just dont see him being here long term like alladyce without the backing of the all the fans.