Fleetwood 2-0 Bolton (pre-season friendly)

Howard
A Taylor
Dervite
Beevers
Wheater
Vela 
Karacan
Ameobi
Buckley 
Madine
Darby

Triallist on the bench  assuming it's still the Swiss guy.

Early pressure from Fleetwood.

1-0 and almost 2-0 Fleetwood

Need to improve a lot second half. They scored in the 18th minute and we haven't really threatened since. A couple of decent runs from Ameobi and a couple of pots from distance from Vela isn't anything like a consistent attacking threat.

From Fleetwood's official twitter site -

For those asking, we are providing FREE audio commentary from today's game with @OfficialBWFC!

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2-0 and we are not even at the game!

Wanderers succumbed to their first reverse of pre-season after Fleetwood Town recorded a 2-0 win at Highbury.

Goals in each half from Jordy Hiwula and Conor McAleny ensured the Cod Army marched home with a victory in basking hot sunshine on the Lancashire coast.

The starting XI contained Wanderers’ strongest line-up of the pre-season so far with Jem Karacan recovering from the knock he picked up against Fylde.

Wanderers got underway with a 3-5-2 formation but found themselves defending a corner within a minute of kicking off.

The 1,000-strong fans, some of whom were bedecked in the brand new purple away kit, were in fine voice from the onset.

The hosts should have taken the lead when a cross came in from the right hand side, but Jordy Hiwula prodded wide from close range whilst under pressure from Dorian Dervite.

During the opening exchanges, Fleetwood appeared to be the more threatening of the two sides.

Bobby Grant saw a right footed curler deflect for a corner after Wanderers lost possession in attack.

The opening goal came after 18 minutes thanks to a header from the unmarked Hiwula who polished off Amari’I Bell’s cross.

McAleny’s shot from distance went wide as the Cod Army looked to increase their lead and capitalise on their dominance.

The visitors’ first attempt came just after the half-hour mark after some clever play from Ameobi found Vela whose left-footer curled over Alex Cairns’ cross bar.

No changes were made to the Wanderers team as they came out for the second half.

Hiwula wasted a glorious chance to double his tally moments after the restart when he was put through by Bobby Grant. But the frontman fired wide with only Howard to beat.

McAleny was the next to try and increase the hosts’ lead only to see his low drive deflect for a corner.

Parkinson made his first change of the afternoon bringing on Adam Armstrong and Adam le Fondre for Ameobi and Buckley just after the hour.

The double change immediately saw Wanderers become more potent as an attacking force, winning three corners in quick succession.

But the visitors left themselves with a mountain to climb after McAleny’s deflected strike from distance curled in past Howard.

And their afternoon was summed up when Le Fondre put the ball over the bar after some neat work from Karacan in winning possession.

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Fleetwood Town returned to Highbury in a fine fashion as they comfortably beat Sky Bet Championship side Bolton Wanderers 2-0.

Two new signings – Jordy Hiwula and Conor McAleny – both opened their accounts for Town with a goal in each half.

Uwe Rosler named four summer signings in his starting 11. Hiwula, McAleny, Kyle Dempsey and Lewie Coyle all were in from the start.

Town started brightly as Coyle broke down the right side and his low cross was just diverted wide by Hiwula, who could have opened the scoring after three minutes.

Both sides cancelled each other out in the opening quarter, before Hiwula got the goal he and Town deserved. Amari’i Bell created room down the left for himself, before whipping in a perfect cross from the former Bradford City striker to head home.

Josh Vela had a shot in anger for the away side, who never got a look-in during the opening stanza.

The second half started in the same way the first did, with Town looking good in possession and Bolton not really threatening.

McAleny gave the Cod Army a taste of what might to be come with a stunning second half strike. Picking the ball up 25 yards out, he curled the ball past Mark Howard and into the top corner to double the lead for Town. A stunning goal.

Town saw out the game well as they continue their preparations for the new season.

Fleetwood: Cairns, Coyle, Bell, Eastham, Pond, Hiwula, Dempsey, McAleny, Grant, Bolger, Glendon. Subs (used): Burns, Nirennold, Cole, Hunter.

Bolton: Howard, Taylor, Dervite, Beevers, Vela, Karacan, Ameobi, Buckley, Madine, Darby, Wheater. Subs (used): Le Fondre, Osede, Armstrong, Pratley.

Attendance: 2,541

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If Parky comes out and says he was pleased by individual performances and wants to take the positives from the game, I'll be having a crisis of confidence. 
Please don't do it Parky.....

It's a shit team, I think today shows that it's no better than it was last season when we limped over the line for promotion.

I can see nothing but relegation by Christmas.

Glad I support Chorley.

Problem was in the midfield today not sure what was happening, Ameobi seemed to shift all over the place, Karacan and vela where no existent in the first half and generally we looked lethargic and slow to every ball.

Seemed to me that Parkinson was trying to put square pegs in round holes.

Armstrong looked sharp when he came on but that was the only positive.

Fabians Right Peg wrote:Seemed to me that Parkinson was trying to put square pegs in round holes.

It's been the failing of virtually every Bolton manager since Allardyce.

It comes down to ego.

I would have thought our goal this season was to stay up and to this end I would have thought Parkinson would look to make us difficult to concede goals.

I can't fathom therefore why he's gone a bit overboard in bringing in all the wingers he has?

It seems he must be intending to play them and thus will need a target man to hit (Madine being the only one to fit this role).

He's also brought in ALF and Armstrong, so he obviously fancies one of them starting as well.

So if you have four at the back (why have three and two wingbacks if you have got all those wingers he's just brought in), two wingers and two up front - that only leaves two players to control the pitch from the edge of our box to the edge of theirs.

I can't see anyone able to do that with who we have got, so the team to my way of looking at it, simply has no engine room.

Even if we got Spearing back, that wouldn't make any difference imo - we are simply soft throughout the centre of the pitch.

If we are going to go with two wingers then we've got to sacrifice one of the strikers to strengthen up the midfield and Mardine up front on his own won't be good enough at Championship level.

Maybe we are only a half built team so far - and the West Ham boys might be part of the answer - but for now I don't see a lot of wins for our team this season.

There is however plenty time to bring players in yet.

Sluffy wrote:I would have thought our goal this season was to stay up and to this end I would have thought Parkinson would look to make us difficult to concede goals.

I can't fathom therefore why he's gone a bit overboard in bringing in all the wingers he has?

It seems he must be intending to play them and thus will need a target man to hit (Madine being the only one to fit this role).

He's also brought in ALF and Armstrong, so he obviously fancies one of them starting as well.

So if you have four at the back (why have three and two wingbacks if you have got all those wingers he's just brought in), two wingers and two up front - that only leaves two players to control the pitch from the edge of our box to the edge of theirs.

I can't see anyone able to do that with who we have got, so the team to my way of looking at it, simply has no engine room.

Even if we got Spearing back, that wouldn't make any difference imo - we are simply soft throughout the centre of the pitch.

If we are going to go with two wingers then we've got to sacrifice one of the strikers to strengthen up the midfield and Mardine up front on his own won't be good enough at Championship level.

Maybe we are only a half built team so far - and the West Ham boys might be part of the answer - but for now I don't see a lot of wins for our team this season.

There is however plenty time to bring players in yet.

Survial Sluffy... survival. Hopefully we will play a lot better than we did today. Parky cannot be happy after today's match.

observer wrote:

Sluffy wrote:I would have thought our goal this season was to stay up and to this end I would have thought Parkinson would look to make us difficult to concede goals.

I can't fathom therefore why he's gone a bit overboard in bringing in all the wingers he has?

It seems he must be intending to play them and thus will need a target man to hit (Madine being the only one to fit this role).

He's also brought in ALF and Armstrong, so he obviously fancies one of them starting as well.

So if you have four at the back (why have three and two wingbacks if you have got all those wingers he's just brought in), two wingers and two up front - that only leaves two players to control the pitch from the edge of our box to the edge of theirs.

I can't see anyone able to do that with who we have got, so the team to my way of looking at it, simply has no engine room.

Even if we got Spearing back, that wouldn't make any difference imo - we are simply soft throughout the centre of the pitch.

If we are going to go with two wingers then we've got to sacrifice one of the strikers to strengthen up the midfield and Mardine up front on his own won't be good enough at Championship level.

Maybe we are only a half built team so far - and the West Ham boys might be part of the answer - but for now I don't see a lot of wins for our team this season.

There is however plenty time to bring players in yet.

Survial Sluffy... survival.  Hopefully we will play a lot better than we did today.  Parky cannot be happy after today's match.  

I agree Obs - in fact that was what my post was about. I just can't fathom what Parkinson's thinking is of bringing in all these wide men - which to me makes us weak in the middle of the pitch?

No doubt all will be revealed in good time.

When reality bites, perspectives change and at this juncture I refer you to Nat's comments when I suggested survival was the target - weeks ago.
However today's reality must surely have struck home with Parky and I guess it's now important how he'll react to the game. 

It's only a game, but it's a game that Parky clearly expected his new team to win.

Sluffy wrote:So if you have four at the back (why have three and two wingbacks if you have got all those wingers he's just brought in),

That was the problem yesterday, we played three at the back two wing backs and Buckley and Ameobi. that left Vela and Karacan too exposed and when Madine did win a flick on Ameobi and Buckley failed to be there in support as they drifted wide quite a lot as you would expect.

The shape was wrong and I think Parkinson has been bringing in the best players he can and is now struggling to find a system, Bruce is another example of this, good player but we have two decent centre halves and sufficient cover so why bring him in?

Think we will see lots of tinkering this year with the way we play, hopefully it is a sign of the way Parkinson has had to operate with the signings. and not a case that he is a budding Ranieri.

Wouldn't worry about it, its just a pre-season friendly, big Sam regularly got beat by lower teams, generally the worse we did in pre-season the better we fared in the league, that is until Owen and Dougie came in and broke the trend and we were just shit all the time, remember Coyle taking us to  a game at Portsmouth who couldn't even cobble a team together and were on the verge of going out of business, and we got fucking battered, think we will be safe this season.

Get a grip Bryan you bellend, of course it matters. Parky put out his best team and we got battered. It destroys confidence in both players and fans.

I've gone from expecting promotion by Christmas to relegation by Christmas.

And I'll say it again - Ameobi is a luxury we cannot afford. As Newcastle and Cardiff can testify.

Didn't matter to Sam and we ended up in Europe, I'll wait ten games before I start chanting Parky out, after all they are only Mickey Mouse Games and the players are probably still recovering from their assault and battery inflicted by Chorley (Shameful)

bryan458 wrote:Didn't matter to Sam and we ended up in Europe, I'll wait ten games before I start chanting Parky out, after all they are only Mickey Mouse Games and the players are probably still recovering from their assault and battery inflicted by Chorley (Shameful)

I am still waiting to hear back from FIFA and Simon Cowell regarding that shameless result.