The Jayjay23 match report, (this might be a bit all over the pace because I am just going to set off writing what I can remember and see what highlights I come out with!)
- I arrived in the ground about 25 seconds after kick off to find we had a corner, making my way to the seat I saw a great cross whipped in and a good chance to score seemed to go begging - might have been a great save but hard to tell as the guy I was squeezing past at the time practically raped me in his pre goal enthusiasm. A minute later and another corner or two, both dangerous and the first goal goes in after about 3 minutes. ....It was a good fast paced opening from the whites.
Watford start to get a slightly better foothold in the game with a couple of openings presenting themselves for distance shots as players don't close down quick enough. "Warning signs are there because Bogdan can be beaten from that sort of range." Watford don't capitalise though. Andrews then takes a clever shot at goal from range but it drops wide. He repeats a similar effort soon after. (I can't remember if it was one of the Andrew's shots or whether Mavies had a range effor t that was actually quite a clever shot that he tried to pass into the goal on the volley/half volley - either saved or wide).
Bolton also have a goal ruled out for a foul on the keeper. Probably the right decision but good pressure from Bolton over all.
Watford show signs of looking dangerous and 2 more long range chances are wide open for them to have a go - the first player decides to pass, the second whacks a cracking shot off the Bolton bar - Bogdan well beaten.
Bogdan also flaps at a cross and a then a shot beats him only to be cleared off the line by Ngog or Knight. I think Ngog.
By the way, Bolton were lined up with Mavies playing wide right, Eagles left. 442...
Ngog gets fouled 30 yards from goal. Crossed in. Kevin Davies a great finish! 2-0.
Overall a decent half from Bolton. Kavies having an ok game although he is afforded a lot of space by Watford when he has the ball at feet. A couple of good flick ons and take downs and at least one poor decision against him for using his body. Mavies has done better than expected on the right wing - but not amazingly - work rate good though. Alonso looking decent all round. Spearing is one of the stand out players though in a solid, quiet way.
Would I make any half time changes? Yes - Mears would be removed. The weakest link.
I am looking forward to a second half hopefully involving Sordell and Petrov but my wish is not granted in the end.
Second half. Bolton spend much of this half on the back foot. Watford passing and retaining possession well. Bolton looking a bit scrappy and tired. Ngog goes off after faking injury - looked more like he gave up to me. Afobe comes on. Afobe showed a couple of tiny flashes of usefulness but Bolton still on back foot. Eagles playing well imho.
57 mins Watford pulled one back and Bolton are struggling. To be fair - Coyle does remedy this by going 5 in midfield with Afobe dropping to right wing. It does give us some stability and some of the ball back...
There is one really good extended period of passing and also a really good move between Mark Davies and Alonso (think)... Mavies lets a really great effort go but it goes wide. I also remember a particulary good ball from Alonso through to Ngog (you know a proper through ball, properly weighted and defence cutting) but Ngogs pull back found nobody.
Kevin Davies looked more and more weary as the game went on. Everybody seemed to be screaming for him to go off because he was truly knackered and the game was getting stretched. Mavies chased down a ball on the right wing, beat a man, cut inside and tried to pull it back but the support was not there. Yhen Mears finally beat a man, cut a great cross back but Davies was still trying to get in there. Then Afobe crossed pin point onto Davies head and he headed right at the keeper tamely. Don't get me wrong, Davies was working tirelessly but had run himself into the ground. "KNOW WHEN YOUR PLAYERS ARE FINISHED COYLE" and similar reigned down. "Take him off he has done enough now...." etc.
You won't see this on the highlights but you know when someone is totally shattered and they bend from the waist and put their hands on their shins to get breath back - well that was Davies for the last 20 mins every time the ball went out. But he still picked himself up and gave it everything he had. But you could see it was getting to him. He tried to let the ball run out for a goal kick when he was back defending, but got tackled before it crossed the line. Then he played a bad ball back to Alonso under pressure in his own box. Then he gave a clumsy foul away deep in our own half - which luckily they wasted.
There was a particular point in the second half which I found bizzarre and difficult to take in. There was a frustration with the way we were playing. We were 2-0 up. BUt Watford were having their best spell. Andrews slowly got worse as the game wore on (this is before Watford scored) and Andrews made some mistake or other and the atmosphere in the ground went from lethargic to hostile. Booing, from all corners it seemed. "Taxi for Coyle" was heard. I looked at the scoreboard. We are 2-0 up. Why the booing, really? It was just a frustrating period in the game. But I think the fans could see what was coming and part of me agreed strongly.
Then later in the game (during the sub Kavies moments) there were several instances where the game was extremely stretched. People had been shouting to put Petrov on up front or Sordell to offer a way to kill the game or at least as an outlet. It sounds like a strange one but Petrov up top at this stage would have worked for me. You know how good he can be on the counter, it just looked like his day. I digress. So the game is stretched and there a several pretty good through balls that are not getting read and several breaks up the field on the counter from us but no man in the middle....
Then the real issue and the main talking point for me was when Eagles won the ball in his own half, beat a man on half way, raced clear of three defenders (down the left wing right on the line) and he is bombing it toward their goal from wide, looks up to cross or pull back and finds that Davies is still trying to catch up and Afobe is right wing... ends up having to turn back and wait for back up... the booing started again and the shouting at Coyle before the attack was even dead.
Then at it's peak Coyle turns round and bollocks the crowd for having a moan at him!
"We're fucking winning are you going to do better" - someone reckons he said... I dunno. But I was in my seat like wow, this could go royally bad for Coyle. But infact the crowd who he shouted at seemed to die down a bit. Then at the final whistle, Coyle again turned to the crowed and mouthed off. He also didn't run onto the pitch clapping or smiling as usual after a win. And I would say 45% of the crowed clapped, 25% bood and the rest remained indifferent. Coyle eventually seemed to calm and he clapped his way off the pitch.
Thanks for reading!
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