Bolton 3-0 Lincoln City

Are we going to start the season with winning ways?

karlypants wrote:Are we going to start the season with winning ways?

I would certainly hope so Karly and there’s no reason why I should doubt that we will after pre season. I know that some people doubt our strikers and I get that but I’m nowhere near as pessimistic on that and think we’ll be fine. We said last year that we needed goals from all through the team and now we’ve got that and I don’t see it stalling just getting stronger so yes I think we’ll start with winning ways and go on that way and clinch automatic promotion.

We'll storm through August. It'll all be over by Christmas.

No disrespect to Lincoln but if we play like the last two pre-season games surely its a hammering on paper.....then again it is Bolton.
4-0 and top of the league after one game

I never understand why people get carried away with pre-season form, it's no more than a run out and trying out things in a sort of friendly competitive game, where the other team are doing exactly the same things also?

Traditionally fwiw, we seem to do better in the league following bad pre-seasons and worse in the league following good preseasons!

Not that pre-seasons can actually predict our true form over a season lasting around nine months.

It also makes me laugh when Evatt on one hand claims our January signings failed because they didn't have a pre-season with us (because pre-season work is crucial to our season), the next minute claiming our new signings still to come in, will have no problem missing a pre-season with us because they will be match fit from being at other clubs pre-season.

Make your mind up, is our pre-season crucial for the players to fit into our system or not?

Clearly it is not - and if someone signed in January can't adapt their game to play in our system by May, then I suggest they either aren't as adaptable as was thought our there's something wrong in our training set up.

Will we win against Lincoln, I hope so but who knows for sure?

Depends I guess on how good our replacements for Traf and Bradley are and how well Mendes Gomes can fill Lee's boots if presumably he plays in that role?

We start with the majority of a team who finished in the play-offs, against a team that finished mid-table (who presumably have strengthen their team over summer?).

It's a home game with our fans very much behind the club these days so I expect a big crowd and for whatever reason it is, we recently somehow fail to live up to these expectations and disappoint on the day.

Nevertheless despite saying all of the above I'm going for a win for us.

Hope we stuff them!

Made some decent signings have Lincoln and last season's draw specialists have added a bit of pace up front. They lost to Rotherham but it was noticeable that the MIllers needed some quality finishing to do it and that Lincoln were very quick on the counter. So, providing we keep the back door shut, don't make any daft mistakes and produce some of the quality attacking we've shown in the preseason we should do them. It's all about our performance IMO.

Hopefully a good home win.

If we continue our improved attacking and tighten up some of our sloppy defensive play in the preseason games.


Don't be surprised if we go one down in the first  15 minutes.


We should win.

Cajunboy wrote:
Don't be surprised if we go one down in the first  15 minutes.

Yup - starting slowly has been a recurring theme which is beginning to grate a bit. Evatt has said on several occasions that "it took some time to work out their rotations" so I don't know if it's intentional that we sit back and watch what they're doing for a bit before waking up but I hope not. You'd think opposition teams are researched to death way in advance.

wanderlust wrote:
Yup - starting slowly has been a recurring theme which is beginning to grate a bit. Evatt has said on several occasions that "it took some time to work out their rotations" so I don't know if it's intentional that we sit back and watch what they're doing for a bit before waking up but I hope not. You'd think opposition teams are researched to death way in advance.

I think they will be boosted by the Ethan Hamilton signing and their main striker Ben House turning down reputed Championship offers to stay at Lincoln so they should be pretty confident coming here. Lincoln are one of those funny teams who can be brilliant on their day and poor on others yet they somehow know how to eke out a point in games so we need to be on form. I agree with Sluffy that pre season games mean little although I’m sure I spotted a change in attitude in terms of getting the ball forward and shooting more. We have the players who can do that all over the pitch so why not? How many times last year were we shouting “shoot” only to see yet another sideways pass? I think this year will be different and although tomorrow will be tough I think we’re more than good enough to win so I’ll go 2-0 to the Whites.

3-1 Whites 

Highlights from Lincoln's last friendly game against Rotherham.  They lost 3-0

Lincoln haven't lost a first game of the season for 12 seasons. Time to make a dent in that.

boltonbonce wrote:Lincoln haven't lost a first game of the season for 12 seasons. Time to make a dent in that.

We are widely being touted as favourites for automatic promotion - a mantle that doesn't sit comfortably with me, even though when this team plays well it can produce some high quality football - so I think it's important that we not only win, but win well both from the perspective of maintaining confidence in the players and sending a message to the rest of the division.
A loss or even a draw would be very deflating so I'm really hoping for a top performance and a convincing result. And I think we have the players to do it but they've got to produce the goods on Saturday.

wanderlust wrote:
We are widely being touted as favourites for automatic promotion - a mantle that doesn't sit comfortably with me, even though when this team plays well it can produce some high quality football - so I think it's important that we not only win, but win well both from the perspective of maintaining confidence in the players and sending a message to the rest of the division.
A loss or even a draw would be very deflating so I'm really hoping for a top performance and a convincing result. And I think we have the players to do it but they've got to produce the goods on Saturday.

I predicted 4-0 in the prediction thread, but that's probably my start of the season euphoria, which seems to take hold when my season ticket arrives.Looks like it's going to be a wet, miserable day in Horwich, but if we come away with a meaty win, I'll be more than pleased.
Just don't go a goal down. Makes me nervous.

wanderlust wrote:

boltonbonce wrote:Lincoln haven't lost a first game of the season for 12 seasons. Time to make a dent in that.

We are widely being touted as favourites for automatic promotion - a mantle that doesn't sit comfortably with me, even though when this team plays well it can produce some high quality football - so I think it's important that we not only win, but win well both from the perspective of maintaining confidence in the players and sending a message to the rest of the division.
A loss or even a draw would be very deflating so I'm really hoping for a top performance and a convincing result. And I think we have the players to do it but they've got to produce the goods on Saturday.

We were favourites to return immediately to the Premier League under Coyle which shows what nonsense football betting odds can be!

The season is over the next nine months or so, so whether we win lose or draw our opening match won't have very much of a bearing as to where we end up in the league table come next May or our players 'confidence'.

Sluffy wrote:

We were favourites to return immediately to the Premier League under Coyle which shows what nonsense football betting odds can be!

The season is over the next nine months or so, so whether we win lose or draw our opening match won't have very much of a bearing as to where we end up in the league table come next May or our players 'confidence'.

You see I just don’t get this lose or draw in the opening match not having much of a bearing on where we finish over the season because I believe every game has a bearing and every point counts if we want automatics, especially against the likes of Lincoln who I expect to be challenging for the play offs. If we seriously want automatic the last thing we need is to go out with the attitude that it’s ever ok if we don’t win, that’s a losers way of thinking, well there’s another game next week. We need the Plymouth and Ipswich attitude that any point dropped is bad and we need to win every game, only then will we succeed. Of course we won’t win every game but if you ever go out thinking it’s not essential then frankly you’ll never succeed in life.

Whitesince63 wrote:

Sluffy wrote:

We were favourites to return immediately to the Premier League under Coyle which shows what nonsense football betting odds can be!

The season is over the next nine months or so, so whether we win lose or draw our opening match won't have very much of a bearing as to where we end up in the league table come next May or our players 'confidence'.

You see I just don’t get this lose or draw in the opening match not having much of a bearing on where we finish over the season because I believe every game has a bearing and every point counts if we want automatics, especially against the likes of Lincoln who I expect to be challenging for the play offs. If we seriously want automatic the last thing we need is to go out with the attitude that it’s ever ok if we don’t win, that’s a losers way of thinking, well there’s another game next week. We need the Plymouth and Ipswich attitude that any point dropped is bad and we need to win every game, only then will we succeed. Of course we won’t win every game but if you ever go out thinking it’s not essential then frankly you’ll never succeed in life.

You totally misunderstand me.

Of course we could miss out on promotion by a dropped point or even a missed goal opportunity meaning that we miss out on goal difference but I'm talking more in the sense that we are in a gruelling marathon over months with lots of twists and turns along the way.

Last season we kicked off with Dapo as our star player and the season before Sarc was - yet neither lasted past the coming January transfer window!

My point being change and random variables are certain to happen over a full season and it is how teams adapt to the challenges define them - not the opening game they play!

It's just silly to say just because we lost our first home game this season, that that was the reason we missed out on promotion by 1 point!

It's just stupid for folks to believe we got relegated the season Everton beat us in our first game at the Reebok because the ref missed a perfectly good goal we scored. How many other games did we not win that we should have done that season and how many other games did we get points when we shouldn't have done - things tend to equal out somewhat over the length of a season and generally speaking clubs tend to end up where they deserve.

Every team will have good and bad things happen to them over the next 9 months - whatever happens in this game will NOT effect how we play for the rest of the season, nor will it have any effect on the confidence of players.

Wanderlust over the years often talks about 'confidence' of players. These are paid professionals we are talking about, most with plenty of experience in the game. They are coached and managed by qualified coaches and manager, many of whom have been in the game for years. The players are together on and off the pitch and generally bond together. On the pitch a number of players will be natural leaders, and gee up their fellow players. The club will even have professional motivators to work with the players.

I simply don't believe any professional player at our club (and probably most of the other clubs too) go out on the pitch without any confidence in themselves or the team as a whole.

Even if we lose our first say five games, I'm sure the players will kick off in the sixth believing they will win!

I reckon if people really do have confidence or motivational issues then they simply wouldn't have made it as professional sport team players.

Sluffy wrote:

You totally misunderstand me.

Of course we could miss out on promotion by a dropped point or even a missed goal opportunity meaning that we miss out on goal difference but I'm talking more in the sense that we are in a gruelling marathon over months with lots of twists and turns along the way.

Last season we kicked off with Dapo as our star player and the season before Sarc was - yet neither lasted past the coming January transfer window!

My point being change and random variables are certain to happen over a full season and it is how teams adapt to the challenges define them - not the opening game they play!

It's just silly to say just because we lost our first home game this season, that that was the reason we missed out on promotion by 1 point!

It's just stupid for folks to believe we got relegated the season Everton beat us in our first game at the Reebok because the ref missed a perfectly good goal we scored.  How many other games did we not win that we should have done that season and how many other games did we get points when we shouldn't have done - things tend to equal out somewhat over the length of a season and generally speaking clubs tend to end up where they deserve.

Every team will have good and bad things happen to them over the next 9 months - whatever happens in this game will NOT effect how we play for the rest of the season, nor will it have any effect on the confidence of players.

Wanderlust over the years often talks about 'confidence' of players.  These are paid professionals we are talking about, most with plenty of experience in the game.  They are coached and managed by qualified coaches and manager, many of whom have been in the game for years.  The players are together on and off the pitch and generally bond together.  On the pitch a number of players will be natural leaders, and gee up their fellow players.  The club will even have professional motivators to work with the players.

I simply don't believe any professional player at our club (and probably most of the other clubs too) go out on the pitch without any confidence in themselves or the team as a whole.

Even if we lose our first say five games, I'm sure the players will kick off in the sixth believing they will win!

I reckon if people really do have confidence or motivational issues then they simply wouldn't have made it as professional sport team players.

Of course I agree that things during the season can have effects Sluffy but my point was that the players should approach every game with the intention of winning it as winning breeds confidence. Losing any game dents that which is why I feel we have to set off as strongly as possible. Of course we can still succeed if we lose the first few and you only need to recall where we were in L2 at Christmas before Evatt reacted. I don’t believe we could hope to do that in this division the competition is far too good but it does illustrate how quickly things can change. Still, I’m hoping for a good start and with our first half dozen games all eminently winnable I’m confident we’ll be leading from the front.

karlypants wrote:Ian Evatt:

“I think we’re in a good place in terms of a squad. We’ve got good depth and good options, which offer different things. We’ve got some really good players and a really strong core group that have built a strong environment and culture to work in.

“They know what’s expected. They know what everyone’s opinion is this season and what our ambitions are and now it’s down to us and go out there and prove them. This is a big football club with huge expectations and the players have to stand up to that and rise to that.

“I do see a desire and a will-to-win in the players this week and a huge amount of excitement and we’re looking forward to the game on Saturday. Hopefully we can kick off with the right performance and three points.”

Let’s hope so Karly. By the way is Nuts Radio on today or has the new system Kiboshed it?