Crawley 0-2 Bolton

The lads played a good part against Arsenal with Collins getting a goal back for us along with some great passing and they also kept pressure on the ball against a team that is two leagues above...but that has come with a consiquence as Forino is now expectedd to be out with an injury for the forseeable future!

Crawley are on joint points with Bolton in the league so far with the same record as Bolton in the last 5 games.

It looks like it could be even Steven's.

How do you all think we will do?

Crawley Town v Bolton Wanderers - The Big Match Preview

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Oh, for another afternoon where everything goes right in Crawley.

Before last weekend’s high-pressure game at home to Reading, it was debated among Bolton supporters if there had been any other regular-season fixture with more riding upon it for embattled manager, Ian Evatt. The only potential exception being their promotion battle at the Broadfield Stadium in May 2021.

Defeats against Charlton, Exeter City and Huddersfield Town may have been interspersed by cup successes but the league table reflected the worrying direction of travel in the early season, and something had to change.

As has do often been the case in Evatt’s four years in charge, he found an answer when he most needed one. A shift in formation, in captain and the reunion of Victor Adeboyejo and Dion Charles up front resulted in a much-needed win, the dial moving out of the red, at least for a little while.

Evatt’s job security had been widely discussed after the play-off final defeat at Wembley, the board quickly concluding that he was still the man they wanted to lead the search for promotion success after two near misses in League One. And despite a shaky start, that view evidently had not changed when serious discussions took place a fortnight ago.

But in reality, the pressure on the Bolton boss had never been heavier than it was in that first tumultuous campaign, which culminated in an empty stadium in West Sussex – the same one to which they travel on Saturday lunchtime with expectations again riding high.

“No-one really knows what I have had to go through,” Evatt said at the time, proclaiming that amazing late charge to snatch third spot in League Two as the best moment of his football career to that point.

It had indeed been a crazy campaign, Bolton one of only a handful of clubs never to allow fans through their own turnstiles. And given the erratic form shown in the first half of the season, Evatt has since conceded that the lack of supporters was probably a bonus.

After winning the power struggle with head of football operations, Tobias Phoenix, and bringing in ally Chris Markham for a truly transformative January window, there can be few teams who have turned around their fortunes in such a short space of time.

With Covid rules still in force, the only way fans could officially watch Bolton beat Crawley 4-1 was on TV or through their laptops. Some did travel, against advice, and once promotion was secured all precaution went out of the window as the players and coaching staff rushed outside to celebrate. More joyous scenes were to follow late in the evening once they reached the Whites Hotel, Eoin Doyle memorably jumping off the coach and dancing in front of the assembled crowd, while his teammates waited in a nearby bus stop for a police escort.

Evatt and his players have enjoyed more celebrations – after the Papa Johns Final, then in reaching Wembley again with a play-off semi-final win against Barnsley. Sadly, hindsight made the latter feel decidedly unwise but all involved are desperate to sample those good times again.

It seems the fate of the Bolton boss right now, however, to be hovering on the edge of recovery and crisis. Until the Whites can put together a genuine run of form, the critics who have increased in volume – both in number and audibly – will continue to make themselves heard.

Victory against a vulnerable Reading team at least restored faith that there are goals in this team, Dion Charles’s hat-trick also playing him into a nice vein of form.

But if Wanderers need to prove anything else to a fanbase still reserving judgement then it is that the defensive frailty they have shown in the last few weeks are only a temporary problem.

Crawley, without a manager after the departure of Scott Lindsey to MK Dons, would dearly love to claim a scalp. In Ronan Darcy they also have a player who will be itching to show his former club they were wrong to release him a couple of years ago.

The Ormskirk-born midfielder was part of those celebrations back in 2021 having played 11 games that season and along with other departees Adam Senior and Harry Brockbank is part of the last group of academy players to make a dent on the first team picture at Bolton.

Darcy has found a fresh lease of life at Crawley, helping them out of League Two via the play-offs last season and featuring in all but one game in league and cup this time around.

How the Reds will react to losing the influential Lindsey is unclear but Bolton must surely be viewing it as a bonus as they look to go again just 64 hours after the kick-off at the Emirates.

There won’t be the same scenes of joy after the final whistle if Wanderers are victorious in front of the TV cameras on Saturday, nor will all doubt be removed. Ground has been conceded to the top two spots, and until it has been recovered, fans are unlikely to buy-in completely.

But if Evatt and his players can keep the positive results coming to the international break, they will feel another important test has been passed.

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Its a game we need to win to get back on track and get up the table. As long as we cut out the stupid errors (i know!) then we should be beating the likes of Crawley. I'm going for a 2-1 away win for the Super Whites.

Norpig wrote:Its a game we need to win to get back on track and get up the table. As long as we cut out the stupid errors (i know!) then we should be beating the likes of Crawley. I'm going for a 2-1 away win for the Super Whites.

Four points is the minimum I'll accept from our next two games.

Otherwise the Bonce bed sheet might be coming out. Excuse the stains.

boltonbonce wrote:

Norpig wrote:Its a game we need to win to get back on track and get up the table. As long as we cut out the stupid errors (i know!) then we should be beating the likes of Crawley. I'm going for a 2-1 away win for the Super Whites.

Four points is the minimum I'll accept from our next two games.

Otherwise the Bonce bed sheet might be coming out. Excuse the stains.

They should be off now and in the wash you dirty bugger!!!

Anybody else always thinks of 'creepy-crawly' when we play this lot?

Crawley Town 0-2 Bolton Wanderers - Full time match report

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Wanderers made it back-to-back league wins for the first time since early April, surviving an ugly 90 minutes to take the spoils at Crawley.

Kyle Dempsey got the Whites off to the perfect start with a fourth-minute goal from Josh Sheehan’s corner but it wasn’t until sub John McAtee netted a second 12 minutes before the end that Ian Evatt’s side could breathe easy.

Dempsey was the only change in the side that beat Reading last weekend, replacing Jay Matete, and their midweek exerts against Arsenal just 64 hours earlier might have to be used in mitigation when assessing a truly bitty performance.

Crawley’s last goalless draw in the league was all the way back in April 2023, and within a couple of minutes you could see why.

Wanderers started with a good tempo and Victor Adeboyejo brought a save out of Jojo Wollacott with virtually his first touch. The corner – a clearly-rehearsed effort from the training ground – was drilled to the near post by Josh Sheehan and driven with venom into the net by Dempsey.

One should have quickly turned into two. Dempsey got wide after another high turnover and white shirts were queueing up to score from close range, nobody able to pull the trigger.

Bolton seemed happy to give up possession, almost to the degree that they did on Wednesday night at Arsenal. As a result, Crawley were able to slowly build up a feeling of pressure without actually testing Nathan Baxter’s goal.

Whites old boy Ronan Darcy had a shot blocked on the edge of the box, Cameron Bragg also arrowed one just past the post.

The most potent attacks were coming on the break for the visitors, however, and particularly when Dion Charles was able to isolate his marker, Toby Mullarkey. The Northern Ireland international clearly fancied his chances and twice out-paced the Crawley defence, only to see his left-footed efforts saved, or deflected wide.

There was an aggravated feel about the game from the early moments, one that referee Jacob Miles struggled to quell. His inconsistent decision making angered both sets of fans, and Ian Evatt’s protests also earned him a yellow card.

On the stroke of half time, moments after Mullarkey had finally put a shot on target for the Reds, Dempsey came within inches of scoring a second. Josh Dacres-Cogley pulled a good ball back from the right, and he lashed a left-footed effort off the underside of the bar, the ball eventually bouncing clear to safety and the half-time whistle.

The boisterousness continued into second half, the quality of football suffering badly under the weight of the foul count. Crawley’s players were mysteriously absent from the referee’s book for more than an hour, however, which was quite hard to fathom.

For the last half an hour it looked like a case of ‘next goal wins’ and had Crawley managed to seriously test Baxter then you would have fancied them for more.

Wanderers were backed by more than 1,000 travelling fans, and they had not seen much goalmouth action until Ricardo Santos’s header was tipped over the bar with about 20 minutes to go.

They certainly enjoyed what came next, however, as with the game finely balanced, Szabi Schon scampered down the left on a loose ball that looked suspiciously like it had gone out of play. The Hungarian played to the whistle, and his pass eventually made its way via Aaron Collins to McAtee to crash home from 12 yards.

Collins and McAtee had been on the pitch a matter of nine minutes, picking up from where they had left off against Arsenal in midweek.

Referee Miles finally booked a home player in the 87th minute, sparking a sarcastic wave of chants from the away end about him “finding his cards”.

Wanderers saw out the game without further incident, claiming three points with a most un-Bolton performance.

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The goals.

Enjoy!

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Taking the three points and running .....a draw would have been a fair result.
We were dominated in midfield for large parts of the game. Begs the question as to why Ian didn't make a change until late on. GT was not in the game and poor old Vic has the ball control of a traffic cone. One more win on Tuesday and things will be looking much better.
COYWM

Good result and largely better performance than a lot of recent games but still many questions concerning our tactics. That said Ian gets the blame when we lose so today he gets the credit for the win. I still think he's the wrong man for the job now but if this keeps up he could well change my mind. We've all heard the phrase good teams win when they play well but great teams when even when they play badly. Well, we're not a great team by any means but we showed proper character and application as well as riding our luck a bit. Three valuable points we perhaps didn't fully deserve but I for one will take that over a 'brave' loss or draw anyday.

Ian Evatt changed-up his regular gameplan to cope with Crawley’s unique approach and got three precious points as reward.

The Bolton boss praised his players for altering their familiar possession-based approach at the Broadfield Stadium but still managing to come away with a win thanks to goals from Kyle Dempsey and John McAtee.

Crawley finished with 69 per cent of the ball, enjoying some long spells of pressure either side of half time, but they rarely looked like making a breakthrough to really test the Whites’ resolve.

Evatt explained: “We have to be adaptable, and Crawley are a team that try to do a lot of quirky things, they try and dominate the ball and there is a lot of rotation. They are so expansive in possession that sometimes you have to allow the first few to set traps and spring forward on the counter and I think first half we executed that perfectly. The only negative was that it should have been game over, and credit to their keeper who made some fantastic saves.

“At the start of the second half I thought we were a little bit too passive. We were caught between when to allow a couple of passes and when to spring aggressively but once we made the changes it all kicked in again and it looked more likely.

“For all the pressure I can’t remember any big saves that Nathan Baxter made and Rico Santos was back to the player we know and love.

“So, there were lots of positives but it’s just a small step forward.”

Wanderers have now strung back-to-back league wins together for the first time since April and moved up into mid-table after a poor start to the campaign.

Major questions were asked of Evatt and his side, who looked to be struggling to overcome the disappointment of losing the previous season’s play-off final against Oxford United.

Evatt is delighted to see them turning a corner.

He said: “I just know that the players we have are good players, I never lost belief even after we’d lost a few games. I knew who good they could be but they were devoid of confidence, there was clearly a hangover from the play-offs and we needed to find some momentum so we could start believing again.

“Sometimes in football you suffer, and we certainly did for a couple of weeks with some very poor results and performances but this shows how quicky football can turn.

“This is a first result of a big week, and I am including Saturday and Tuesday in that before the international break, and if we can get results in both of those games we will be right back to where we want to be.

“We are getting bodies back but we lost another one on Wednesday in Chris Forino, who is going to be out for a while with a hamstring injury. We are getting players minutes, we are keeping them fit, and now it’s a big push before the window where we can reset and build confidence again.”

Evatt was given a yellow card by referee Jacob Miles in the first half for protesting a foul on George Johnston but feels a niggly game had plenty worse within.

He said: “I think there was a lot worse going on on the pitch today, some of the dark arts, late challenges, things going on off the ball that we didn’t spot or the referees didn’t spot. I just said to him there I don’t think I did anything wrong, I appeared for a foul and gpt yellow-carded. There was a lot worse going on which went without caution or discipline so it must be a reputational thing, I guess.”

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Crawley interim boss Ben Gladwin says his side were “punished” by Wanderers despite seeing plenty of possession.

Gladwin was in the dugout for the first time following Scott Lindsey’s departure to take charge at League Two side MK Dons.

The 32-year-old hailed his side’s attitude after a challenging few days but admitted they did not offer enough in the final third.

“A lot of pride really, just for the players’ level of commitment and making it look very similar to how it has been in terms of the performance overall,” he told the club channels.

“But obviously, a lot of disappointment. As soon as the second goal goes in, it becomes a little bit harder and the game doesn’t quite look how we want it to.

“Results are the important thing and we need to pick them up, but really grateful for the players and what they gave.

“There is always a balance and if you have a lot of the ball and are creating chances, it is the best thing in the world. If you are not creating, it is something we need to look at.

“We always try to dominate the ball, it is in our DNA here, but we obviously need to do a bit of work in the final third.”

Kyle Dempsey’s opener came from a well worked set piece after just five minutes, giving the Whites a platform to build from.

“Honestly, I think so much of the game looked how we wanted it to look,” Gladwin added.

“Set-pieces were big today and we didn’t quite get one right, they scored from that and then punished us on the break.

“(It was) one of the only times they managed to do it, I thought we really locked out the action fantastically and stayed in their part of the pitch a lot.

“Some really good bits but in the top part of the pitch, we just need to show more desire to get to the box and score goals. We created some moments but never any we really deserved to score from.”

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