Bolton 1-1 Sheffield Wednesday

Glad Lee's out for this one.

Karlypants:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] subs: Lonergan, Knight, Pratley, Hall, Chung-Yong, Moritz, Ngog

bwfc1874 wrote:Karlypants:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] subs: Lonergan, Knight, Pratley, Hall, Chung-Yong, Moritz, Ngog

Cheers

Chatbox is on! Join in...

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

COYWM!!

Very disappointing performance. Didn't deserve to win - if SW had taken their chances we could have been hammered. Tactics are questionable, but I think the main problem is lack of quality. We keep giving the ball away in midfield or bypassing midfield altogether.

Sounds like we never got going. As I said earlier, the line up was spot on but doesn't sound as if we retained possession well enough at all, hard to say what the answer is without seeing the game but a disappointing result overall.

bwfc1874 wrote:Sounds like we never got going. As I said earlier, the line up was spot on but doesn't sound as if we retained possession well enough at all, hard to say what the answer is without seeing the game but a disappointing result overall.

The line up was spot on? What bloody planet are you on? One up front again against a team worse off than us. Couldn't Freedman have learned anything from watching a proper Manager the other night. His tactics are naive, don't suit the players we have and are making us look like mugs. Any half decent manager with the squad we have would be pushing the leaders at least by now. Let's get this clown out now otherwise we really will be in trouble. I can't believe you still can't see the obvious 74.

SACK THE BASTARD! NOTHING HAS CHANGED!

Match report from BWFC:

Bolton posted a point and extended their unbeaten run to four after drawing with Sheffield Wednesday in a lively clash at the Reebok Stadium.

Both goals came prior to half time; Jermaine Beckford opening the scoring before an Alex Baptiste own goal levelled matters.

But Bolton were forced to dig deep in a heated second half in which Owls midfielder Jose Semedo saw straight red for a late tackle on Jay Spearing.

In an attacking move, Chris Eagles replaced Darren Pratley in the starting line-up that was otherwise unchanged following the win at Birmingham prior to the international break.

The opening ten minutes were somewhat scrappy. Bolton saw more of the ball, with Owls defender Kamil Zayatte slicing a Liam Feeney cross wide of his own goal in the only event worthy of any real note.

On 13 minutes a lively run from the powerful Michail Antonio would signal a period of sustained pressure from the visitors in which they carved out three clear goal-scoring chances.

After breezing past three markers Antonio fed Giles Coke who dragged a shot wide from the right channel.

Minutes later neat interplay between Matty Fryatt and Coke saw the former thwarted from inside the area by a smart reflex save from Adam Bogdan whilst the Bolton stopper was again on hand to smuggle behind Reda Johnson’s back post header from a corner.

Bolton responded in the best possible way.

In a simple yet effective move upfield Neil Danns threaded a neat ball in behind the Wednesday defence onto which Beckford pounced. After setting himself the striker stabbed the ball beyond the onrushing Chris Kirkland to bag his second goal in as many games.

Second later Kirkland then repelled a low drive at the near post from Alex Baptiste, who was soon in the thick of the action at the other end as Wednesday drew level on 26 minutes.

After chasing down a loose ball on the left byline, Jeremy Helan swung in a delicious cross onto which a backtracking Baptiste could only head into his own goal when under pressure from Antonio.

For the remainder of the half it was the visitors who looked the more likely, though both sides would have been happy for a reprieve when referee Chris Foy brought the opening 45 to an end.

The Owls made their intentions clear at the start to the second half.

Within the opening minute of the restart Lewis Buxton’s free-kick was well held by Bogdan before Helan’s drive from the left channel was turned onto the woodwork by the Bolton stopper.

Wednesday continued to grow in confidence. Antonio volleyed Helan’s cross within inches of the post as the visitors continued to look threatening in the wide areas.

In an attempt to make inroads into what was proving to be a stubborn Sheffield Wednesday backline Chung-Yong Lee and Rob Hall on the hour mark but it continued to Wednesday asking the real questions.

Chris Eagles blazed over following Chung-Yong’s pull back whilst up the other end Owls sub Jermaine Johnson shot wide when in the clear.

One-time Bolton winger Johnson did have the ball in the net on 73 minutes, only for an offside flag to cut short the raucous away fans’ celebrations.

A lapse pass from the otherwise tidy Stephen McPhail presented Beckford with a clear-cut chance when unmarked in the area but his shot was tame and straight into Kirkland’s midriff.

The game would reach boiling point five minutes from time. Semedo flattened Jay Spearing and was immediately sent off much to his visible disbelief.

Despite the man advantage and a late seize on the Wednesday goal Bolton were forced to settle for what was ultimately a fair point.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Utter shit IMO, after the first goal we were a bloody shambles and I am more surprised we didn't lose it in the second half to be honest. You could tell after the first 5 minutes what kind of mood Eagles was in as he didn't even want to take charge of any of our set-pieces.

It just shows you how clueless Freedman has become as he hasn't bothered to tell Bogdan to stop lumping it forward to Beckford on his goal kicks, the Wendesday defence had beckford on toast in the air but the one time we played it to his feet Beckford scored.....doesn't take a genius really.

Fuck off Freedman I have had enough of you!

For once I agreed with the team selection, it's just a shame half the team didn't turn up.

Two things stood out a mile during the game:

1) Most of these players simply don't have the basic football skills needed to succeed. The number of times a simple pass bobbled off a shin or a player in possession overran the ball was unbelievable.

2) We are still a long ball team. For 75 minutes all we did was hoof the ball up to Beckford.

Where do you start after a game like that? We should have lost about 6-4, our defence was absolutely shocking again. A combination of good keeping and shit Wednesday strikers saved us.

Bogdan (7/10) Did nothing wrong and made a great save to keep the score 0-0.
McNaughton (4) Absolute shite. Slow, consistently out of position, and some shocking "passes".
Baptiste (2) What a cock. Beaten time and time again and also managed to plant a header firmly past Bogdan. Twat.
Ream (5) Didn't do much wrong defensively but too much hoofball.
Mills (4) Shit. Why would you pick someone who takes half the game to turn?
Eagles (1) Bellend. Did absolutely fuck all and should have been off at half-time.
Feeney (5) Put over some dangerous crosses in the first half but hardly saw any of the ball because it was always sailing over his head in the direction of a Wednesday head.
Medo (1) Fuck off you shit bastard. A professional footballer with the control skills of an incontinent 95 year old. Fuck off Medo you twat.
Spearing (5) Did absolutely fuck all with the ball (because he's shit) but at least he got stuck in and was all over the pitch for 90 mins.
Danns (6) Not bad for a donkey, but most of his good work was done out wide in harmless positions.
Beckford (5) Took his goal well and you can't fault his effort, but once again he missed the easiest chance of the game to win it when Chungy put him in.

Subs:

Hall (1) He is absolute wank. Why is this guy being paid to play football. He must think it's Christmas. Once again did absolutely nothing when he came on.
Ngog (3) Had a great run with his first touch that took him past three defenders, then (as usual) his touch let him down.
Lee (9) Made the difference when he came on. Set up absolute sitters for Eagles and Beckford.

Freedman: What a tosser. Eagles should have been off at half-time and replaced by Moritz - but, of course, he wasn't match fit despite running up and down the touchline for 90 minutes.

Too much long ball, too many shit players. Freedman out.

Manager felt his side were unlucky not to run out winners against the Owls

Dougie Freedman believes that Wanderers were unfortunate not to record their first home victory of the season following a 1-1 draw with Sheffield Wednesday.

Jermaine Beckford had opened the scoring for the Whites early on in the game, but Alex Baptiste’s unfortunate own goal ensured that the clash ended all square against the Hillsborough outfit.

Despite the disappointment of not securing a victory however, the manager revealed that he was more than pleased with the application shown by his players.

“I feel with our performance and the chances we created we probably deserved to take the three points,” he said following the final whistle.

“We started the game very well and our passing and movement was fantastic – we dominated the first half hour of the game and scored a wonderful goal.

“Once again though we were very unfortunate and it was a huge slice of misfortune that gave them an equalising goal.

“It’s not something you can work on the training ground and it’s not something that you can get through easily – you’ve got to make sure that you’re calm as a manager and as fans and make sure that you’re supportive of the players up there, because they have got the qualities to score goals.

He added: “The chances are there, our approach play was good and our defending at times was very good today.

“We’ve got to make sure that we take our opportunities and that will soon propel us up this league.”

The Scot was also keen to pay tribute to goalscorer Beckford after the striker notched his second strike in as many games.

“It was a great goal – he took it nice and early, giving the keeper no chance at all. I’m trying to get people in the football club that young people can learn from and Jermaine is certainly one.”

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

He's taking the piss. We should have been 4-1 down at half-time, they had a dubious goal ruled out in the second and had numerous easy chances.

Fuck off Freedman.

karlypants wrote:

Natasha Whittam wrote:I once went out with a bloke who supported Sheffield Wednesday. He annoyed me. I hope we win.

I can't believe you got a sticky just for this!

Nat, can you not make this first post a bit more interesting with some stats etc?

How many times she bonked him, for example?

Eagles for Pratley was an improvement but playing one up front at home to Wednesday is still poor.
The saddest thing about the performance was that all the positives from the last two games weren't on show. I must admit, I thought we'd turned a corner in terms of organsation and urgency, but we evidently hadn't.
Simon Charlton hit the nail on the head with most of his comments. Defensively, we were clueless, and nobody was moving for the ball, which left us pretty clueless going forward too. The best spell of the match came in the final ten minutes when we finally went with two up front.

“It’s not something you can work on the training ground and it’s not something that you can get through easily''

But you can tell your goalkeeper to stop fucking launching it everytime he has a goal kick, perhaps a simple pass to one of the defenders would be more effective?

In the past few years the 'ordinary' or 'smaller' teams, (Swansea for example, and to some extent Cardiff)), have actually changed the way they play, going for a passing style of play, and not the charge of the Light Brigade as things used to be. The launching of the ball, hoping for the break, is not going to work nowadays. Because Bogdan keeps booting the ball as far as he can, he must have the agreement of DF. We seem to fall down on the basics of passing, tackling, and holding the ball. Why can't we look at the way we actually play, and at least come up with some sort of plan, rather than the kick and run stuff we seem to favour ?