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2 April 2021

Bolton Wanderers vs Colchester United

Easter weekend, the time when football starts to sort itself out, especially up to the early 1970s when there were usually 3 matches in 4 days. We are having to settle for only two matches these days at a time when we really want to peak at the last page to see how this season turns out. We know that the players need time to recover in between matches but the 9-match rollercoaster over the next 5 weeks is not going to be easy on our emotions. But we are all in it together as we faced the ‘U’s from Colchester United on the back of the best unbeaten run in the country and certainly our best for ages.

As Ian Evatt made one change, bringing in Arthur Gnahoua for George Thomason, what could go wrong against a struggling side who sacked their manager this week? Plenty as it turned out as we came up against a side who defended like their survival depended upon it. We struggled to raise ourselves to recent heights of performance. Eoin Doyle did have a goal wiped out for a debatable offside decision but overall, we were very flat, probably our worst performance for weeks. Defensively, we were sound but all credit to Colchester, they were defensively sound too.
Many will look at this result and claim that two points have been dropped but at this stage of the season, I think that it was a valuable point earned as we face the manic run in to the end of the season. Results elsewhere went for us as we moved into the top three for the first time this season, with nobody having games in hand to overtake us. That is where we want to be on Saturday 8th May around 17:00.
The last and only time that we got promoted from the 4th tier, we won 5, drew 3 and lost 1 of our last 9 matches. I only make the comparison to illustrate that we are not going to win every match, that promotion has to be earned match by match, battle by battle. This match is over and done with. We need to learn any lessons, pick ourselves up, move on to Newport on Easter Monday and keep those points rolling in. I think that I have enough fingernails left to see us through, but it is going to be close.