After our brief highly charged Carabao Cup interlude at Wigan, we resumed our League 1 tour with another long trip to the leafy suburbs of Cambridge. Breakfast was at Norton Canes services, where we chatted with Accrington Stanley fans en-route to Milton Keynes. Upon arrival at the ground, we were directed through a building site, along a Lego style footpath to the rear of the ground. Cambridge United are famed for their match day fayre and this proved to be the case with an extensive food menu. Strangely, table and chairs were provided for the non-beer drinkers only. Another brilliant following of over 1,500 Wanderers fans greeted Ian Evatt’s favoured eleven.
Hopes were high of extending our good, unbeaten League start, as we settled down in two parts of the Abbey Stadium, a seating and a standing area. Unfortunately, the team did not settle down as well with too many players below par, particularly in the first half. We paid the price when Cambridge scored a well taken goal, just after having one chalked off for offside. Obviously, Ian Evatt must have had words at half time and there was a big improvement in the second half, which we dominated but could not take any of the few chances that we created. Credit to Cambridge as they defended manfully and saw the game out. The referee was overzealous with his yellow cards, collecting names as if he too, like a lot of Bolton fans could not get hold of a match programme.
As usual, when we lose, the journey back home seems a long way, but it gave us chance to put our start to the season into perspective. It is early days, and we are finding our feet in this division. We have made a decent start with 8 points from 5 games. We have already shown that we can compete at this level. We have developed a good style of football and instilled some character and confidence in the team. Of course, there are lots of things to work on, but these are the challenges that Ian Evatt must relish. Yesterday was a rare defeat and it is important to see how we bounce back from that against Burton Albion next week. Both the management and the players have to cope with the increased scrutiny of the crowd being back. Handled well and this can be very positive.
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