Author: Joe

Tuesday night’s second half re-enactment of the Alamo against Carlisle United got us back on track after the hiccup at Grimsby Town last weekend. This meant more sleepless nights and stomach butterflies ahead of this six-point showdown with the Shrimps in the battle for automatic promotion. Bolton has been buzzing all week as flags and scarves appeared on houses all round the town and through the positive side of social media, fans arranged to give the team a good send off from the Unibol and a fantastic welcome at the Mazuma stadium, a.k.a. the Globe Arena.  The nerves were jingling ahead of this Cup Final for sure, as we settled down to watch on iFollow in beer gardens, homes or whatever sanctuary we could find.
Ian Evatt brought in Ben Jackson to replace the injured Declan John but the battered and bruised Matt Gilks made it between the sticks and the news that Captain Antoni Sarcevic had made the bench gave us a massive boost, similar to Darren Pratley’s inspirational return against Fleetwood in March 2017.

The match started at a cracking pace with Morecambe going for it like men possessed and Bolton trying to calm things down and play controlled football. Our hopes got a massive boost when Kelvin Mellor was deservedly red carded for kicking out at Dapo Afolayan under the referee’s nose, halfway through the first half. After that the Wanderers were in total control and got the vital goal from young Ben Jackson, who could have had a hat trick. Captain Sarcevic came on midway through the second half to steer us home. In the very last minute, there was a heart stopping scramble in the Bolton box, which had us diving for cover behind our screens but thankfully Matt Gilks and Alex ‘Maldini’ Baptiste came to the rescue once again. The referee blew his whistle and we had got the result we needed.
We are nearly there. We have retained our four-point lead over Morecambe and Tranmere with two matches to go. We have confirmed our place in the Play-offs at the very least and we need to win one of our remaining matches to secure automatic promotion. I suspect that there will not be much sleep again this week but come on all Bolton fans everywhere, get those flags and scarves out this week to show the Wanderers that we are right behind them.

What a dramatic week we have had in the build up to our trip to play the Mariners in the lunchtime kick-off, brought forward in respect of Prince Philip’s funeral. Normally, we could have looked forward to some decent fish and chips in the fishing capital of England but as usual our virtual tour of League 2 continued on iFollow. It is sad that Marcus Maddison’s loan period has had to be cut short due to personal problems and we can only wish him well and hope that he gets the help he needs to sort things out. Then there was the fantastic win at Salford, when the whole team stood up and were counted, defending as a team to put us in a strong position for securing promotion. I heard of some Bolton fans who couldn’t bear to watch it as the match wore on, either pacing the room or covering their eyes in front of their screens. But we came through together and hopes were high that we could take another step forward against the bottom team, Grimsby Town.
Ian Evatt named an unchanged team and bench against a team who had been fighting amongst themselves last week. Any thoughts of an easy match disappeared inside a minute as Grimsby tore into our defence and Jay Matete put them ahead. Today they fought for each other and outfought us as too many of our players were below par. Having said that, we still had good chances to get back in this game. It is no good pointing at individuals. Our strength has been winning as a team and we lost as a team today. We have got to forget today and focus on Carlisle United on Tuesday.
We have been saying for weeks that we had so many cup ties to play and everybody knows that there will be shocks in cup ties. We are in the nervous nineties stage of the season, where all clubs and their fans will be looking at results from their rivals and who they have to play. We have four more cup ties with 360 minutes of football to determine our season. We have all got to keep together to see the Wanderers through. As Journey sang “Don’t stop believing”. We can do this and Ian Evatt and the players have got to know that we are behind them all the way.

The excitement of our push for promotion is reaching fever pitch as we start the final heptathlon of the season. Our emotions are up and down like a yo-yo in direct response to every point gained or lost, every goal scored or conceded. We are making every save with Matt Gilks, we are making every tackle with the defence, we are making every defence splitting pass with the midfield and we are scoring every chance with our lads up front. If only we could be there to show the Wanderers that we are totally behind them, but they have to do it on their own with us left to shout and scream at TV monitors in our isolated state.
We needed to pick ourselves up after the Newport hiccup, as we faced the Suphurites from the Spa town of Harrogate. On Grand National day, would we be at the races or would we turn into also-rans? In his search for goals, Ian Evatt brought in Marcus Maddison and Lloyd Isgrove to unlock the expected defensive bulwarks in blue. In a shocking first half, Harrogate were on fire. We did not turn up and we were fortunate that Harrogate were not out of sight by half time. The half time team talk and a change in tactics got us back into this game. We took our chances when they came along and got the valuable three points, with Matt Gilks making a brilliant save from veteran Jon Stead. Harrogate were left thinking, as we were at Newport, you do not always get what you deserve in football.

The important thing is we found some character and determination to turn this match around. I do not care what my neighbours think, I was shouting and cheering as Lloyd Isgrove and Eoin Doyle tucked those goals away and my fingernails got another trimming until the final whistle was blown.
Six more matches to go, six more challenges to overcome. We are back in the automatic promotion spots and we need to stay there. It is on to the Peninsula Stadium in Salford on Tuesday night, where in normal circumstances, we would have been packing it to the rafters. But we will all be there in spirit against a team that has not lost at home this season. I think that it is time that they did. Come on you Whites! Upwards and onwards.

The latest stop on our virtual League 2 tour meant we were heading to South Wales to face the Exiles from Newport County. They have been arguably the best team to come to the Unibol this season and they were leaders for most of the first half of the season. Their form has dipped since the turn of the year, but a tough game was still in prospect. More than ever for we fans, it was a case of “Wish we were there” rather than the normal holiday postcard “Wish you were here”.
Hoping to put Good Friday’s disappointing draw behind us, Ian Evatt brought back George Thomason and Lloyd Isgrove to replace Dapo Afolayan and Arthur Gnahoua. It was nearly a sensational start as both teams tore into one another and Eoin Doyle crashed one against the bar and Matt Gilks pulled off a couple of good saves. As the half progressed, Bolton got well on top, playing some superb football at times, creating chances galore. We should have been out of sight by half time, but we could not get the all-important goal. This came back to bite us in the second half as Newport picked up and ex-Bury favourite, Nicky Maynard fired home after another good save from Matt Gilks. Sometimes you do not always get what you deserve in football. Certainly, we have played worse and won matches this season. But if you do not score in a match, then you are not going to win, no matter how well you play.
The fantastic unbeaten run is over and all talk of unbeaten runs should be banished to the past, as should this result. We have now got a mini-league of seven matches, seven separate challenges to overcome. All thoughts should now focus on beating Harrogate Town on Saturday. There are going to be twists and turns with every set of results as the matches are played. That is what football is all about. League 2 is arguably the most competitive league in England with up to a dozen clubs realistically still involved in the battle for automatic promotion or play-off places. The best thing is that we are right up there in the mix, something which was beyond our wildest dreams as late as January. We need to keep the performances going, get the vital goals and then together we can and will do this.

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 8^th May around 17:00.
The last and only time that we got promoted from the 4^th 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.