Category: BWFC

It was dark and miserable as we gathered pre-dawn at the Unibol stadium, ready to add another 550 miles to our already long League One itinerary. The journey was made even longer due to accidents and road works but thankfully we arrived in time to enjoy the StaggerSaurus IPA in the Staggeringly Good micro-brewery near Fratton Park. The Pompey fans were as doubtful of their chances as we were as both teams had gone five matches without a win. We wished each other good luck, starting after this match.
Ian Evatt had to shuffle his pack once more, bringing back Nathan Delfouneso and Will Aimson and was unable to name a forward on the bench. We had the better of the first half, twice hitting the woodwork and having a decent shout for a penalty when Aimson was manhandled in the box. However, Portsmouth survived and caught us early in the second half with a fluky back heel. The goal lifted Pompey and floored us for most of the second half until we mounted a late rally in the last 10 minutes and Eoin Doyle was unlucky to hit the bar with a header. In the end, it was no goals and nil points.
There is no doubt that we are struggling at the moment as we go through a bad patch. Injuries, suspensions, and desertion are testing our squad to the limit. Ian Evatt brought in Amadou Bakayoko and Xavier Amaechi to bolster our front line and we have hardly seen much of them because of injury. Fans were grumbling when defenders were brought on as substitutes, but we did not have any choice as all the forwards we have were already on the pitch. Times are tough right now, but this is when the manager has to earn his corn. He must boost morale and confidence. He must find ways to get us scoring again as when we have scored, we have always got something out of the match. Senior players can help the younger players with their experience of going through tough times. It can seem like you do not get the rub of the green when you are struggling but at the end of the day, you must make your own luck in life through character and hard work. Fans and players alike have to believe that things can only get better, the sooner the better.

Just as we finally dried out after our soggy sojourn to Plymouth, the shocking news about the departure of Antoni Sarcevic hit the media outlets on Friday. Everyone was stunned, asking what has been going on and how much more trouble at t’mill is there? It was not the ideal preparation to a match we felt we needed to win to restore our confidence after a poor run of results. All eyes were on the team selection to see if there was any indication of further problems and the performance which would give us an idea of who was backing the manager.
In the event, Evatt went for his arguably strongest team available, bringing back Doyle, John, Kachunga and Santos. The first half was a disaster as we conceded two early goals and looked very nervous and unsettled. It was a very worrying half-time break as our worst fears appeared to be coming true and our hopes for the season were imploding before our own eyes. Evatt must have said the right things as he rallied the troops for the second half, and we finally got into this game. We grew stronger as the game went on and fully deserved the two goals to level the match and we were odds on to get the winner before we ran out of time. The first half had given us nightmares, but the second half gave us confidence and hope.
As the club progresses, there are going to be changes in personnel for a variety of reasons. Some players will not make the grade, some players will get poached by other clubs, some players will have fallouts with management and some better players will be brought in as the club can afford. It is all part and parcel of a club developing. Keeping the team together through all these changes is a real test of management. Only time will tell whether any key decision is the right one. At the end of the day, no player or manager is bigger than the club and when it comes to disputes between players and manager, there can only be one winner, the manager. Based on the second half display, then it looks like Evatt has got the support in the dressing room and it is important that we all stick together in these testing times as we support the club’s return to better times.

For a change, we treated ourselves to lunch in the Harvester where the discussions were about a tight game in prospect, with the game probably being decided by a goal either way. The Latics are on the up again after their new investment and recruitment during the summer, after 5 years in the financial doldrums. There was concern about who our missing injured players were, but the Wanderers squad should be strong enough to cover them. Our exit from the Harvester was briefly halted as the police chaperoned the hordes of Wigan fans from the station to the stadium. It was good to feel the big match atmosphere again at the Unibol with both sets of fans up for the pies-pasties derby with another 20,000+ crowd expected.
As it turned out, Ian Evatt was forced into making four changes with Amadou Bakayoko, Harry Brockbank, Liam Gordon and Josh Sheehan coming into the team. With what followed I am genuinely struggling to comprehend and to find 400 words that will get printed in a family newspaper. We were awful and Wigan were very good, with the 4-0 scoreline not flattering them in any way. The whole team had an off day as we were out pressed, outplayed and as I hate to say it, outclassed.  This humiliating defeat hurts, more so for it was against our current closest rivals. To compound what was already a bad day, our misguided missile throwing idiots will probably land us with a financial penalty which we can ill afford. Not to be outdone, some of the away fans thought it was a good idea to dismantle the ground, starting with the advertising hoardings.
It is impossible to take anything positive from today and we must accept that this was a reality check, big style. It showed very clearly the tasks ahead and strongly reinforced that we are a developing team in-progress. We are not going to romp this league. Indeed, the first priority has to be establishing ourselves in this league. There is a lot of hard work to be done. However, we must not let one bad performance undermine the excellent progress that has been made over the past 12 months. We are one club, one community and one town. We must endure the disappointments together as we enjoy the successes together. Today was a big setback but let us keep it in proportion.

On the back of two consecutive League 1 wins and a Bolton Wanderers 4 Liverpool 1 scoreline photographed for the memoirs, the White Army was on the move again, over the Pennines to face the Owls at Hillsborough, a famous stadium which has seen better times and tragedy of course, particularly the outdated and crammed Lepping Lane end for visitors. Many fans found welcoming stopping off points en-route as we did at the Old Red Lion at Grenoside, where the excellent gammon and chips gave me plenty of ballast for the day ahead.
Confidence was high that we could get a result against Sheffield Wednesday as recent visits have made Hillsborough a happy hunting ground for us. Who can forget Liam Trotter’s goal in 2016? As expected, Ian Evatt went with an unchanged team and a strong looking bench again. We could have and should have scored in the first minute as we set out to dominate this match. By all counts, we dominated this match except for the crucial statistic of goals. Somehow, we managed to lose this match and received another painful lesson in that if you do not score, you are not going to win matches. We can point to some debateable, dubious and downright dodgy refereeing at vital times, but the bottom line is that we must be more ruthless in front of goal and put our chances away. We have not lost any match this season that we have scored in, and all our defeats have been to nil. I am still scratching my head as we are not far off the top goal scorers in this League. Our performance was good, and we created lots of chances again today. Sheffield Wednesday did get stuck in, particularly in the second half and rattled us a bit, but we still should have got something from this match.
We cannot change the result, so it is on to next match against the high-flying Wigan Athletic in the pasty-pies derby. It should be a terrific match in front of another large crowd at the Unibol. Things are building up nicely for the Charity match for MND on November 14^th as Bolton legends sign up to play. It will be great to see the likes of Ivan Campo, Gudni Bergsson, Stelios, Henrik Patterson, Kevin Davies, John McGinley and many more returning to grace the Unibol stadium once more.

After our rain-sodden, fuel-busting trip to South-east London to watch the Wanderers’ superb second half thrashing of the Addicks at the Valley, it was back to home territory to face the Shrews and to welcome back the legend that is Aaron Wilbraham, albeit in the opposition’s dugout as assistant manager these days. Thankfully, there was room to squeeze into the Harvester, where the introduction of two-pint glasses greatly helped the queues. After last Saturday’s performance at Sunderland and Tuesday’s brilliant result, there is a growing belief and excitement that we can cut it at this level. Sadly, we learnt of the loss of two former Bolton favourites this week, Roger Hunt and my first Wanderers hero, Freddie Hill, who could beat opposition defenders on a sixpence. My older brothers spent many hours having a kick around with Freddie on the playing fields in Darcy Lever, where he lived when he first came to Bolton.

Ian Evatt stuck with his team from midweek but with the welcome return of Amadou Bakayoko and Lloyd Isgrove on the bench. In the first half, we carried on from Tuesday night in confident mood and went two up with superb strikes from Antoni Sarcevic and Dapo Afolayan. Disappointingly, we lost momentum in the second half and nearly allowed Shrewsbury Town to come back into it. But for Joel Dixon’s penalty save, we might have dropped points by the end of the match. Neither the fans or the manager and players could have been happy with our second half performance. But it is another three points in the bag, and we are comfortably in the top half of League 1, arguably playing the most watchable football for many years. I have lost count of the number of fans who have told me that they are happy to watch the Wanderers again as we have established an identity to our football, a Wanderers way of playing.
We are moving in the right direction as the nightmares from the Dark ages begin to recede. It will not be a smooth passage back to better times as there will be challenges to be faced and setbacks to be overcome. League 1 is taking its time to settle down this season with goals aplenty and unpredictable results abound. We have proved that we are capable of mixing it with the best, but we need to keep the hard work going.

Dodging the panicky petrol hunters, the Lancaster Whites minibus joined the ever-growing White Army drive to Stadium of Light to face the Mackems of Sunderland. It is such a good feeling that things are getting back to normal, and we could talk football and not Covid-19 over a superb steak and ale pie lunch at The Avenue pub in High Shincliffe. Everyone was pleased that we have a team worth watching again, as we find our feet in League 1. Hopes were high that we could tame the high-riding Black Cats and get something out of this game. There was general approval of the club’s bold decision to sever all ties with betting companies, despite the loss of potential investment and income.
After our ascent to the third tier of the Carling Stand, we managed to find some seats in the now all too familiar chaos of fans sitting wherever they want. These days, the chances of actually sitting down at an away match and being able to watch the game are long gone. Stewards made no attempts to clear the fans standing in the crammed safety gangways. Having said that, it made for a great atmosphere as Ian Evatt was able to name an unchanged team. We had a bit of a nervous start before we settled down and got into the game. Ironically, it was at that point we slipped up and gave a goal away. From that point on, we gave as good as we got and in the second half, we dominated the play without finding that final touch. It was a case of another good performance with nothing to show for it.
At half time, there was no point in trying to get refreshments without breathing apparatus as the now traditional smoke bomb show started with fans videoing it for the social media channels.
We are still settling down in League 1. Defences are that bit better, attackers are that bit sharper and the pace of the games are that bit quicker than League 2. We must keep the faith that our brand of football will bring the results but let us not forget that we are on a rebuilding journey to recover from the Dark Ages. Two years ago, we came perilously close to not having a club. The progress to date has been brilliant and each transfer window will help us get better.

With the last gasps of summer beaming down on us, we headed for the Unibol, only to find that the Harvester was full to capacity, and they could not squeeze us in for our pre-match refreshments. The cause was the fantastic response to the first family day of the season, with the longer journey time providing the first hint as to what was to come. It was brilliant to see the packed home sections of the stadium with lots of excited children and even lots of excited adults after last week’s magnificent result at Ipswich Town. There seemed to be lots of extra stewards, bar staff and other assistants to keep things running smoothly. The atmosphere was good as we faced strong promotion candidates, Rotherham United.
What could go wrong as Ian Evatt named an unchanged team and we started brightly? Well, the Millers had not read the script and they became party poopers as they scored two good goals within the space of four minutes to take a lead, which they never looked like losing. We competed well, created some chances but when Eoin Doyle hit the post and George Johnstone’s header was ruled out for offside, the feeling grew that it was not going to be our day. In today’s parlance, Rotherham’s game management was excellent, whereas previously we would have accused them of time wasting.
With Dapo Afolayan being well marked with two and sometimes three players on him, other players should have been able to exploit the spaces but too many of our creative players were below par, especially in the final third of the pitch. On another day, it might have been a different story if we had pegged one back. Ironically the two teams that won their away matches last week by scoring 5 goals, both lost their home matches this week and the two heavily beaten teams from last week both won their away matches this week, but that is what we love about football. One good win does not make a season and one heavy defeat does not write the season off.
Everyone can see the improvements on the pitch, and we are well on our way to establishing ourselves as competitive in League 1. There are going to be setbacks like this match, but we are in it for the long haul. Let us see how we bounce back against Sunderland.

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.

Fresh from our brilliant performance at Lincoln, we headed down to the Unibol in good spirits to face the first half of our Oxbridge double. The mood amongst the fans is positively buoyant after our good start and a growing feeling that we can compete at this level and that we are not going to lose many. It was awesome to hear the ridiculously premature but wonderfully optimistic ‘We are going up’ from the ecstatic Wanderers fans after we scored the winner at Lincoln.
Sensibly, the Harvester had taken on more bar staff and the club opened the gates 30 minutes early to combat the closure of most of our watering holes near the stadium.Declan John returned after injury and Lloyd Isgrove came in for the injured Amadou Bakayoko as Ian Evatt was able to use his squad and name a strong bench as well. In a lively start, Oxford looked sharp and dangerous on the break. They took the lead through a dubious goal. Dapo Afolayan curled in the equaliser at the right time, just before half-time, to end the half in which Oxford were the better team. However, our team has character and a growing maturity to sort things out in the second half and we finished deserved winners after Eoin Doyle’s near post header from a corner.
We can see the improvements in our team, match by match. Our winner was from a corner, and it was obvious that this was something the team had been working on. Confidence is high amongst the management, the team and the fans, which is a great feeling after the decade of struggle, 2016-17 and last season excepted, that we have endured. It is very early days, and we must not get ahead of ourselves but keep the hard work up for what promises to become a very exciting season. There is a great feeling amongst the fans with 4,700 tickets being snapped up for our Carabao Cup duel with Wigan Athletic next week. Both home matches have had superb turnouts with over 15,000 watching today.
I expect Ian Evatt to make good use of his squad on Tuesday night and still be able to put a strong team out, capable of giving Wigan a good run for their money. It is good to be a Wanderers fan right now. Our club is on the way back. Let’s enjoy it.

We were up at the crack of dawn as the White Army was finally back on the move, after our lockdown sabbatical. All roads led to Wimbledon as we were privileged to witness their emotional return to Plough Lane after a gap of 40 years. This was a special moment for any football fan who knows of the traumatic history of AFC Wimbledon.
We arrived in good time as our driver avoided the delays on the motorways with his intimate knowledge of London and then navigated the labyrinth of streets around the new Plough Lane stadium to locate the designated parking bays for the coaches. We chose the Halfway House for our pre-match refreshments and discussions. It was brilliant to meet up with fellow supporters again, particularly the London-based Whites. The expert analysis far outshone anything that you get on TV or in the media, as we discussed team selection and happy memories from the past. The big debates were about the goalkeeper selection and young players going out on loan, with the majority in favour of persisting with Joel Dixon to help to establish a promising young goalkeeper at this level, with the reliable Matt Gilks as cover and to use the loan system to get the younger players regular games at a decent level of football. There are no right or wrong answers as these are the challenges Ian Evatt has to face.
As it turned out, Ian Evatt went with Joel Dixon and the scene was set for what turned out to be a memorable, exciting and entertaining game in front of a packed crowd and the loud Wanderers following, who got behind the team from the start. We should have won, we could have lost, as the match ebbed and flowed. On the positive side, we played some great, creative attacking football, scoring three goals and we could have had more. But we were we up against a constant bombardment from the inspired Wombles, who fought back to earn a share of the points.
It is another valuable point on the board as we learn what life is all about in this league. A point away from home is always good, provided that we make the Unibol a fortress. It is early days in League 1, so it is difficult to put our results into perspective, but the signs are good, we are in there competing.