FA Cup - Bolton v Everton

Good point Mike, certainly at Palace. Most Football Managers and players are not worth listening to now - worse than politicians. Poor subs - did he really think Afobe and N'goals were capable of scoring? Rest of game fantastic and exciting once the players "grew into it". Lots of reasons to be optimistic. I think Alonso has been treated apallingly. Fans realised his quality but Manager's seemed to ignore them. I wouldn't blame him for leaving but hope something can still be done to keep him.

I agree fully with everyone who says there are reasons to be optimistic and yes we should not be selling our best players, has the club not learned from the damage inflicted when they sold our best players 18 months ago or is Gartside hell bent on ripping away the remaining talent we have left. I truly belief a recovery will not happen until we begin scoring more than a single goal a match, everything rests on getting 2 -3 goals per game, it is not rocket science, management must select the lads who can attack. Blimey this is citing the obvious, its ridiculous. Thank you Pedro for your mention earlier - dont encourage me !!

I must declare that I didn't see any of yesterday's game but by most accounts we played pretty well. As I think most of us have cautiously said, there are grounds for optimism in terms of the playing staff. As has been the case for far too long, the main problem is with management and, for want of a better phrase, corporate attitude. We have two keepers who are about good enough at this level. The defence has improved under DF although it would be good for the whole unit to fire together on a more regular basis; looks like we need to keep Alonso, Wheater can't be too far away, Dawson could be a good acquisition. Midfield is looking a bit more solid as well and showing more creativity; Pratley starting to look like the player we thought we were buying, CYL getting back to form, Student just plain back, Vela a big bonus and bit part players like Spearing and Andrews who can slot in, just a shame Eagles has had a dip in form. As Mike says, up front is now the problem; don't see much point in keeping Afobe, we are stuck with Ngog, SKD is SKD and the future is Marvellous. However, he can't do it alone and Mike is right that we need a strike force that can stick a good few goals past the opposition; currently we don't have this so a goal scorer is a top priority (whether Davies fits the bill remains to be seen). I may have missed some out but you get the gist. Which brings me to management. To start from the top down, and to namecheck King Michael of All The Southern Hemisphere Bolton Fans for a third time, you are right in your repeated assertions that PG's position has surely been rendered untenable by an almost unbroken series of woeful decisions (even Fred The Shred finally fell on his sword). OC, nice bloke, god-fearing teetotaller, Whites legend and all that, turned out to be a disaster. Megson ditto. Little Sam ditto. I am sure DF is a decent bloke too (for all I know he could be a god-fearing son of the kirk too and live on porridge alone) but if we were going to go into the post-OC era with untried management why not stick with the Phillips/Lee/Darby axis who actually showed signs of serious promise and who had a deep understanding of our club and some experience? DF looks like a real knee-jerk reaction from PG. We all wanted McCarthy for plain-as-the-nose-on-your-face reasons and he has proved us right at Ipswich. If we could see it, why could PG not when he is paid highly to do so? DF is young in age and young in management experience - he may go on to be the next SAF, who knows? He may lead us to Champions League glory in a few years but only if we change our name to Melchester Rovers I suspect. However, here in January 2013 I see a club with a large debt (albeit owed to one of the many Davies' associated to the club rather than to banks or HMRC). I see a club relegated from the Promised Land at possibly the worst moment in revenue terms and now staring at a near certain non-immediate return. I see that "corporate attitude" in terms of near-permanent damage limitation and a resultant "small thinking". PG may also be a decent god-fearing bloke but I would trust Captain Pugwash to steer the good ship HMS Wanderers better with just a sextant and some stars rather than OptaSports and a team of scientists, psychologists, physios, nutritionists and maybe some druids and rune-casters thrown in. This nervousness and focus on survival rather than achievement I believe has translated on to the pitch in the past and still does today. DF had a right good tinker with line-up from the start, understandably wanting to take a look at the whole playing staff in game situations. He should now know his best starting XI for any given oppo if he was worth his salt and his best set of plans for any given game. These should be adaptable and flexible within certain parameters. BUT...it has been said before that succesful teams set up to be proactive and make the oppo play them and their system rather than the other way round. DF appears to be setting us up each time to not lose rather than to win. I think we all would like to see a Bolton team set up to go out and give the oppo a good tonking with our best XI on the pitch and a range of options both on the bench and in terms of game plan; but all of it positive rather than reactive. We have the players. What we need is a management drive to implement it. We are nearer the bottom than the top but a series ofwinscan change that rapidly in this division.

And talking of grist...I forgot Matt Mills too!

I assume you had no books to mark up today Fred - nice thoughtful piece, gracias.

I fear however that mike could be right and the over cautious approach will see us fall just short come may.

I have not seen any statement issued or made by Gartside since he signed Freedman. He was active in keeping fans aware of his concerns while Coyle weaved his damage at the start of this season, to the point of publicly confirming the absolute priority of gaining promotion this season. His recent silence is contradictory given Freedmans record is as bad if not worse than Coyles, made all the worse by the fact the results achieved under Philip & Lee where actually twice as good as those from the new guy brought in to replace them. Our chairman takes £500,000 a year from the club, I therefore feel the loyal supporters who pay their money every week are rightly entitled to explanations from the chairman given the clubs priorities have not been met and why his selected manager has failed to produce the goods - deja vu once more.

I agree pedro stats etc. would be nice hence I rated the players on the last forum. I have offered our new ed. some assistance but have heard nothing. The offer still stands though.

I think it was close between him and Pratley. Pratley harried over the whole pitch for the whole match, for me Pratley gets it. He has looked good the last few weeks.

Thanks Mike, We have signed Jan Gregus a 21 year old slovakian international defender on 12 month loan leading to a permanent if it works out. DF says it is one for next season but the player seems to think otherwise and is hungry for first team time which is good. I have long thought Pratley could come good but the same problem seems to keep recurring at the reebok- no patience leading to apprehension on the players part and then poor form. I'm glad he is now showing us how good he is and hope unlike his last mom performance he doesn't now get dropped for the next game

I have to say I didn't hear the abuse on Saturday. Maybe where I sit in the west stand everyone was asleep! To be fair I think the whole team were poor for the first 15 minutes, I think they were showing Everton too much respect then realised they could mix it with them and duly did. I'm afraid the never say die attitude of old will never be seen as long as we have a team made up from the four corners of the globe. I don't mean that as a criticism its just the way things are now. There are no teams in the higher leagues anywhere who field a team of local or home grown players. As a result there is little passion on display, the exception to that being the top players at the top clubs and that's why they are just that! For the rest of us we will get the peaks and troughs, this is a trough the european years were a peak. Did anyone really think we could maintain it? Other than the top 3/4 teams in the premier league who does. Look at Liverpool/Spurs big clubs with big support but still peaks and troughs.

I agree 100% mike with what you say. I think the team should go into the next game full of confidence as they were really good on Saturday but a win is a must. My team would be Lonergan ricketts knight ream mears lee pratley vela alonso(yes on the wing) sordell and c. davies. Bench bogdan eagles holden k.davies spearing andrew wheater. I doubt as you say DF has the balls to try it but I think we would be too much of a handful for anyone what do you reckon?

A couple of interesting (for a change) comments by the gaffer about team changes: "I think we need to change one or two that have probably been here and done it and move on from there so what we can achieve is looking forward to next week, working hard on the training ground and improving players.” And this: "When I arrived Marcos just needed an opportunity,” he said. “I felt one or two of the fringe players were maybe not that fit but we’ve worked very hard for six weeks, giving them a pre-season really, and now we’re getting the benefit of seeing these players play. (I had heard from a good source that fitness was the reason for Alonso's ommision. Again what an indictment of the incompetence of that useless man Coyle.) “When I get asked the question next week, why am I changing the team again? I’ll tell you the answer – it's because we need to get these players in the team again.”

Just been checking and young Craig seems to be the 7th member of the Davies dynasty to play for Bolton. This surprises me as I thought we had had more. DF get on the case...Whites fans demand a team of Davies' to bamboozle oppo and refs both! And that includes the bench.

For the record, my absolute favourite player of all time (past,present & future) is the amalgam of Pusckas, Maradona, Ronaldo, Messi, Cruyff, Best & Casanova...who else but Sir Francis of Worthington.

With 18 Davies' we'd have a new "all we need is a team of of Nicky Hunt's" song!

Interesting, I would agree about changing some who have been here a while and I think we are seeing by far the best of alonso now. It would be a shame to lose him. Not sure about all the tinkering though. The best managers know there best team quickly and play it.

Guys, you'll get an article tonight. Plus other stuff, check out the BRAND NEW SHINY POLL!

Last comment before I go and plan a series of lessons linking PE/sport with maths to enrich our children's learning...I love this site because, unlike a lot of other clubs on here (and other sites) we all submit reasoned pieces rather than shouty ranting snippets. I really enjoy logging on here and reading what everybody has to say. We all differ in our opinions but we all are passionate about Bolton Wanderers FC. As Chris said in an earlier piece we are all doomed for a variety of reasons to toss and turn with anxiety and/or euphoria in our thrall to that passion. And long may it continue. All the pupils that I teach take the ***** (even Reception kids aged 5) because I talk too much and my ancient dinosaur bitch of a line-manager regularly slags me off for it but I love talk and language. Shoot me. But...if you have not read it get hold of David Conn's "The Beautiful Game?" It is as good a football book as I have ever read. Better even, if that is possible, than Frank's "One Hump Or Two." The chapters on the likes of Bury and Crewe and Notts County and Bradford really reinforce what it's like to be utterly wedded to a club by geography, history or subconscious reality. Just like we all are to By Far The Greatest Team The World Has Ever Seen.

Wow a new poll, thanks ed.

Boooooooo...I was enjoying the Sunderland MoM poll. It was an anchor of solidity in an ever-shifting universe.