Nottingham Forest 1 - Bolton Wanderers 1

Cheer up mike, it could be worse i'm just not sure how.

Pedro - your smiling banter in the face of adversity is great to see and Boltongav - your compassion would put mother teressa to shame, I worry when those around me feel the decisions/ attitudes of those in charge of the club are both acceptable and understandable when the facts tell another story. Far to many supporters are passing off our demise as an inevitable fall from grace, which is the same as excusing failure, such an attitude encourages more failure leading to perpetual decline. Last season more than ever highlighted the critical importance of getting a result by any means ( we were relegated by ONE point !) it further exposed the damaging impact whenever our manager claimed our performance was acceptable when we where not winning - how can the players be expected to fight for victory when they know the manager will excuse defeat. Winning is everything and nothing else other than a winning mentality forged from steel is acceptable. Freedman is guilty of the same, by excusing the teams failure he is really attempting to excuse his own failure, Coyle did it for 2 years and everyone swallowed his bile, are we to sit back and watch the same charade unfold before us once again - it certainly looks like it. Dont be fooled by anything other than our results as influenced by our managers impact on the team, the facts show Freedman is no better than Coyle, in fact worse, regardless of what others may choose to say to the contrary. I cannot remember last when we had a manager with the honest guts to tell the press, that performance was totally unacceptable and will not happen again, heads will roll watch this space.

Pedro - Bogdan has always been 3rd rate, the tactical brilliance of Gartside & Coyle saw fit to sell El Habsi to Wigan for £4 million, which in turn kept Wigan in the premiership, while giving Bogdan the 1st team gloves led to our relegation at a cost of £50 million due to hit £120 million - you could not make this ineptitude up if you tried, literally everything decided upon in the last 2 plus years has been an unmittigated disaster, yet the man still draws his £500,000 salary, at least Dick Turpin had the decency to wear a mask on his face.

*isn't spectacular nor is it terrible

Bowton - I am pleased you share my view on El Habsi, who was battling Juski for the jersey when we sold him, certainly our best goalie. It was undefendable to let him go to Wigan, the home game last season against Wigan we lost - El Habsi won it for them with some fabulous saves - 2 points lost and fate later relegates us by 1 point - how ironic and how that decision came back to bite our club with the terrible repercussions thereafter, yet everyone simply brushes it under the carpet as if there is no accountability and thats the trouble at our club, no one stands up to take the blame, not the chairman, the manager, or the players. The last time Gartside opened his mouth was 5 months back when he sacked Coyle " promotion must happen this season our financial security depends on it " we now hover just above the relegation spots and he is nowhere to be seen - he reminds me of the captain of the ship that sank in the mediteranian ( elcardia ? ) he ran off leaving the passengers to their fate. As for Freedman I simply question the validity of a manager who praises team performance when it is actually poor and not acceptable, there is no place for excuses if you want to improve and succeed on the pitch - that is my point. Alex Ferguson tells it how it is and so do the best club managers, Freedman has now presided over something like 15 games won 3, drawn 6, lost 6, that is poor in anyones eyes, there has been no improvement - I truly wish things were different but they aren't

i'm pretty sure gartside has spoken every week in the matchday program?

But remember Bowton, we were informed on signing Freedman (by a Palace fan) that he was threatened with the sack if he didn't start playing attacking football, after he had lost the first 3 games playing too defensive. Like I said at the time, we should have threatened him with the sack as soon as he put pen to paper....

its frustrating when the press say. Holden, Medo, Wheater, etc are ready for 1st team action but don't get selected, either we have bad information or DF prefers staying loyal to the current 11 who keep on failing. Tomorrows game will be a good test as Derby have improved since they played here early on. I cannot see how SKD warrants more chances DF must surely throw a new line up on from the start, others have suggested C.Davies & Sordell or N'Gog - an attack with more pace and Holden with Meto in midfield - I am all for a good shake up, it is long overdue as is a damn good performance with goals and 3 points.

mike couldn't agree more, opinions are great and it's great to have them on vital, and i've been a daily viewer for the last three years or more and it seems there are more comments than ever, unfortunately it seems at the cost of our league positions. never the less i enjoy reading them even though some comments i just can't comprehend why they have been said. i think it is easy to get rattled and be angry everyday at bolton you have nothing to loose when you comment on issues when we loose you (at this point mike, you is everyone in general i guess) feel a sense of righteousness, when we win...so what we have won a bloody game, but when will pessimists ever be happy? my father is one, it never seems like he will be evr happy unless bolton are in the prem winning things. i love football, and bolton but not at the expense of my sanity and it's very easy to let it ruin your week. the semi final ruined a good four months for me. (being a bolton fan should come with a health warning at birth or a security plan!) I dont believe for a second about him being sacked. their is no proof at all, no manager is determined after three games after he had stopped them being relegated. i feel there is allot of contradiction happens at times on this site with comments. yeah of course it's the players who kick the ball on the pitch but when i was reading your comments last year when you were crying for coyle to get the sack because he didn't have a clue (even though horrific injuries from our main players cut the quality of the squad hugely and one player actually died for a brief moment.) now that dougie has built up a truly talented squad over at palace, he ( the manager, the person who doesn't kick the ball.) has nothing to do with their success considering he has been their for 20 years as a player, youth coach and manager bringing through and nurturing the squad they have at the moment. on the issue of papers printing who s fit or not, i think it's the interpretation of words more than anything, when they say are player is fit that could mean that they have recovered from their injury instead of us, me included thinking that they could do a full 98 minutes. and this notion of REAL FOOTBALL is interesting coyle played better free flowing attacking football and it got us relegated. you could swap tens of matches where we got beat on a counter where we had no structure at the back or deep in the middle for a draw, we had a total of two draws i think, the year we went down. yet there was so much moaning that the team was frail...there is no point discussing the ins and out of this question, we would all love to see bolton play like swansea but i would sooner see us in the prem if i'm honest, and the results help if you don't get beat which dougie is doing just that at the moment. i hope this is easy to read it's quite difficult to go back and check mistakes on a comment this big.

Just give the guy some patience, if this time next year were in this position, well i will be joining you and you can all say i TOLD YOU SO!!! and we can all be miserable together.