Bolton vs Bradford ..Match thread

Penalty saved that should give Crellin a lot of confidence COYWM

Saw the whole jittery second half on the EFL app on my phone. Went to pieces after best first half of the year. Held on but Bradford must be kicking themselves. Still 50/50 on Crellin - great pen save and one good leap and catch from cross or corner but very nervy and lots of bad decisions in coming out and completely missing the ball. 3 points main thing though - well done lads.

here's the goal... Sarce with the initial effort hitting the bar

Denied the chance to say anything about the first half save that in buffered glimpses and via hearsay we had some pretty possession and scored a goal, so will comment on the second.

Absolute torture to watch but we hung on for a point thanks to a lot of excellent work by Delaney and it has to be said Baptiste and, of course, after all the weekend trauma, Crellin. One good catch and a good enough penalty save well supported by defenders (but sssh he was still pretty terrifying with an air kick, some giant slices of luck, some flaky attempts to punch and comfortably bested aerially once. Still the press will think he was upstanding.

Fitness levels were quite worrying. The fittest appeared to be Brockbank and more than once he ran back to save danger or galloped up to create a threat. Delfouneso had a pretty poor half, preferring to cross wildly from just outside the goalbox ahead of an open goal and conceding the aforementioned penalty. But saying that he wasn't any worse than Mascoll's cameo of dreadfulness whee he struggled to get forward, should have conceded a penalty and floundered repeatedly as men strolled past him.

Subs were odd. Brockbank and Tutte had looked the pick of the players to me and although Comley did Ok, there was Mascoll.

In all this I do like Kioso-- what a capture he looks.

OK let's leave worst till last. Crawford had a horrible half, conceding possession at will, passing and crossing to no effect, feeble shooting and once when he couldn't miss shooting wide. His free kick was typically wide. Surely Sarcevic would be a better bet on some of these free kicks.. Darcy was afforded only five minutes but we saw more commonsense from him than from Crawford in the preceding 45. Admittedly Crawford did some occasional off the ball defending and kept going some of the time quite well, at others he visibly gasped and let men go. He seems to exist to disappoint. Is it temporary or chronic. I don't know. Maybe he had a good first half?

Marks out of 5 for that half. Maybe someone else can add the rest if Ifollow hit me harder than you?

Crellin 2 Baptiste 4 Santos 3 Delaney 5  Tutte 4 Brockbank 4 Crawford 1 Kioso 4 Sarcevic 3 Gnahoua 3 Delfouneso 1  Mascoll 0  Compley 2 Darcy 2

On the evidence of that half a very lucky win and very much second best  but a win nevertheless and at least we got a lead to protect. The first half sounded better until fitness frailties kicked in.

got my win prediction right. not the exact 2-1 i'd said.
(thinks) must start prediction league one of these days

40% possession. reminiscent of the Harrogate win.... we can't seem to get the sideways & backwards possession
and ball retention going just when we really need it. we do it well when we're aiming to score & don't need it.

maybe to be expected...just getting over that mental hurdle of the first home win.
on to Orient next. seems winnable. would be reasonably happy with a point to keep the momentum going.

they are in 13th place. drew tonight 1-1. only had 1 shot on target. mind you , our 3 was a bit on the low side.
should have been more but for wayward shooting from Crawford. the last one was way harder to get it off target
than on. shooting as if he's cross-eyed...all shots going wide the same way !
I keep saying it, but maybe Isgrove and Miller will be available for the next game. need more attacking options
from the bench. still barmy why we can't stick a reserve G/K on the bench...be it Alexander or Gilks.

Iles said he had asked at the press conference, who was the outfield player he had in mind to use seeing he doesn't name a sub.
apparently IE avoided the question.

I was lucky enough to see all the match except for a 5 min spell just before half time.
First 20 mins they were unstoppable, neat accurate passing, good movement all round, high pressing, plenty of shots. A joy to watch.
After the goal, it went a bit pear shaped, they lost momentum, stopped pressing and sat back a little.
So as they say a game of two halves.
They all did their bit, all made mistakes, but cannot doubt the effort.
So generally for me 7s all round, except Crawford, who missed the target at least 4 times, the last one a sitter (would have made the game safe) and Crellin, no need to say why, both 6s.
Manager a 7, must have told Delfonsou to pass more, as he was shooting in site in the first half but not in the second. Didn't get them back up to anywhere near the tempo of the first half, and his substitutions were once again a mystery to me.
Squeeky bum, but 3 points what more can I say.