Bolton Wanderers V S’thorpe United..... match thread

I'd be interested to know why the Referee gave us the penalty. I thought at the time it was for kicking Delfouneso in the face, as he implied/feigned, but he also seems to have hold of Delfouneso's shirt and gives him a little nudge.

Delfouneso was of course quite static when the ball was knocked back. It was difficult to see quite what Delfouneso was trying to do, other than not go into the risk area, and this may be what encouraged the defender to have a kick at a ball Delfouneso should have reached before him. I seriously seriously doubt whether much contact was made with the boot and Delfouneso's face and would cite the twisting dive he offered that led to Dapo's feeble free kick just before

I know I harp on about this but the lack of movement upfront has  a lot to do with Delfouneso when selected and the excessive movement of Doyle compounded by awful holding up play. In stark contrast I thought Jones and John made excellent falnk movement and as a result were often the instigators of impressive switching play in that first half. I saw several examples of what last night I termed Delfouneso's give and stay modus operandi. This compared to Darcy earlier and Thomason, Lee and Sarcevic/Isgrove for goal number two.

 We looked a lot better when Miller was on both times this last week just because he made angles, held the ball and looked for colleagues. Maddison will surely pick him out better than Doyle or Delfouneso.

Unless IFollow is seriously distorting Delfouneso's contribution from real life  I seldom see him on screen. It is frustrating because once or twice each match he makes a stirring run with  the ball and he does make a good final ball a lot of the time. He is also quite canny in terms of back tracking and closing down and diverting opponents, albeit not in a way to risk injury or dirty his shirt or intimidate. He even made one good diversionary decoy run. He makes a contribution in our own penalty area too. But the fact remains that we have more than one player capable of hitting accurate long balls into channels that forwards can run.. but we just don't have anyone to do this, Darcy nothwithstanding. To compound matters we have no aerial presence whatsoever in our forward line- hence the low set piece conversion rate- contrast with Beevers and Wheater but also Madine and Alf in our promotion year. Both had shortocomngs in the channel running department, but at least they had other strengths. 

IF we are to compete seriously and not just fall away again, in my opinion Evatt needs to consider some interventions ahead of problems. This model won't win enough games..

1. If he's anywhere near good enough Jensen must come in for Gilks who to me looks like a fast bowler in need of his sweater

2 He has to break up Delfouneso and Doyle and use both for targeted periods of games and not the whole

3. He has to get a tune out of Darcy or Politic if fit before too long passes

4. He has to find a better way of taking and converting attacking set pieces

The options Evatt has around  much of the rest of what's needed are really quite strong and he is learning and taking more risks, I think......and yes the basic approach to playing football is what personally I want to see and it is showing through