BOLTON v Wycombe..match thread

Not only did Sads score rioch but he was also rated as 3rd best performer in their fans poll and you can just bet he’ll be doing his best to put one over on us and like you I wouldn’t be surprised if he did. To be fair though with the right side we should still be much too good for Wycombe but my fear is will it be the right side? It certainly wasn’t on Saturday with a totally rookie, disjointed defence. Firstly I wouldn’t be starting any of Taylor, Ramsey or Ashworth simply because we don’t need to now the majority of our regulars are back other than at LWB where surely Ogbeta must start. JDC has to be RWB and the back three should be Jones Toal and Iredale. What a difference Jack made when he came on and I honestly don’t understand his critics.

In midfield without George do we start Paris, Morley or CMG? Frankly any should be good enough to cover for George but I think I’d go for Paris. Up front we surely can’t start with Dion and Vic again so on the basis that you can’t leave out your top goalscorer I’d partner Dion with Collins but whilst can understand a case for Carlos and Collins or Carlos and Dion even, I don’t expect CMG to start. Evatt’s not known for bold decisions, stubborn ones maybe but not bold so it would not surprise me a bit if he still kept Dion and Victor up top. Whoever he starts the bench is going to be interesting because they can’t all be included. In fact he’s lucky we have no sub keeper because that would make his choices even harder. I’m glad I’m not picking. 🫣

I totally agree that we should be delivering more at the moment.

Looking at the squad, it looks really strong.

Whites63 makes a good point about how do we keep all 25+ players happy and I think that is one of two problem areas.



Firstly, the manager seems to be obsessed with using all his players. I accept in a week or two when the Tuesday/Saturday games may have drained players but at the moment please play your best players.

We play a wing back system and suddenly he is messing about with those positions. I know that parent clubs wish (expect?) their loan players to be on the pitch every game but at the moment it is detrimental to us. Could anyone justify Ramsay’s position ahead of Dacres-Cogley on Saturday? Apart from one run by him, we were devoid of any attacking down the right until the half time changes when Jones made numerous runs. This is not particularly a go at Ramsay but the wing backs are fundamental to our shape and Saturday was awful. I slightly also agree that Ashworth, despite his 2 goals, is not a wing back.

We are also playing a young inexperienced lad at centre half in Taylor. Is this another "loan agreement” playing? When he went off injured (for the second successive match!), we improved considerably in defence with Jones, Toal and Iredale as the back 3.

So my comment on this is, don’t unnecessarily mess the team around for the sake of playing the loan players.



My second point on recent poor performances relates to the front two.

The manager seems to be sticking to his stubborn belief that Charles and Adeboyejo is the combination for us. They had a good spell earlier in the season but recently it has been so poor. Neither of them can hold the ball up. Charles compensates for this by endless running/harrying but, for me, Adeboyejo does little. What this results in is the ball immediately coming back at us and the midfield having no chance to join in the attack because the ball is lost so quickly.

Bodvarsson has the skill to hold the ball and bring other players in and we spent considerable money on last year’s League 1 Player of the Year so we have got to use them.



As I said, we have the basis for a very good side but play to our strengths, don’t keep messing the side around and get the strikers performing.



Easy isn’t it?

Ok so we’ve now got 25 players when all fit but only 11 can start and I would think at least 4 of those are certs, Rico, Jones, Dion, Baxter. 7 on the bench makes 18 on a match day of which only a max of 5 can play, making 16. That means 9 won’t play. Unless Evatt is planning to chop and change that 16 regularly some of those players will miss out regularly. Not playing the likes of Ashworth, Taylor and Ramsey is probably going to upset not just the players but also their clubs who’ve sent them here for development and might not be inclined to provide future loans if they’re not played. If Evatt does play them how does that sit with Forester and JDC on one side and Ogbeta, Iredale and Williams on the other and more critically either Rico or Eoin Toal in the middle for Taylor to play. I’m not trying to find problems here but it really does concern me that just when we need everyone pulling together on the run in we could have some disaffection in the squad. It could also colour the make up of the team Evatt does select affecting the teams performance if those players selected don’t perform as was the case on Saturday. I’m worried I don’t mind admitting.

Yet again, another must win match.

Our rivals all have winnable games – hopefully one or two will slip up – so we need to get the 3 points after Saturday’s iffy performance.

I hope the manager reverts to a proper side – don’t play the loan players just to keep other clubs happy.

I would go Coleman, Jones, Toal and Iredale at the back with Dacres-Cogley and Ogbeta as wing backs.

On the assumption that Thomason’s appeal fails, I would have Sheehan, Dempsey (who had a totally average day on Saturday so owes us one) and Maghoma in midfield with Charles and Collins upfront.

How far that deviates from the manager’s thoughts, I really don’t know anymore.



It will be a hard game but we need to be positive and attack. If you look at the starts we made against Derby, Fleetwood and Leyton Orient at home, they are the sort of pressured attacking that we need to get back into the team.

It will be hard work but I go for a 2-0 win.

I’m probably staying the obvious here

Last time we faced WW (4-2 to us) they had just drawn 2-2 with Peterborough, is it coincidental that we face them again after they’ve just played the Posh or is that how the fixtures work?? (thick me😬)

Any road, they managed a 2-2 draw with Posh (A) the previous time with just 39% possession

If you look back at their games, whenever they come up against a top 8 side, their possession stats are consistently around the 39% mark. Is this a Bloomfield tactic?

They beat BR 3-2 with 34%, beat Cheltenham away 3-1 (40%) but to only have the ball for 32% of the 99 minutes against a much fancied Peterborough and do them 5-2!!!
We’ve definitely got out work cut out tonight

A morale sapping 1-1 I fear

I certainly think the mood is on a tightrope at the moment and if Evatt picks the right team and we lose it will be one thing but if he’s stubborn and picks a team like Saturday I think things will turn very quickly. We need two wins this week no excuses and that means picking experienced players not young newbies. What would make it even worse? Sads having a blinder and scoring the winning goal!! 😟