Blackburn v Bolton...Match Thread

Beat Millwall?

Sorry AndyL, but we need to be at least 3-0 up going into additional time added on at the end of the match to at least get a draw these days....

Shambolic

Not sure of the wisdom in leaving Bannan out. Coke is a stronger player, as evinced by one crunching tackle in particular... he showed lots of energy and over all had a decent debut. Bannan might just have complemented Coke better than Danns tonight, who was on his usual booking for much of the 2nd half, but was also his usual tireless self. Bannan would, of course,have had to be included at the expense of A.N.Other loanee. McCarthy was no nonsense, hardly missed a header, and acquitted himself well, but neither he nor any other of the massed ranks in the area for the 94th minute corner were anywhere near Rhodes when it really mattered. I'm not sure that C Davies' long lay off can excuse his lack of composure when he had the opportunity to put us ahead, he should have scored, no question. Amos did his bit, as has become the norm, and the performance as a whole was just about deserving of a draw , other than the defending of that corner. The defence coped pretty well for 93 minutes, Vela and Ream both played well, Mills ok but will talk himself into a sending off if he's not careful. We competed in midfield despite the all too familiar loss of possession, especially from Feeney and Jancko on the flanks, although they both showed some perseverance, the odd threat and decent cross. LeFondre showed some excellent touches, almost squeezing the ball past Steele (their MOTM) from a good Moxey cross, Heskey was his usual handful , some good lay-offs, but no goal threat. Moxey and Ream linked up well after the former's introduction, Davies added some pace and nuisance value, but his miss proved so costly. A decent away performance then, for 93 minutes, but yet another late let-down! An interesting point from Andy L re: Lonergan, or indeed the fit again Bogdan..Bannan was unlucky to be excluded tonight, and I would like to see him in midfield on Saturday. My definite outfield loanees would be Bannan, McCarthy, and Le Fondre, and Coke did his cause no harm tonight. It will be interesting to see N L's selection. I wouldn't describe the performance as a whole as shambolic, or absolute rubbish, but certainly whatever the merits of the team's efforts tonight the failure to see the game out is a damning indictment of the collective inability to defend at the death.

Picture says it all, last minute too. The bad thing is even if Lennon does the analysis and pinpoints the issues we've so little options its just a case of try not to do that again. I'm not a big Mills fan, I don't rate Dervite either and think Ream isn't a great centre back. Wheater is my preferred option but lacks pace. Its not looking great. Good centre backs have been very hard to find for us.

Sam probably got it right when he brought in some of the old guard Colin Hendry, etc to do the basics right. I can't think of anyone out there like that at the moment.

www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/wanderers/11849422.PLAYER_RATINGS__Blackburn_Rovers_1_Bolton_Wanderers_0/

how long did Neil Bonnar take to do the marks in this :

pathetic !!! highest mark 7 lowest mark 6. ALF on 6. well not from what Mcginlay was saying on gmr. one of our better players.

all of m/f 4 seemed quiet..hardly heard any of their names. Mccarthy seems to be most peoples MOM in the poll they are running..quite rightly too.

Hindsight is a great thing but this season is a write off and i'm wondering whether or not we should have cashed in on Chung Lee? At the time, with the injury he picked up I was ok with moving him on and bringing in a few new faces. Now I think i'm wrong and it would have been better to let him go on a free at the end. He may not have changed in terms of play offs but when we were playing well and winning games Lee was crucial.

The point is strengthened as well by the little money we got for him, reports £500,000 and the fact that the players Slavchev, etc haven't added to us at all. We're definitely lacking that flair midfielder who can open up a game.

I'm not even sure he's getting a game at Palace, I would say we could have asked to take him back on loan but we can only play 5 anyway.

You might think that i'm being simplistic and that the fault of the team couldn't have been patched up with one player. We have several injuries to key players but when I look at the teamsheets its definitely missing that va va voom factor that Lee brings.

Oh well, whats done is done. Got to move on.

We were always a mistake away from losing last night, I thought McCarthy looked good considering he's not match fit and interestingly he was one of the few who came over to applaud the Wanderers fans at the end. The rest look gutted and so they should have been!
I just can't see the point of Feeney though, hardly ever gets past the first man with corners, free kicks etc and is very wasteful

I don't think Eddie has the money to spend rftr or maybe isn't prepared to given how much he's supplied so far. I'm sure the FFP restrictions are hampering us too but I have to agree that there must be better available than we've brought in so far. Hopefully NL will clear the decks this summer and with what resources he does have will bring in some quality. I think it has to be centred around youth though and also a couple of proper full backs which we've been missing all season, in fact longer than that. A strong defence would at least be a start, midfield and attack look ok if we get our wounded back and maybe sign ALF permanently.