Bolton’s winless run continued this afternoon with a 1-0 defeat at Portsmouth.
There was very much a touch of groundhog day around it – arguably Bolton were the better side in the first half, with Dapo Afolayan having a couple of chances, Nathan Delfouneso, back into the starting eleven, looking reasonably lively, then just before the break Declan John put an effort in the side netting.
Like when we went down to Fratton Park two seasons ago – it looked as though it was a match we could have got something out of, but like on so many occasions this season, we didn’t take advantage of the chances we had, only one of our shots was actually on target all afternoon. The goal was also unfortunate too, with John Marquis managing to flick it over Joel Dixon – it actually took a moment for the fans in the home end to work out it was a goal. But Portsmouth stepped up in the second half where we didn’t. That’s not to say we nearly didn’t get something out of it – Eoin Doyle headed against the bar late on, had that goal gone in his confidence would have been boosted immensely.
But we’re now in a situation where we have a point from our last five matches. The Crewe match in a fortnight suddenly has become quite big. Win that and we sort of settle in mid-table. Many people want promotion but mid-table isn’t a bad place to be this season. But lose that, and Crewe have lost their last four matches, and we get dragged into the bottom third of the table. Yes, it’s only November, this is the time of the season where usually, and we know from last season things can be rectified. but generally about now is when the table starts to take shape.
It’s not been an awful season – far from it in fact,
