We`ve played away today, so of course we didn`t win.
Today`s away loss was by a 2-0 scoreline to Middlesbrough. Apparently, it`ll be 1000 days on Saturday since we last won an away game in the second tier. Now, for a whole season of that, we weren`t in the Championship, so while a good line, it`s not really a fair statistic. What is perfectly fair is that we`ve not won in 37 Championship away games. That`s more than a season and a half`s worth. That would be about 550 days. So yes, our players are probably so travelsick they probably have paper bags in every seat of the club coach, just in case.
So, onto today`s game. Bolton were solid in the first half, but offered next to nothing going forward. Craig Noone came into the side in place of Will Buckley. I wanted to see him get a start, but unfortunately, he had a very quiet day. Gary Madine had the best chance of the half, heading a free kick powerfully, but it was a tricky chance and it went well over the bar. Middlesbrough, in caretaker hands before Tony Pulis takes over at the weekend, were the far better attacking threat and Ben Alnwick pulled out a good save to deny Patrick Bamford. Andy Taylor was injured early in the game, with Antonee Robinson getting the chance to end up playing the majority of it.
Second half goals would decide the game, with Martin Braithwaite`s effort taking a nick off David Wheater to give Boro the lead, then Britt Assombalonga, who has taken a liking to scoring against us, doubled the lead. In the end, Wanderers would fail to register a shot on target all afternoon.
After Saturday`s game, the mood of a lot of fans seems to have gone back down on the morale scale. Yes, we`re not great. Yes, we`re awful away from home. Yes, we`re sometimes very negative. Without wanting to channel my Ken Anderson though, I did do some digging tonight to find a website that does a custom league table. Since the start of October we`ve picked up 17 points from 12 games, that puts us 10th in the entire Championship over that last, near on three months, and a good few points over all the clubs in the bottom six. I`d argue we`ve improved to the point where we have a chance of staying up, back in September we were nowhere near competitive, and now we`ve at least won a few games and rarely lose at home (that shower against Burton aside). What we sorely need is some actual backing in the January transfer market. Will we get it? Hmm.
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