The Lord giveth. But he doesn’t half bloody take away as well.
Afternoon. Well, I did say it. Not like I was trying to attempt fate but that last line from yesterday didn’t half come back and bite me up the backside:
‘Hopefully The Arse will do us a favour tonight, but they will probably roll over just because we are Spurs’ new friends. They’re like that the French.‘
Yeah. Didn’t quite turn out the way we had planned did it. A week ago, Wigan were below us and contemplating a home visit from Stretford before travelling to North London to Champions League chasing Arsenal. A week, and six points, later, aren’t they just sitting pretty, five points above us.
I know that we still have six games to go and, knowing Wigan, they will bob off to Fulham on Saturday and get an absolute spanking, but there was something in their performance last night that made even the most hardended Bolton fan applaud the way they went about it. He said through gritted teeth.
It was the difference between the way Wigan played and the way that Bolton regularly play against the big boys that was most striking. I have constantly said that our survival wouldn’t stand or fall on how we played against the top six. What I never thought would happen would be that our season would stand or fall on the way other teams performed.
You don’t need me to remind you that Owen Coyle’s record against the bigger teams is second to everyone, but something good may have come out of yesterday. First there was the news that on his way home from the London Chest Hospital, Fabrice Muamba wouldn’t have to divert via Cheadle and could go straight to his house. For most of us mortals, a cold and shiver would have us in bed early for a week. Here is a man who has managed to survive actually being dead and little over a month walk out of an East London hospital on the way back to his family.
Whether or not we will ever see him in a blue, white, orange and red shirt again is for the future. Just seeing him stand and smile is enough right now. I’m not usually one for sentimentality (unless it’s the end of Home Alone….don’t ask), but even I had a wet eye when the photo was published. I don’t think there is enough hyberbole to go round but just to say that it’s good to have him back north, especially given the tragic situation with Piermario Morisini over the weekend. It just shows exactly how lucky we are to still have Fab with us.
His release should give the players a gee up as they return to training after their jolly in the sun. And a gee up they will need with the run in now looking like it is any two from three, rather than four, who will be joining Wolves. But it is also Wigan’s performance last night that should give the Bolton players confidence. Wigan have players on a par with us, except maybe their miracle worker of a goalkeeper (who did they sign him from again?) and have a strike force even more goal shy than our own. It was the overall team effort from yesterday, the hassling from front to back, that particularly caught the eye and, whilst The Arse really should have scored more than once, it played a large part in their victories over the past week.
We need to see more of this from our players. Wigan were committed for the full ninety minutes last night, something that the normal starting eleven for Bolton cannot be accused of. If we are to stay up this year, there does need to be more grit amongst the guile. To often they have stood off players, allowing them to run through them and if Hatem Ben Arfa’s ‘wonder’ goal showed us anything, it is that we certainly need to start putting more tackles in.
A bit, I’m afraid to say, like Wigan.
Now, I know you’ll be expecting a fantasy league update, but their site is not updating the table, so you’ll have to wait until tomorrow. Just like you’ll have to wait for the next instalment in Quentin does Dallas.
Sorry, that’s another blog.
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