Time for the Wanderers to push up the table
I`ve used the words of Barry White to emphasize what Bolton Wanderers need to do over the next four or five months. Under Neil Lennon we`ve had some great wins- beating Cardiff 3-0 and Wigan 3-1 particularly stand out. What we`ve also gained under Lennon is a sense of stability. We`ve drawn matches we would have lost- namely, Ipswich and this is a huge part of any team`s surge up the league.
We had a late surge in Dougie`s first season- rising from 20th to 7th. You really, in these situations, need to be picking up points.
However, our promotion campaign is incomparable to those of most teams that go up. Why? Because we had such an awful start to this season and under Dougie Freedman we picked up a mere 5 points from 11 games. Lennon has pretty much quadrupled the point tally of his Scottish predecessor, and he`s done it in style.
Neil Lennon steadied a sinking ship, though there are still many problems with some of our performances- namely that I find our team getting dominated for large spells of play. A solid defence and heroic goalkeeping have, in the most part, meant that we haven`t had to pay the price for this.
Promotion can come down to such tiny margins. Our aim is the playoffs. We came so so so so close under Freedman and the heartbreak we had to endure when we missed out was huge. If we continue the run we`ve been on under Lennon I think there`s a decent chance we`ll make it.
Do we want to cut it close again though? I think the team and management have it in them to step things up another gear and push on. I have confidence that, although it`ll be very tricky, he`ll strengthen well in January and bring in fresh faces that won`t just slot into the team and hide, but will play an active role in pushing the team up the table.
Players are deservedly criticized for playing passive roles and just filling up numbers *cough Liam Trotter* and those brought in this window by Lennon need to have not only the ability, but the confidence to lead the team up into the promotion places.
It will be hard, but if we wanted it easy we would certainly not be supporting Bolton.