We lost to Burton Albion and MK Dons in one week. How would that have felt three years ago?
Being a Bolton fan, football snobbery has always been just a couple of Andy O`Brien lofted balls towards SKD away. In recent years we`ve tried to tidy up our act a bit, with all of the managers post-Megson, opting for more attractive passing football. I`m of the opinion that I`d rather play with the ball on the ground but if we`ve got a winning formula in hoofing it- why change?
However, that`s not the type of football snobbery I want to talk about today.
What I`m talking about is the fact that we lost to Burton Albion last Tuesday, and MK Dons this Tuesday. Sure, gone are the days where we`ll be signing Youri Djourkaeff, Jay-Jay Okocha and Fernando Hierro. We`re even past the stage where we can buy proper Championship players and we`re having to resort to signing hidden gems and rejects.
However, at least I knew who the likes of Gary Madine, Ben Amos and Wellington Silva are.
This is the Burton Albion team we lost against:
Matthews
Edwards
Mousinho
O’Connor
McCrory
Akins (Naylor – 62′ )
Reilly
Butcher
Binnom-Williams
Thiele (Joachim – 86′ )
Palmer (Cansdell-Sherriff – 92′ )
The only one I can really say I know anything about is Reilly, and that`s because he was at Birmingham City and failed to make the grade there. Nothing against Birmingham, but if you can`t cut it alongside 78 year old Paul Robinson, you`d think you wouldn`t beat a Championship side.
Okay, let`s look one of them up randomly? How about McCrory? Okay, so his career has seen him play for Plymouth, Port Vale, Grimsby and Dag & Red.
Burton Albion are definitely a team on the up and look like they`re doing well under Jimmy Floy Hasselbaink but really? Losing at home to them?
Okay, let`s look at the MK Dons side we lost to:
Martin
Spence
McFadzean
Kay
Lewington
Carruthers
Potter
Baker
Benavente (Powell – 56′ )
Bowditch (Upson – 82′ )
Church (Gallagher – 68′ )
Who`s Martin? Who`s Spence? I`ve heard of McFadzean. Who`s Kay? Who`s Lewington?? The only big name on this teamsheet would be Matthew Upson- former England veteran who`s probably still good enough to do a job at this level in all fairness.
The point I`m making is that we still have a lot of big names who are recognised at a high-ish level. However, their reputation and regard among football is not going to win us football matches. Sure, we have an ex-England international up front, an ex Manchester United ‘keeper, an ex-Real Madrid centre half. So?
If our players continue to waste chances and lose us games, this team will sink quickly and their names will too.
All of a sudden there will be someone called Binnom-Williams or Bowditch playing at a higher level than them because they`re hungry to prove themselves.
As I said earlier, we have a manager who beat Barcelona. He’s now lost to Burton Albion.