Phil Parkinson won’t be leaving Bolton Wanderers in the next few days, but if he did then there was a change last night which could have gone to be referred to as simply “The Substitution.”
Luca Connell had been the best player on the park last night. He sprayed the ball about like had been playing for 17 years, as opposed to being the age of 17. But then he came off, which went down as well as a Ken Anderson statement on the official website, before minutes later Reading converted a dubious penalty courtesy of Nelson Oliveira.
In the end Jack Hobbs managed to score his first goal for the club with a header deep into injury time, but last night’s game was a must win that was not won.
Back to The Substitution then. Phil Parkinson made an impassioned defence of his move in the post-match press conference, fairly pointing out that he didn’t want to a risk a younger. You can’t expect fans to be sports science experts, but it is true that a young age, you do have to manage the senior minutes your players get. Under-18s football isn’t the same, even if the game still lasts 90 minutes.
I just knew he was going to come off. I just knew there would be that sort of reaction. The only surprise is that Parkinson himself didn’t expect that reaction. In any case, when he was the best player on the field, maybe he should have carried on. He can be rested as necessary another day.
Anyway, we’re probably down. Only three and a bit months to go…