Reflections on Wigan

Local derbies are always difficult games and last Saturday’s match against Wigan was no exception.

It was a hard battle all the way through. Wigan made it very difficult for Bolton to play and when the opportunity came, they took their goal well.

However, by the end of the first half, Bolton should have been ahead by two or three. In that initial 45 mionutes, the only quality was coming from the men in white, with Diouf, in particular, shining.

After only a few minutes, Diouf provided Anelka with the sort of chane he’s been looking for. A more confident Anelka would have slid it past Kirkland. Instead, he blazed it high over the bar.

Diouf had a lovely run in from the left but skied his shot. Speed and Anelka had long range efforts but the ball kept going over the bar.

At the other end, Wigan launched a few balls towards Camara but Meiete and Faye were able to deal with it.There was a little danger from Wigan as the half moved to a close but not much.

Then, with the half coming to an end, Stelios was fed through, rounded the keeper and scored, only for the linesman to flag for offside. It was a poor decision. The referee, Mark Clattenberg, apologised after the game. Thanks, Mark!

In the second half, Bolton failed to put together the same quality that they had in the first. Pederson’s distribution got steadily worse and poor Anelka was left out of the game.

It was still a surprise when Wigan scored. Kilbane squared the ball to McCullogh who hit the ball beyond Jussi in the Bolton goal. A couple of minutes later, the Big Finn got down well to parry the ball away.

Bolton huffed and puffed but no equaliser came. Wigan are now firmly established as our bigey side.

The good news from the weekend is that we’ve lost two matches and we’re still third. A good win against Sheffiled United on Saturday should get us back on track.