Match Thread Bolton Wanderers (away) - Carabao (League) Cup

Well done on the good start. They sounded to play well. I cannot recall hearing O'Donnell having much to do?

The youngsters French and Staunton sounded good. I know it's only one game, but, Watt does appear to be a good signing

 

Enjoy that match, really good. We looked like a team. More work on the defence, but not bad at all.

 

A much better performance and result than I expected. Some signs of encouragement in how we used the ball and we look a more cohesive, well coached side than we did at any point last season. But going into the game I was concerned that we need more quality and pace up front, a better centre back, a ball winner in midfield and a proper right back. All of that still applies. French did well, but there’s no way we should be going into the season without a proper, established right back on the books.


Staunton looks promising. A bit raw but very assured. Watt looks a good addition, we need better thank Guthrie but he doesn’t look quite as bad as he did last season.

All in all, a better showing than I expected, but no real change in terms of where we’d need to strengthen to have any chance of top 7.

And the most comfortable I've ever seen us look playing 3 at the back.

 

Something to build on.Excellent start and a result that is encouraging. See how we go at Donny.

 

Bang on. If we'd have played against them 6/7 games in, I dont think we'd have beaten them.

 

Just the Carabao cup but....beat favourites
to win our league.Doyle didn't score and we
WON away from home.I'll take that as a positive!

 

Impressed by novak....got through a lot of work today

 

They did, really pleased with that performance, hope it transcends in to the league...

 

Was Doyle playing ?.

 

Doesnt (and shouldnt) change anything that still needs to happen but lets just enjoy actually still being in the cup - well done today boys and hopefully it will give them a boost for the bigger challenges ahead

 

O’Donnell didn’t have much to deal with in goal, the whole defence was decent enough, Staunton stood out and was fantastic. Watt was there keeping things ticking over in midfield, Cooke was decent and Clarke excellent. Novak I thought did really well at holding the ball up, making runs and got a goal although his one on one effort was poor. Guthrie was ok but we definitely need pace upfront to compliment Novak’s hold up play.

 

When did they bring Doyle on, never saw him...

 

Thoroughly enjoyed that. It goes without saying that we are nowhere near the finished article yet but there were some solid and impressive performances out there today and with 3 or 4 decent additions, we might just have a chance of a decent season.

 

Losing run halted which is a good sign.
Bolton may be a team of strangers at the moment but City coughed up alot of possession, approx 65%- 35% and i would have thought playing mostly a 5 man midfield should have stopped them more?
Did our wing backs not get forward more to help out Watt/Cooke/third -time Clarke?

 

Really enjoyed that win. I didn't get to that many games last year but that was several levels above anything I watched last year. Bolton weren't terrible either, expect them to be in the top 10 without really challenging the autos, but particularly as that second half wore one we really started to show we were the better team. 2 goals of real quality and some impressive performances in there!

 

Are you forgetting how long it takes us to gel?

Some seasons it takes all 46 league games, and we're still not quite there.

 

in the first half we were too quick to try and get the ball in behind bolton's defensive line; we can only really play that way if we've got some pace to play off the shoulder and pace out wide to get up and support those chasing the channels and the high press - if we don't then the space between forwards and midfielders gets too big and it's too easy to play around.

much better in the second half once we started to retain and look after the ball better through Cooke and Watt. we also looked a lot better when the centre-halves got more confident on the ball and brought it forward more allowing the midfielders to push on and so forth.

all in all a steady 7 across the board. nothing to really complain about. if being over critical; Staunton needs to learn when to go to ground and when to stay on his feet (apart from diving in on their goal he was excellent) and I'd like to see us better on the ball from the off. concentration levels need to improve.

 

We'll be some team when we get these two young Premiership players in .

 

I am very surprised and happy well done boys onwards we go