Match Thread Most liked posts in thread: Bolton Wanderers (away) - Carabao (League) Cup

Fair points Broncs. I was at the game, seems to me Evatt may be coming under pressure already from comments I overheard. I think expectation is that promotion is a given and true, they will take time to blend the 17 signings, plus 2 more to come apparently. That said we took them apart first half and could have been 2 or 3 up before we scored. Had a tough 20 minutes after HT then shook ourselves, don't recall ROD making a save of any note.
Evatt has two more home games this week with Crewe tomorrow, they have lost to them already 3-0 in a pre season, then FGR on Saturday who will rough them up.
From our point quite a few positives bearing in mind that of our 18 we had 2 debuts, 4 who had been out on loan most of last season, 1 first year pro and 2 who had signed in Jan and hardly played before lock down. We looked a team with some spirit and a bit of skill who were well drilled. Long may it continue.

 

As someone who has been using the service for years, here's my take on it.
The usual format for my Saturday on ifollow goes thus:

Charge home from wherever my Mrs has dragged me on a Saturday afternoon, knowing there's a game kicking off at 3pm.
Run through the door and turn on the laptop, which of course decides to go through its automatic updates.
Open iFollow and type in my password. Get a "wrong password/email" message and spend five minutes typing in various passwords until I finally remember the one I use.
Check watch, panic that it's two mins til kick off.
Search the page looking for the "Live Match" section.
Can't find it.
Eventually find it it in the "On the Pitch" First Team Fixtures" section.
Click on "Match Centre" and nervously wait for it to remember my details (I have now bought a season pass, as having to go through all the stress of putting card numbers, remembering which card I use, and trying to decipher the faded CVC number on the back was just too much for me).
One minute til kick off.
Huge wave of relief that the game comes up on the laptop (and marvel at modern technology that you can actually watch a live game of football - BRADFORD CITY! - on a computer.
Turn on TV in order to cast the game direct to it.
Press the "cast" button on the laptop.
TV/Laptop decides that there are "no devices".
Game kicks off.
Reset TV so that it can maybe find my laptop. TV/Android takes ages to reboot.
Try and cast again, this time with success, but no sound.
Stop casting and decide to watch game on laptop.
Decide to give one more chance to cast to TV.
This time it works perfectly.
Phone informs me that City are already one nil down.
Realise that iFollow is about three mins behind actual game.
Turn off notifications on phone.
Remember that there's a beer in the fridge that I was meant to get before kick off.
Go get beer from fridge and return to watch the goal that the oppo scored.
Kids come in and ask if they can watch Youtube on the main telly. I say no I'm using it, they ask if they can borrow my laptop, I say no I am using it. I say why don't you sit and watch City play instead of watching some guy play Fortnite, they laugh and disappear off to their bedrooms.
Sit and watch the game, making frequents visits to the fridge, until after about seventy minutes of the game gone, when its obvious we're not going to win, I start to browse Ebay or look at BBC Sport on the laptop (because you can do this when you're casting), and then visit this site to read the comments on our matchday section.
See GOAL!! from multiple users on our matchday section. Realise again I'm three minutes behind.
Turn off Bantam Talk and try and watch the last ten minutes of the match hoping we'll come back from three nil down.
We don't.
Realise I've now run out of beer and ponder about opening that bottle of wine I've got lined up for this evenings dinner.
Log back onto Bantams Talk and add my comments and opinion about the days game.
Do it all over again next match we've got.

Hope you all enjoy your first iFollow experience

 

Reading the Bolton forum noticed this comment.

Doyle – Just wasn’t provided with the service he needs. Was dropping too deep and too wide when he needs to be in the box. Was painful to watch Baptiste lumping balls up to him at the end. He’s not a target man. Get him in the box and get him some service.

Where have I seen this before?

 

Enjoyed that, and good to see us back on the pitch after so long.

French really impressed me today, hopefully a sign of things to come. Other mentions for Watt, Staunton and Novak who I thought have very good games. Everyone else was sold as well and played their part.

Bolton has plenty of the ball, but about 80% of their possession was in the first two thirds of the pitch. They reminded me of England passing it round the back, keeping the ball for the sake of it. Soft goal to concede other than they offered little.

Staunton played very well, naive for their goal but he’s a young lad, they’ll make mistakes and it was probably the biggest game of his career to date. Watt complimented Cooke well allowing him to get forward and we looked more direct in CM instead of just slow passing like we often did with Reeves, Akpan etc.

Early days, can’t get carried away but great to see our team win again.

 

Not like us to look completely incompetent.

 

KEEP POLITICS OUT OF FOOTBALL!

 

Just one more comment - so pleased for Stuart tonight He has kept an upbeat demeanour throughout the pre season, and lets be honest not many of us have felt that way! Todays win should be nothing more than a stepping stone to what is required in the weeks and months to come (and I hope we will be pushing bloody hard to get the additions in quickly) but enjoy a beer tonight Mac

 

all this talk of a group of young lads doing well makes me nostalgic for the McCall, Abbott, Hendrie, Singleton group who I suppose most would have been underwhelmed by when they started out. It these kids can kick on, well, I'll leave it there but there's just something neat about having some young uns to take our minds off some off the journeymen dross we have had recently.

 

Saturday, v Bolton

 

Very enthusiastic post match interview from McCall.

He really seems to rate Staunton and French. Let's hope he manages them well and they thrive under him.

 

It will be a reall bonus if the young players continue to impress as it sounds like they did today

 

The important thing is we are creating chances and getting bodies into the box to capitalise on them. Keep doing that and law of averages says some of them are going to go in!

 

Disagree at this stage, the fitness and development of the players is more important. With a heavy schedule guaranteed each member of the squad is going to get game time and this is a perfect opportunity to get proper game time under the belt. The short turn around at this time of the season is not worth risking players who are not yet fully upto speed and this is the trophy that has the least importance to the club.

 

Some thoughts:

Back three looked fairly solid. Grew into the game and in confidence with the ball at their feet which is vital for the way we want to play. Paudie back to his best, Doyle didn't have a sniff. Staunton was good aside from the goal which I thought was more his fault than AOC.

French did well enough, still need a natural RWB though.

Cooke and Watt excellent, they complement each other really well. Clarke had a good game too.

Guthrie and Novak worked hard but have no mobility whatsoever. A pacey forward could've seen us score a few more with how high the bolton line was. Needed asap.

Two goals we scored were really well crafted and finished.

Probably the only negative was donaldson when he came on - he was dreadful. Typified by falling over himself in the corner and giving the ball away in stoppage time. Hopefully makes the striker search more urgent.

Overall, good win and performance.

 

But what would you have posted if we had been beaten? You would have got carried away with all the usual guff you come out with.

 

I do wish Anthony O'Connor would stop yelling abuse at younger players for something that is not their fault. It isn't very professional or productive.

 

Given the fractured and unusual nature of pre-season, I think he HAS to make changes, freshen things up and not overload players at the start of the season. The EFL cup is a nonsense. I’d actually quite like to see the likes of Scales come in, lets see what might be able to offer.

 

I consider myself anti racist, and I have supported anti racist initiatives all my adult life. I will not support a Marxist organisation like BLM. I shall be writing to the club about this.

 

Despite many fans criticising his return, he is definitely an upgrade on the player he has effectively replaced, Shay McCartan