Match Thread: vs Bolton Wanderers (H)

[Rampant]

Saturday 16th March

vs Bolton Wanderers

Pride Park   KO 1500

 

This match as a song by The Smiths: Some Games Are Bigger Than Others

Opponents Bio: I had the honour of starting the match thread for the reverse fixture so may be repeating some of these nuggets of insignificant trivia. So in the hope that the forums' collective memory is worsening here we go again.

Bolton Wanderers are, like ourselves, proud to be one of the twelve original founder members of the Football League. Not only that, the opening round of fixtures back on 8th September 1888 saw the two clubs meet for the first of 136 encounters (129 league, five FA Cup and two League Cup). Furthermore, Bolton winger Kenny Davenport has the distinction of being the first scorer in English Football League history as he netted after just two minutes of the game. The Rams did come back to win an opening day thriller 6-3 at Pikes Lane, Bolton in front of an estimated crowd of 3,000. 

Bolton can proudly boast that they have spent more seasons in the top flight of the English game than they have outside of it and have seen giants of the game like Jimmy Armfield, Nat Lofthouse and Michael Ricketts sport their colours over the years.

Bolton are commonly known as one of three nicknames; The Whites, due to the colour of their home kit, Wanderers, as it's their name, or The Trotters, chosen by their first owner who made his fortune selling laxatives.

They have former Ram Ian Evatt as manager and also had a run of three successive bosses with Derby links between 1992 and 1999 as they were led by Bruce Rioch, Roy McFarland and then Colin Todd. Players who have represented both clubs include Franny Lee, John McGovern, Jeff Chandler and Andy Todd.

Opponents Dangermen: Chief threat is 13-goal Dion Charles although he is doubtful with a knee injury. Victor Adeboyejo has ten goals but is likely out for the season which leaves Bolton with three principal goal threats; Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, ex-Ram Cameron Jerome and Aaron Collins whose five goals and ten assists make him a man to be wary of in our third. Josh Sheehan also poses a threat from midfield.

Opponents Recent Form: Wanderers will rock up at Pride Park in third place, one position and one point behind ourselves and buoyed by an impressive 5-0 demolition of playoff chasing Oxford on Tuesday night. They are, however, winless in their last four away fixtures since winning 2-1 at Cambridge. Defeats at Blackpool (1-4) and Wigan (0-1) followed that victory and their most recent away games have seen them draw 2-2 at both Barnsley and Exeter. Whilst we're looking for positives, they have conceded at least once in their last eight road games. Their overall away record for the season is decent enough with nine wins, five draws and five defeats.

Derby vs Bolton History: Derby have had by some margin the upper hand in the head-to-heads with Wanderers. In 129 meetings our record stands at W64-D23-L42. One statistic stands out in the meetings on our turf though and it is this:

Bolton have never won at Pride Park.

There, I've said it. 

Since we moved to Pride Park, Bolton have visited us ten times in the league and drew on their third, fourth and fifth visits but went back up the M6 with nil points on the other seven occasions. We are P10: W7-D3-L0 with 24 goals scored and just five conceded when the Trotters come to town. They haven't scored more than once in any game at Pride Park and, alongside two victories by a one-goal margin, we have merrily spanked their chubby Lancashire backsides 4-0 twice, 4-1 twice and 3-0 once. Now if that isn't tempting fate I don't know what is.

Expected Rams XI: Possibly same again do we think? Maybe Smith for Hourihane if the latter is still feeling the affects of Yiadom's brutal tackle in midweek.

My Tuppence Worth: I mentioned it elsewhere but we have winnable looking (I know, I know) games against Blackpool, Orient, Carlisle, Northampton, Wycombe and Cambridge to come in the run-in. If we can do the business in those then a couple of draws in the games against Bolton and Portsmouth will be enough for an automatic place. What I'm suggesting is that given the respective fixture lists of ourselves and Bolton, a draw wouldn't be such a bad result on Saturday. If it's a must win game for either side then, in my opinion, it is more so for Wanderers than it is for us.

Other Fixtures of Note: It's a significant round of matches as apart from second versus third in our match, it's fourth against first at London Road.

Peterborough vs Portsmouth

Barnsley vs Cheltenham

 

COYR

 

[DesertRam]

I have to admit i'm worried here, Bolton's last scoreline suggests they have a ruthless streak that we

don't, We scraped thru against BR with alot of help from the ref. However, if we are all 8/9 we could

pull something off - hoping for a draw, and would take it now!

[Ambitious]

At their very best, I would have Bolton as aesthetically the best team in the league but they do have a soft underbelly which has shown itself constantly this season. I'm intrigued to what the messaging to the players is going to be from our management staff - do we take confidence from the last three games and go toe-to-toe as we've hit our stride OR does Warne ensure we remain solid, robust and look to hit them on the break? Both approaches have merit, but feel that Bolton naturally don't like being on the back foot and so I would be very strong in that we continue to play how we have been the last few games. I do suspect that we will see Forsyth come in for Sibley and the 3-4-3 will resemble a 4-4-2 for the most part, though. 

I honestly don't care how it happens on Saturday, just win. 

[Will Hughes Hair]

49 minutes ago, DesertRam said:

I have to admit i'm worried here, Bolton's last scoreline suggests they have a ruthless streak that we

don't, We scraped thru against BR with alot of help from the ref. However, if we are all 8/9 we could

pull something off - hoping for a draw, and would take it now!

I’m assuming BR stands for Blinking Reading? 😂

[Carl Sagan]

Must not lose. Possibly the only remaining game where that's the case, as Portsmouth look too far ahead. 

Probably unchanged. Bradley was ill before and after the last game, and at fault for the goal we conceded. If there is a change, then Fozzy can come in for him, and is the better player, but as he's still coming back I think it will be as you were.

If we win it's a giant stride towards the autos, but defeat makes Bolton favourites - while we remain favourites with a draw. 

Wildsmith

Nelson     Bradley     Cashin

Ward          Adams          Hourihane          Sibley

Mendez-Laing       Gayle       Barkhuizen

Subs: Loach  Wilson  Forsyth  Thompson  Smith  Blacktt-Taylor  Waghorn  

[Srg]

3 hours ago, Carl Sagan said:

Must not lose. Possibly the only remaining game where that's the case, as Portsmouth look too far ahead. 

Probably unchanged. Bradley was ill before and after the last game, and at fault for the goal we conceded. If there is a change, then Fozzy can come in for him, and is the better player, but as he's still coming back I think it will be as you were.

If we win it's a giant stride towards the autos, but defeat makes Bolton favourites - while we remain favourites with a draw. 

Wildsmith

Nelson     Bradley     Cashin

Ward          Adams          Hourihane          Sibley

Mendez-Laing       Gayle       Barkhuizen

Subs: Loach  Wilson  Forsyth  Thompson  Smith  Blacktt-Taylor  Waghorn  

Too far ahead? Pompey play Posh this weekend, there’s a world where on Saturday night we are 2 points behind them with still needing to play them. 

[IlsonDerby]

With no disrespect to the team or fans - f*** Bolton. f*** the idea that we should be worrying so much about this match. Over 38 games they’ve not been as good as us. We have finally stumbled onto a system that is producing decent performances, Why should we change how we’ve taken to the last 3 matches? 
 

Go out and show them why we’ve got the best goal difference in the division. Go and attack them from the off. My heart not take watching us trying to soak up 90 minutes of pressure for Wildsmith to sprint out and foul their striker in the 86th minute for a pen. 

[kevinhectoring]

7 hours ago, Ambitious said:

I do suspect that we will see Forsyth come in for Sibley and the 3-4-3 will resemble a 4-4-2 for the most part, though. 

Please no. imo that would be a grave error for so many reasons   We’re playing well in the current system, it suits the squad and we’re benefitting from players feeling comfortable in a system that’s working.  A straight swap, Forsyth for Bradley, would be better if he’s determined to use Foz. But even that would be a mistake at this stage. 

[Crewton]

Bolton Wanderers were the first club, as I recall it, to put forward the idea of making the PL a closed shop. By sheer coincidence, they were in it at the time! 

Who could forget though the time when Phil Brown was our manager and his "special relationship" with his old club brought us such perennial Rams favourites such as Dean Holdsworth, Jason Talbot and Blessing Kaku? A special relationship indeed!

On a more serious note, it would be fitting if both clubs were to be promoted to the Championship this season, though I suspect one of us is going to have to do it through the playoffs, because I can't see a scenario where we both go up automatically. We can help to make sure that we're not that club by winning on Saturday, though I do agree that for Bolton it is more of a must-win than it is for us 

[Mr. P]

 

[Andrew3000]

9 hours ago, Rampant said:

Saturday 16th March

vs Bolton Wanderers

Pride Park   KO 1500

 

This match as a song by The Smiths: Some Games Are Bigger Than Others

Opponents Bio: I had the honour of starting the match thread for the reverse fixture so may be repeating some of these nuggets of insignificant trivia. So in the hope that the forums' collective memory is worsening here we go again.

Bolton Wanderers are, like ourselves, proud to be one of the twelve original founder members of the Football League. Not only that, the opening round of fixtures back on 8th September 1888 saw the two clubs meet for the first of 136 encounters (129 league, five FA Cup and two League Cup). Furthermore, Bolton winger Kenny Davenport has the distinction of being the first scorer in English Football League history as he netted after just two minutes of the game. The Rams did come back to win an opening day thriller 6-3 at Pikes Lane, Bolton in front of an estimated crowd of 3,000. 

Bolton can proudly boast that they have spent more seasons in the top flight of the English game than they have outside of it and have seen giants of the game like Jimmy Armfield, Nat Lofthouse and Michael Ricketts sport their colours over the years.

Bolton are commonly known as one of three nicknames; The Whites, due to the colour of their home kit, Wanderers, as it's their name, or The Trotters, chosen by their first owner who made his fortune selling laxatives.

They have former Ram Ian Evatt as manager and also had a run of three successive bosses with Derby links between 1992 and 1999 as they were led by Bruce Rioch, Roy McFarland and then Colin Todd. Players who have represented both clubs include Franny Lee, John McGovern, Jeff Chandler and Andy Todd.

Opponents Dangermen: Chief threat is 13-goal Dion Charles although he is doubtful with a knee injury. Victor Adeboyejo has ten goals but is likely out for the season which leaves Bolton with three principal goal threats; Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, ex-Ram Cameron Jerome and Aaron Collins whose five goals and ten assists make him a man to be wary of in our third. Josh Sheehan also poses a threat from midfield.

Opponents Recent Form: Wanderers will rock up at Pride Park in third place, one position and one point behind ourselves and buoyed by an impressive 5-0 demolition of playoff chasing Oxford on Tuesday night. They are, however, winless in their last four away fixtures since winning 2-1 at Cambridge. Defeats at Blackpool (1-4) and Wigan (0-1) followed that victory and their most recent away games have seen them draw 2-2 at both Barnsley and Exeter. Whilst we're looking for positives, they have conceded at least once in their last eight road games. Their overall away record for the season is decent enough with nine wins, five draws and five defeats.

Derby vs Bolton History: Derby have had by some margin the upper hand in the head-to-heads with Wanderers. In 129 meetings our record stands at W64-D23-L42. One statistic stands out in the meetings on our turf though and it is this:

Bolton have never won at Pride Park.

There, I've said it. 

Since we moved to Pride Park, Bolton have visited us ten times in the league and drew on their third, fourth and fifth visits but went back up the M6 with nil points on the other seven occasions. We are P10: W7-D3-L0 with 24 goals scored and just five conceded when the Trotters come to town. They haven't scored more than once in any game at Pride Park and, alongside two victories by a one-goal margin, we have merrily spanked their chubby Lancashire backsides 4-0 twice, 4-1 twice and 3-0 once. Now if that isn't tempting fate I don't know what is.

Expected Rams XI: Possibly same again do we think? Maybe Smith for Hourihane if the latter is still feeling the affects of Yiadom's brutal tackle in midweek.

My Tuppence Worth: I mentioned it elsewhere but we have winnable looking (I know, I know) games against Blackpool, Orient, Carlisle, Northampton, Wycombe and Cambridge to come in the run-in. If we can do the business in those then a couple of draws in the games against Bolton and Portsmouth will be enough for an automatic place. What I'm suggesting is that given the respective fixture lists of ourselves and Bolton, a draw wouldn't be such a bad result on Saturday. If it's a must win game for either side then, in my opinion, it is more so for Wanderers than it is for us.

Other Fixtures of Note: It's a significant round of matches as apart from second versus third in our match, it's fourth against first at London Road.

Peterborough vs Portsmouth

Barnsley vs Cheltenham

 

COYR

 

You are a class act. Bravo! And thankyou.

[BaianoPOTY98]

For me we are playing at home and have to keep the attacking intent of Ward and Sibley at wingback, however i would bring Smith in to strengthen the centre of the park. Forsyth is a great option to bring on if Sibs is struggling defensively. Barks had a good game Tuesday night and has to keep his place, running at the defence.

Lets have a real go at Bolton, forget what they did last Saturday!!

                           Wildsmith

            Nelson     Bradley     Cashin

Ward          Adams          Smith          Sibley

Mendez-Laing       Gayle       Barkhuizen

[Animal is a Ram]

Don't change a winning team. If there was ever a time for some consistency, this was it.

[Wanderlust]

Enjoyed Rampant's bio especially the artistic licence re the laxatives. Being a Wanderers fan is a life sentence so we need a laugh every now and then. After our recent performances one thing we don't need is laxatives though.

I think it's fair to say that a draw would favour you and prior to our Oxford game I'd have snatched your hand off for it. Saturday will be our 22nd game in 75 days and the punishing schedule had taken it's toll with injuries to key players throughout, a couple of suspensions and the constant disruption of the starting eleven. Our form went through the floor and in the 10 games before Oxford we'd slipped to 16th in the form table, blown our games in hand and picked up even more injuries in the process. So going into the Oxford game I was bricking it. Perhaps out of desperation as much as having his hand forced, Evatt made changes to the way we've played for a couple of seasons now. Way I see it, he actually dropped some of the instructions/processes instead of adding to them - and backed the players to do what comes naturally to them rather than having to conform to a rigid - and therefore predictable - system. The term "letting them off the leash" was bandied about. Teams had been setting up to nullify us and let us have possession in pointless areas beforehand, but on Tuesday we confused the s*** out of Oxford and messed up their game plan in the first five minutes. And nobody was more surprised than us Wanderers fans as Evatt has a reputation for being dogmatic about our playing style.

What we can expect is high-risk attacking and entertaining football. OK we'll leave gaps to exploit, but if the lads can replicate the pace, effort, quality, discipline and creativity they showed on Tuesday it will be close game. Slightly concerned they're too knackered but it's the last game in our congested fixture schedule so I hope they give their all.

For the first time, I actually welcome the international break and hope the lads who go on international duty don't get picked to play so they can have a long overdue break - plus we should start to get injured players back by the time it's over, notably our goalie and strikers. So from our perspective, it's one last effort before they can take time to recover and reset.

Absolutely no idea how it will go on Saturday - two different styles - and we'll be playing with a back 3 (occasionally a back 1) against your excellent strikers so big Rico is going to have his work cut out, especially on the counter.

Looking forward to it and hope that we're blessed with a decent ref for once. That said, it wouldn't surprise me if we got a card-happy loony and a bad-tempered game given what's at stake. Hope not.

[Jimbo Ram]

1 hour ago, BaianoPOTY98 said:

For me we are playing at home and have to keep the attacking intent of Ward and Sibley at wingback, however i would bring Smith in to strengthen the centre of the park. Forsyth is a great option to bring on if Sibs is struggling defensively. Barks had a good game Tuesday night and has to keep his place, running at the defence.

Lets have a real go at Bolton, forget what they did last Saturday!!

                           Wildsmith

            Nelson     Bradley     Cashin

Ward          Adams          Smith          Sibley

Mendez-Laing       Gayle       Barkhuizen

That’s the team I would start with too 👍

[Archied]

Unchanged team for me please , strong bench to change things up if needed or fresh legs if all going well, 

this is the love hate aspect of being a football fan , I love we are right in the thick of it and the games are SO important ( this one especially) but there’s a part of me that hates it too 😂, checking the table over and over again , working out different scenarios, excited as duck but bricking it too,

we are due some real good stuff from the football gods , we have endured and keep turning up in our thousands , I want to be in pp celebrating promotion on the last day so so much 🐏💪

[EranioIsGod]

I work with a load of Bolton fans in Manchester, and they are very confident especially after their win on Tuesday. 

As long as we don't lose, its in our hands.

Browsing their forums though, and this made me chuckle....

[Ghost of Clough]

Bolton have only won 2 out of their last 6 games. Interestingly, they have won both of the games against sides who fielded 4 at the back, drawing 2 and losing 2 against sides with 3/5 at the back. In fact, since New Year, they have only beaten a 3/5 at the back side on three occasions (Burton, Cheltenham and Carlisle), all of which are in the bottom 6 of the table. Their only other wins being Wycombe, Cambridge (twice), and Oxford on Tuesday. All wins agaisnt weaker sides, including Oxford who have picked up just 14 points in 13 games since we beat them.

[Tamworthram]

2 minutes ago, EranioIsGod said:

I work with a load of Bolton fans in Manchester, and they are very confident especially after their win on Tuesday. 

As long as we don't lose, its in our hands.

Browsing their forums though, and this made me chuckle....

I get that they will be confident, as should we be but, I reckon it sounds like an element of bravado if they're VERY confident. They will no doubt be feeling good after Tuesday but are they forgetting that they've only won one out of their last 6 away games?

Hopefully you'll be able to go into work on Monday with a big smug smile on your face.

[StockholmRam]

5 hours ago, Srg said:

Too far ahead? Pompey play Posh this weekend, there’s a world where on Saturday night we are 2 points behind them with still needing to play them. 

THIS… this is the perfect attitude.