Charlton Athletic v Bolton Wanderers – Match Preview

Bolton look to continue their play-off push by completing the double over struggling Charlton.

A Dougie Freedman ‘supersub’ back in December bringing on N’gog for Butterfield resulted in the Frenchman bagging a late brace to win the game 2-0.

The Trotters are looking to bounce back from the 1-0 defeat at Ipswich which was their first loss in nine games.

Charlton currently sit in 15th position on 47 points, just five outside the relegation zone. The Addicks have the worst home form in the league with only four wins at the Valley this season. They have picked up only four points at home since the turn of the year.

The Kevin Davies saga this week could put pressure on Freedman to start the target man, however the squad should be similar to the one that started the last game away to Ipswich.

The trotters have no new injury concerns with M. Davies and Vela still ruled out for the forseeable future.

One of the hardest decisions for Freedman to make will be who will be between the sticks. With Lonergan in top form conceding only one goal in three games, the return of Adam Bogdan from injury could be cause for change.

Bogdan was an unused substitute for Hungary this week in their bid for World Cup qualification.

Several other players returned from a successful international break with Sordell grabbing himself a goal in a side Craig Dawson captained, as England U21 breezed to a 4-0 win over Austria U21.

Lee also returned injury free after he helped to take his South Korea side to the top of the of Asia qualifying group A

Jay Spearing, Chung-Yong Lee and Marcos Alonso are all one yellow card away from a suspension.

Charlton have no injury concerns and are even able to loan players out with Crook going to Yeovil and Smith to Colchester.

With Nottingham Forest hosting Brighton & Hove Albion it is a great opportunity for Bolton to close the 5 point gap on the play-offs.

The referee for the game will be Trevor Kettle from Berkshire who has officiated in 30 games this season, issuing 113 yellow cards and 6 reds. He has awarded 10 penalties averaging 0.33 per game.

@Mikaelbwfc

Worst BWFC players of the last 10 years?

With the international break this week there will be no match preview so I have drawn up a list of what I think are the worst players to wear a Bolton Wanderers shirt.

GK- Adam Bogdan

With Jussi Jaaskelainen between the sticks for majority of the last decade, there have not been many other names occupying the gloves. I chose the Hungarian as every ball that is crossed into our box gives me a mini heart-attack and his inability to move off the goal-line frustrates the masses. Unable to distribute the ball to another white shirt along with the dropping of multiple crosses and shots pips him just ahead of the veterans Kevin Poole and Ian Walker.

RB – Tyrone Mears

Having played for a rival Lancashire club he was never going to be a fan favourite when he moved to Bolton. He has failed to live up to his £1.5million price tag after a disappointing first season which was plagued with injury, he was part of the team that got relegated the following season. Mears beats Nicky Hunt to this place due to his extortionate price tag.

CB – Gerald Cid

Gerald was one of Sammy Lee’s first signings as a manager and it is safe to say this is probably why he reverted back to being a member of the backroom staff. Cid averaged nine appearances a season in his 10 year career and only made seven appearances in a Bolton shirt but my god, them seven games probably propelled him to the top of the worst players ever table.

CB – Lubomir Michalik

Lubomir only played for Bolton seven times in his one year spell scoring one goal, away at Stamford Bridge in a 2-2 draw. However he was used as a rotation player in the Carling cup and FA Cup. After his spell with Bolton he went onto spend five years in League One with Leeds, Carlise and Portsmouth. He was not a stand-out performer in League One which is probably his level, definitely not the Premier League. Puygrenier came a close in third position with his unsuccessful loan spell in 2009.

LB – Henrik Pedersen

The left back position is the one void that has not been filled since Simon Charlton left the club in 2004. However Marcus Alonso seems to be fitting in nicely this season, it is likely he will leave if we fail to win promotion especially with Tony Pulis sniffing around. Pedersen is a Bolton wanderers fan favourite of six years, however being the only fit left-footed player at the beginning of the 2005/06 season meant Big Sam turned to him as an emergency left back.

RM – Daniel Braaten

Braaten only spent one season at Bolton making seven appearances, one of those against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena, and scoring only one goal, in a 3-0 home win over Reading. His £450,000 transfer from Rosenburg in 2007 never seemed a worthy buy, a winger without pace or tricky is maybe not suited to the Premier League. Bolton then sold Braaten to Toulouse in a deal which saw Johan Elmander coming the other way.

CM – Mikel Alonso

The older brother of xabi, Mikel made only 11 appearances during his one year stint at the club, managing only two wins during the 2007/08 season. After it was realised he was nothing like his brother, he never played another game for the club after september.

CM – Khalilou Fadiga

Bolton Wanderers have been blessed with midfield talent in the previous decade with the likes of Okocha, Djorkaeff, Campo and Speed. However Fadiga’s career never really took off making only 13 appearances in two years. This was mainly down to the Senegalese’s collapse during a warm-up to a game and he had to be fitted with a defibrillator. He scored one goal for Bolton away at Fulham, a free-kick near the corner flag which evaded everyone and nestled into the bottom corner, although he did miss a spot kick earlier in the game.

RM – Christian Wilhelmsson

When the swede joined on loan from Nantes he was dubbed one of the quickest players in the premier league. The club gave him the number 10 shirt for the season and the fans got really excited to see the speedster in action. His season started with a 3-1 away defeat to Portsmouth in which he showed he had no trickery or ability to beat a man, and he only used his pace to run sideways in typical ‘reo-coker’ style. He failed to score a goal in any of his eight appearances and was sent back to his parent club in January 2008.

ST – Ebi Smolarek

Besides Nicholos Anelka, Bolton have never really had a talismanic front man so this the striking duo was the hardest pair to pick. I went for Smolarek who joined on loan with a view to a permanent deal in 2008, mainly due to his failure to score a league goal in 12 games and looked out of his depth in all 12. He was in the same squad as Ariza Makukula, which shows the desperation of Gary Megson that season.

ST- Grzegorz Rasiak

Rasiak was a free scoring striker in the Championship with Southampton between 2006/09, scoring 24 goals in 65 games. However when he was brought in during the January transfer window to ease the trotters relegation fears, he failed to score in any of the seven games he played in. The Beanpole’s most memorable moment would be hitting the crossbar accidentally away to Middlesbrough in a relegation battle in which he intended to head the ball in a completely different direction.

@Mikaelbwfc

Two Points Dropped

Two points dropped or one point gained?  Battling for promotion or a relegation dog fight?  No matter what Bolton Wanderer’s season objectives are we should be beating Barnsley at home.

Starting the untried 4-2-3-1 formation shows Dougie has a plan B, something Coyle did not.  The defensive mastermind did not park the bus from the word go, like in his previous three games.  However peppering the opposition goal from the edge of the 18, with every shot straight down the keepers’ throat is not sufficient.

Kevin Davies, who has never been a real goal poacher, failed to read a ball dropping to him two yards out and scuffed the chance.  Maybe a chance Afobe or Sordell would have buried.

The long-serving Bolton legend then redeemed himself with an expertly taken goal from 10 yards, drifting in behind McNulty, bringing down Eagles’ inch-perfect cross with one touch, and powering it into the bottom corner.

Shot after shot came from an inspired Bolton team but nothing really testing Steele. A nonsense substitution bringing on Andrews for N’gog on the 56^th minute sent the message round the stadium that it was time to attempt defence mode.

This was a huge lift to everyone in the stadium that had Bolton on their Goals Galore.  Surprisingly the trotters managed to hold out for an impressive nine minutes until the inevitable happened on the 65^th minute.  Considering Bolton’s attempt of defending is backing 11 men inside our own box whilst the opposition play around with the ball just outside is a not exactly foolproof.  Barnsley got bored playing and under no pressure from 20 yards had a shot which flew into the bottom corner.  Same old same old.

This drew an attacking change from Dougie to bring on Lee for N’gog.  Also it was time to go back to the Coyle days of everyone standing still like statues and if the ball came to you, kick it as hard as possible into the direction of Chris Eagles or Kevin Davies’s 50p head.

The game ended 1-1.

If Bolton were to draw with such a poor opposition such as Barnsley again can we at least do it in humorous fashion like playing Pratley? Please?

A massive improvement is needed if we are to get anything against Brighton next week, for me K.Davies, Butterboy and Mears should be nowhere near the first team.  A lone immobile striker that is losing his ability to head a ball is no use.  N’gog proved he is a handful upfront against Cardiff so he must be utilised.

On a positive not Matt Mills won more headers today than he has all season (2).