Bolton Wanderers 1-1 Wigan Athletic: My Verdict
1-1, probably the right result, all things being considered but I feel this was one of Wanderers better performances over the last couple of months.
This really wasn’t the sort of game for anyone who loves ‘attacking football’ with both teams landing a combined total of three shots on target all game, but Wanderers were good for a single point at least. Bolton defended well in the central area and Wigan did their upmost best to help out Beevers and Hobbs by putting every shot wide or over the top.
Bolton took the lead early on from a chance long ball picked up by Buckley who somehow put in the net at the near post and Bolton continued to look okay from this point with most of Wigan’s attacks faltering early on.
The penalty that was awarded to Wigan really does sum up the standard of officiating in leagues below the Premier League. The challenge at best is a 50/50 and if you watch the travel of the ball it is more than clear Hobbs won the football. The Referee was not in a good position to judge this at all and the least he could have done is confer with the Linesman who was directly in front of the challenge. None the less this was not done and Will Grigg calmly slotted home to equalize.
The Referee’s performance did not improve from this point as he started to give out yellow cards for players simply running into each other and his performance was capped off as he missed a last minute penalty for the Whites as Morsy, who had pretty much run the game for Wigan, stuck his arms spark in the air to stop Beevers cross, and it was seen by pretty much everyone apart from the Referee.
In truth I don’t believe Wanderers were all that bad against Wigan and were good for a point. We need to understand that counter attacks and set pieces will be our best hope of getting anything from games. I also believe playing with two up top is something we need to continue to do as playing hoof ball to just one man really isn’t going to be successful, we need to use the wing play and fill the box, unfortunately with Norwich and Leeds to come, I can’t see this formation staying. Wigan did nothing but really help us in this game but if this is the sort of opposition that is going to be down here with us, then I do believe we can win games against this type of opposition.
Given everything that has happened in the last week or so at Bolton I believe the performance against Wigan was decent, I believe we will be able to pick up points against teams around us like Wigan, but I can’t see us getting anything against Norwich and Leeds.
Saturday was a welcome break from our financial troubles and for a while it led us to believe and then showed us how much we need a finisher. All in all, an improved performance which unfortunately still leaves us in a mire of uncertainty in all aspects.
