Man of the Match v Blackburn Rovers: Jay Spearing

Bolton's 1-0 win against Blackburn Rovers was a big victory, and it could have easily been a 0-0 draw if not for the extremely late winner scored by Chris Eagles. In many people's minds, that alone would be enough to give the former Burnley winger the Fizzy Grape soda, but we at Lion of Vienna Suite pride ourselves on over thinking, so here is my train of thought regarding the prestigious award.

Medo Kamara made his full debut, in the cauldron of a Lancashire derby, and he handled himself quite well. Some of the challenges were a little reckless, in fact he was quite lucky to escape the first half without a booking, but the talent is there. He covers a lot of ground, is very strong in the tackle, and gave the supporters a peak at his passing prowess in the second half, when he played some nice balls around the pitch. Despite our injury bug, central midfield is becoming a difficult place to win a spot for Dougie Freedman's Bolton.

We love our wingers at the Reebok, and Chung-Yong Lee has continued his recent run of form. The final product was not there on Tuesday, but Lee was definitely a threat. Just not enough of a threat to grab the silverware this week.

When you keep a clean sheet, the central defenders have to play a role almost by definition, so while neither Craig Dawson nor Zat Knight did enough individually to merit consideration, they have formed a fine partnership and deserve a mention. They are currently keeping David Wheater out of the team, Tim Ream out of the squad, and rendering the Matt Mills injury irrelevant.

Now, what about Mr. Eagles? His goal was certainly important, and he threatened Blackburn's defense from the moment he came on the pitch. But that is just the point. He only played twenty minutes. Unless a substitute absolutely dominates for a period of thirty minutes or more (David Ngog has done this twice in 2012-2013), I have trouble giving them the award. One could even argue that Darren Pratley's performance before Eagles replaced him was more worthy of consideration. I do agree with bringing Eagles off the bench for this match though.

Adam Bogdan has picked up a few MOTM awards over the last two seasons, of course many of those were warm grape water received in appreciation for keeping a 3-2 loss from getting out of hand. Andy Lonergan stepped in against Blackburn and did an admirable job. He kept a clean sheet, and made some good saves. He fell just a bit short though.

I'm giving the honor to Jay Spearing. The Liverpool loanee and Wanderers ever-present had another fine match, controlling the midfield, pressing the opposition, and otherwise making himself a pain in Rovers' hindquarters. I suspect he is approaching double digits in MOTM wins this season, and he deserves it.

The comments are below, who is your MOTM?