Ratings: Bolton Wanderers v Middlesbrough

Adam Bogdan - 7

Praise your god for this man, for with out him we'd be well and truly fucked. His performance was brilliant tonight, he commanded his box, kept hold of every powerful shot, was always quick off his line to collect the ball and made one excellent save when the ball was smashed at him from close range.

Little blame can be laid at his feet for either goal, a penalty and a cruel deflection that looped the ball over his shoulder. I'm now of the believe that Bogdan is the only player whose place in the eleven secure, therefore, for me, he should be our captain. That combined with the facts he's our best and longest serving player, and also a capable leader.

Kevin McNaughton - 5

Another solid, yet unadventurous showing from McNaughton. There was near on no threat from the left wing, as McNaughton completely nullified who ever was playing there, but his lack of willingness to advance forward and join the attack often leaves us with a lack of options and width down the right side.

Matt Mills - 5

Mills did alright defensively I suppose, a very ordinary performance from him. Which obviously included the obligatory  40 yard diagonal to an opposition defender. The joys.

David Wheater - 5

I thought Wheater played well again today, I need to see the penalty decision again though. He, just like Mills, was for the most part solid, apart from a very risky challenge on the edge of the box.

Tim Ream - 4

I'm beginning to believe that all of Tim Ream's footballing ability came from his mask, because for the fourth consecutive game he was awful. Gone is the calm and composed defender, now Ream seems so nervy and erratic, he's forever getting caught on his heels and falling to the floor and constantly just allowing players to breeze past him as he gets the wrong side of them. It's so frustrating to see due to how good he was last year.

(All the defenders were hopeless for Boro's winner, and were dragged al over the place.)

Liam Feeney - 4

Feeney found it difficult to get into the game first half, but did managed to send a couple of dangerous crosses into the box. In the second half he was moved to the left wing, where he was completely ineffectual.

Liam Trotter - 2

I've been impressed by Trotter in the minutes he's had this season, the game against Middlesbrough was his chance to stake his claim and prove why he should be a regular starter, and he completely fluffed his lines. Granted, his midfield partner was equally as bad and they were playing in a system that allowed them to get completely overrun, but Trotters game mainly consisted of ropey touches and clipped passes to no where. Oh, and the occasional shoulder barge. Extremely disappointing.

Jay Spearing - 2

I don't think I've ever seen a captain with smaller bollocks than Jay Spearing, he doesn't look like he can handle the pressure of being a captain at all. He doesn't lead by example, demonstrating that against Forest when he cost us the game and lost his temper and he can't take a game by the scruff of the neck and lead by example, when the going gets tough he hides from the ball and should he receive it he'll play the easiest option, which is usually sideways.

Chung-yong Lee - 5

Lee was quite exciting to watch in portions of the game, as he constantly beat his man with lovely bits of flair. But fancy tricks are all well and good, but when they're mostly in your own half or are used whilst going backwards, they are utterly pointless. Lee ran directly at his man once in the game and that lead to a good opportunity, if he ran at defences more he'd be a world beater.

Joe Mason - 4

Mason was invisible through out, I honestly can't remember him doing a single thing. Well, he got bullied off the ball a few times, but that's it. He failed to read any of Davies' flick ons so that lead to him never getting the ball, I feel the partnership between the two has potential but Mason really needs to learn how to read the game better and anticipate where the ball is going to drop.

Craig Davies - 7

Honestly, Davies was excellent. He brought the ball down, he held it up, he won headers, he turned his marker and left them for dust, he bullied them with his strength and determination to win the ball and he slammed home a penalty. I've often written Davies off as being awful, but I've always maintained that he should be kept around as he always offered something different to the other strikers we had, if he continues to play like he did tonight, but just adds composure in front of goal to his game, he could have a very, very good season. He's our last hope now. Lol.

Substitues

Jermaine Beckford - 4

Came on and finally did his job and scored, but it was ruled out for reasons which I do not know. Also missed a golden chance too.

Neil Danns - N/A

Hayden White - N/A

Manager

Dougie Freedman - -1

Easily the worst managerial performance I've ever seen. He needlessly tinkered with his formation, abandoning the diamond which served us well against Forest and instead opted for a flat 442. This lead to massive gaps between both the midfield and defence, and the midfield and upfront. These massive pockets of space made it easy for Boro to just stroll right through us and completely over run the defence, with out an iota of pressure being applied to anyone on the ball. It also left the two strikers hopelessly isolated, so when ever Davies won it (which was a lot) he had no body up in support to lay the ball off too.

We had 38% possession in a home game and when it was abundantly clear to everyone inside the ground that things needed changing, he didn't! It took a goal for him to finally change things up and when he did, he brought off the only player who even looked like making a difference, and then stuck Wheater upfront anyway! He switched Feeney to the left wing, even though he's a direct winger who likes to get to the byline and obviously doesn't have a strong left foot and made so many other mind boggling decisions that just didn't make sense.

It was a pathetic joke.

I've long been a supporter of Freedman and wanted him to succeed, but it's now time to part ways.