Nottingham Forest 3-0 Bolton Wanderers: 5 Things

I, for some unknown reason, went watching Bolton on Saturday. Here's what I learned:

1. Some Self Congratulation

In recent weeks we’ve seen the Bolton Wanderers Supporters trust be inundated with fans giving £10 a pop for membership, surpassing what many thought was possible. At this game our fans did themselves proud again. I couldn’t give a number but those who were there sang throughout. At 1-0 down. At 2-0 down. At 3-0 down and at the final whistle. Nothing quite beats out singing thousands of mute home fans with ‘You’re nothing special, we lose every week’. All players came over and applauded for their efforts.

2. Liam Trotter Has His Uses

I feel I’m wasting my breath with this one but here it goes. Liam Trotter is actually pretty handy for us in midfield. He’s better than Neil Danns and at the moment better than Pratley. He went on a couple of very good, technical runs and was nearly always on hand to protect the defence. His calmness in possession is something we don’t see from the likes of Darren Pratley, Jay Spearing or Neil Danns but many look past that and focus on the negative. If he loses possession, he gets personal abuse shouted every time where sd every other player just gets a groan of apathy. He has his flaws; he is lazy and that seeps in to other areas of his game but for now I’d keep him in the squad.

3. The Defence Needs Discipline

I wrote a bit not too long ago about how Lennon should be blamed for our appalling defensive displays of late; again we showed how poor we can be. They are pulled out of shape so easily which leaves gaping holes in the middle of the defence. Players just randomly charge to tackle a player whom is already being tracked, low and behold a nice gap opens up to pass in to. Wheater is a major culprit for this but because of his competence the rest of the time, seems to be overlooked. A decent manager would have got this out of his (and the rest of our defender's) game long ago.

4. Wellington Silva on The Right?

I really want to see him start out on the right. It’s obvious despite his talents he isn’t a goal threat, so let’s use what talents he does have. He can beat men with his pace and skill all day long, so rather than have him cut in every time to a ruck of players, let’s get him whipping balls in. We’ve got a tall player up front and we might get better deliveries off of him than we do from Feeney. Failing that, perhaps down the middle where he'll see a lot more of the ball.

5. Dougie>Lennon

I’m preparing for incoming here. Dougie is pretty much universally hated by Bolton fans. The boring team performances, his dour interviews and his reluctance to even look at Clough or Vela. Thing is, Forest are now on an 11 game unbeaten streak. In his first year here he got us to the edge of the play offs. Even in the year he got fired, we were better than we are now (1 win in 10 compared with 2 in 27). He may serve up some boring dross, ignore extremely talented player’s and have the social skills of a turd…But his record sure trashes Lennon's over here.