Bad News for Bolton Wanderers with Howard Out for Three Months

So the news is that Bolton Wanderers' first-choice goalkeeper, Mark Howard, will be out of action for three months following the results of scans leading on from his injury suffered in the 1-0 defeat against Peterborough United at weekend.

Will this prompt manager Phil Parkinson into the loan market for backup? Will he give youth a chance? We have a pair of promising goalkeepers in Will Jaaskelainen and England U18 stopper Jake Turner who could, possibly, step up.

Now before I proceed, I would like to make it clear that I am not losing my mind at this news. I was a bit surprised, this morning, when I checked out the online reaction and saw that the general consensus was blind panic.

Fair enough. Each to their own.

I wouldn't normally be that upset at Howard being out - he's clearly a very competent goalkeeper at this level, but like many others I was unimpressed by Ben Alnwick's performance against Peterborough.

Both goalkeepers arrived at Bolton with uninspiring CVs. Howard, despite starting at Arsenal, has only ever played 4 games in his whole career at a level higher than League One.

Alnwick has had a more varied career. I counted 14 clubs, including Bolton, when scanning Wikipedia earlier. Let's hope he can step up - he's a keeper who has been second choice throughout most of his time in the game, with, coincidentally, a spell at Peterborough representing his most consistent run in the first team at any club.

So we head into the Millwall game with some apprehension. I hope Alnwick can step up, and we all wish Howard a speedy recovery.