Player Ratings: Bolton Wanderers 1-0 Coventry City

I feel like we lost or drew but we definitely won. Let's get straight into it.

Ben Alnwick - 7

Made a few cracking saves but had a few calamity moments too. I'm still not sure about him but he's the best we've got right now so I'll back him to the hilt until the great Mark Howard returns.

Andrew Taylor - 6

Pretty good defensively but was up to his old tricks with his crossing - I think he put one decent ball in all night. Also had a few shaky moments at the back in the second half, as did everyone. Not good enough from our best left back, but not overly terrible either.

Mark Baevers - 7

Largely great in the air but also uncharacteristically shaky in general defensive terms, which was weird. I said it in my Five Things article that we can probably put that down to an off-half (is that even a thing?) for the entire back line. I still love you, Baevers.

Derik Osede - 8.5

Man of the match by far, which you can read in more detail here.

Lawrie Wilson - 6

Made some great forward runs in the second half that didn't get spotted, but when they did he just didn't fancy crossing the ball to a white shirt. Much of a muchness and definitely in the same boat as Taylor - needs to be more consistent going forward, but was pretty good defensively.

Jay Spearing - 7.5

Back to his old self and arguably one of the crown jewels of our potential promotion-winning side, it's great to see him out there controlling things again. I really like Spearing and I hope we can keep hold of him if we progress back into the Championship next season.

Tom Thorpe - 7.5

Also very good. I wasn't sure about Thorpey at first but he's proved me wrong and smashed it out of the park. He and Spearing compliment one other very well and I can definitely see a great partnership forming there.

Josh Vela - 7

Did a lot of running but wasn't quite on the same level as he has been in recent games. It's easy to see that he loves playing in that No.10 role behind Gary Madine - it allows him so much more freedom. His fitness and movement off the ball are both excellent so I hope he can stay fit. He's like a League One Frank Lampard (ish).

Sammy Ameobi - 6.5

I've got a piece planned on dear Sammy as I'm really not sure about him. He does the hard bit right every single time but it's the end product that counts and his is generally pretty poor. He was decent in the first half and almost anonymous in the second. Should've been taken off sooner than the 70th minute.

Zach Clough - 7.5

Scored a great goal and was bloody brilliant in the first half. I've been critical of him for the last couple of seasons but he's really turned it on lately, which is what we need from him - he's too good for this level and should be bagging at least 15-20 goals a season. In the first half tonight he was one step ahead of everyone else, which almost resulted in a second for him if he'd shot anywhere else but straight at their keeper. I'm delighted he's playing well.

Gary Madine - 7

Personally I think Gary Madine is a good player. Too often I hear people giving him stick, but I said in my Five Things that a lot of his work is dirty and goes largely unnoticed. Have a read of that to see what I'm on about.

James Henry (replaced Zach Clough in the 70th minute) - 0.2

Shite. Is he a wide player or a number 10? I don't even think he knows. Fucking waste of space that needs to buck his ideas up, big time.

Chris Taylor (replaced Sammy Ameobi in the 70th minute) - 0.3

Slightly better than Henry, but only ever so slightly. Another shitehawk that's nowhere near good enough for our first team. He probably only plays for us because he's mates with Baevers.

Jamie Proctor (replaced Gary Madine in the 90th minute) - 3

Whenever he plays he spends more time shagging the left touchline than actually doing his job, but he executed a great piece of skill in the dying minutes which pulls him up to a 3.

A very 'meh' second half performance has dampened my spirits somewhat if I'm honest, so I hope we can do better at the weekend and get an away win. Onto the next one.