Bolton Wanderers 1 Queen’s Park Rangers 1: Player Ratings

Terrible weather conditions rendered this game a bit of a non-entity with Bolton fairly fortunate to pick up a point despite being in front for much of the game. 4 points from the last 2 matches is certainly an improvement however and the signs remain pretty positive for the future. Here’s how our lads fared:

Ben Alnwick 7

Made two very good saves and looked generally comfortable under the high ball in the awful weather. Kicking wasn’t great but that was to be expected on a very slippery surface. I think he is making himself our undisputed number 1.

Mark Little 6

I have always been a fan of his and think he’s our best right-back by far but I wasn’t all that impressed in this game. Poor going forward, very often beaten by Manning and then Washington when he was replaced in the first half. An off-day perhaps?

David Wheater 8

The conditions suited him down to the ground and he excelled in what turned into an attack vs defence situation in the second half. I would say he’s been our most consistent performer this season and his desire to battle will be key to our season.

Mark Beevers 7

I think he has improved enormously of late and this was again in evidence against QPR. He was confident on the ball and won everything in the air but gets a lower rating than Wheater because Sylla got the better of him one time too many and that’s why he scored in the end.

Andrew Taylor 6

His performance was fairly innocuous but he was beaten far too often for pace and I also think he lets crosses come in too easily. I like Taylor and I think he’s better defensively than Robinson but maybe Parky should think about using him in games like this when the opposition have pace out wide.

Darren Pratley 6

He was pretty awful on the ball but to his credit he tackled well and took his goal very well. I’d prefer Karacan to start ahead of him but I get the feeling he’s here to stay.

Karl Henry 6

This may have been his worst performance for Bolton so far but he still won his fair share of headers and kept a cool head in a chaotic second half. However, I think he allowed Luongo far too much influence on the game. If he had done a job on him in the same way he did to Barry Bannan against Sheffield Wednesday we more that likely would have won the game.

Sammy Ameobi 6.5

It wasn’t his most influential performance by any means and we will need him to play better if we are going to survive. However he always looked dangerous and was sorely missed when taken off. It wasn’t his kind of game at all given the conditions.

Josh Vela 6

He wasn’t as good as he was against Wednesday but one can put that down to a lack of match fitness and sharpness. His tackling and hassling was very useful for us however and we need him to stay fit.

Adam Armstrong 6.5

This man really, really, really needs a goal. When he went through in the first half he never looked like scoring such is his lack of confidence. I want him to do well but can’t help thinking it’s just not going to happen for him.

Gary Madine 6

He had a good first half and certainly had the better of Alex Batiste in the air but faded very badly in the second period. His poor showing in that half was a big reason why we struggled. Unfortunately, when Madine has an off-day, so do we.

Substitutes:

Filipe Morais 4

His showing was almost Liam Feeney-esque: full of industry and he tried really hard but every cross he put in was awful. He can do much better.

Craig Noone 5

Didn’t do anything of note but had the chance of starting a couple of breaks to relieve the pressure but unfortnately his passing on each occasion was poor.

Adam Le Fondre n/a

He was put on too late to do anything or change the result. He should be starting but I don’t know where he would play. How do you solve a problem like Le Fondre?