Ipswich Town 2-0 Bolton Wanderers: Immediate Reaction

Bolton Wanderers have now reached 8 games without a win. 8 games without a goal in open play. It was a cruel afternoon for Bolton who were unquestionably the better team on the day. Wanderers had multiple chances but just couldn’t put anything away to doom Wanderers again.

The team changed again. We saw two out and out wingers start in the form of Morais and Noone. Little and Robinson started behind them. Madine started up top by himself.

We were on top for the entire first half. Noone and Morais were causing real issues for the Ipswich Town defence. It was the first time we have played with proper width and it showed. Crosses came in and each winger had chances to cut in and shoot. Madine too got amongst the chances but also found his attempts off target.

The second half started with a cautious optimism given Wanderers’ decent first half showing, so naturally Ipswich scored through a horrifically deflected long range shot. From there Ipswich sat and were content to threaten on the break. Wanderers found time to shoot over on a few more occasions but that seemed to be it. Not so! Wanderers found time to completely shit over their fans by conceding another goal late on in the half making it a 2-0 loss.

It was a game that we would have easily finished if we had Championship quality. Whilst I can accept some players could do a job at this level, they are few and far in between. We should rejoice at the embargo being lifted but it had ultimately come far too late to make any impact on this League 1 squad.

The mental rut we are in shouldn’t be ignored either. I’m quite sure that some of the chances we had today might have been taken if we weren’t mentally fucked from our previous hammerings. We needed to ride that incredibly difficult opening set of fixtures and come out with a ‘season starts here’ approach against Sheffield and Ipswich. We haven’t and I fear that the rot has well and truly embedded and will remain a fixture for a while to come.

I normally pride myself on being positive and balanced but after 8 games of dross, I cannae muster it.

How to fix the mess? I don’t believe a change in manager is the right choice, no one is keeping this team up after all. The only way this team is going to succeed is to get better players. Short and simple. Without that, the season is as good as over.