Ratings: Bolton Wanderers 1-2 QPR

Ladies and gentlemen, here are your ratings from yesterday’s dire home loss to Queens Park Rangers:

Ben Alnwick - 6

Well established as no.1, I don’t think we can be too critical of his performance and having seen the goals back again since don’t think he could have done much about either. Apart from that his handling was solid. I would like his distribution to improve, however, if that’s possible.

Pawel Olkowski - 8 (MOTM)

I was wary of falling for the hype, and what with holidays and such making this my first game of the season, but I can see why shrieking fanboys across the world are going crackers for the floppy-haired Polish superstar. He was excellent. Composed on the ball and eager to attack, I can already confidently say that after one game we may well have our best right-back since the days of the great Neil Cox. We certainly haven’t had a candidate since. I look forward to seeing him improve and to his inevitable £1m move to Brentford in January when we’re skint again.

David Wheater - 5

Too slow. Ponderous on the ball and easily beaten by his opponent. His distribution continues to make me deeply upset.

Mark Beevers - 5

Too slow. Ponderous on the ball and easily beaten by his opponent. His distribution continues to make me deeply upset.

Jonathan Grounds - 4.5

I had read all the reviews of Grounds’ appearances for Bolton thus far and I put them all down to typical Bolton hyperbole - the sort that writes off Chris Taylor forever because ‘he looked at me funny’. Then I saw his performance yesterday. Christ alive, it wasn’t good. I’m not going to say much more, but he’s far too tall to be a left-back. I don’t want to bring up ‘that’ air kick, but I just did.

Gary O’Neil - 5.5

I’ve gone with a half score here because I did see moments of quality from the man but by Christ given he’s played for almost every club in the world this should perhaps not come as too much of a surprise. He had moments that looked slightly encouraging but for the most part he came across as a man trying to chase younger, fitter and more athletic men around a football pitch and, speaking from intense personal experience, this never ends well.

Jason Lowe - 5.5

An so-so performance from the ex-Blackburn Rovers man. He retained possession well but primarily dealt with passing the ball backwards which although has its place, is something that I find deeply upsetting. He’s also a bit smaller than I anticipated, which, I accept, is hardly his fault.

Sammy Ameobi n/a

I’m going to duck out of scoring him due to his early exit from injury. Before that he struggled to make an impact and in typical Sammy style he was quicker limping than running.

Joe Williams - 5

I was expecting big things from the Everton loanee given the positivity that surrounded his Wanderers debut at PNE but he was anonymous at best yesterday. Had one or two moments on the ball which showed the potential for interesting things but these were far too fleeting to give him anything other than an average score.

Craig Noone - 6

Made a busy start but vanished in the second half when we needed him the most. It’s a shame because I’m a fan of his energetic brand of play but his miss at 0-1 was crucial and had he put his foot through the ball rather than being cute then the end result might have been a lot different.

Christian Doidge - 5

Hmm. An interesting debut for the new lad, but not always for the right reasons. He looked bright early on, and was positive in his running down the channels and his ability in the air. However, on the negative side, his liking for a dive is an early trait that we could do without, and he came absolutely nowhere near scoring. I put most of the blame for this on his support, but equally it was a stark reminder of the gulf between Division 4 and the Championship. Hopefully with time we’ll see a big improvement.

Substitutes

Erhun Oztumer - 6

Looked busy when he came on with some incisive passing and a willingness to get forward which his erstwhile teammates had lacked. Seemed to snatch at his best chance towards the end but I put that down to rustiness. I can only pray he is more than just a last 20-minute sub-type.

Josh Magennis - 7

To describe Magennis as ‘barrel chested’ does a disservice to barrels. He’s a mountain of a man and looked dangerous when he came on, culminating in a thunderbolt that the child in QPR’s goal found too hot to handle. I’m undecided on whether his impact was solely down to his physical attributes or to the fact that it meant Wanderers played with two up top, but either way, he was streets ahead of his new mate Doidge. I hope they’re given chance to form a partnership as JM’s brawn and Doidge’s lithe style could mesh nicely.

Yanic Wildschut - 7

I’ve given him a seven score because he was, by some way, our most dangerous attacker. However, what I found disappointing was that it took him the best part of 60mins to realise that he had the beating of his full-back. After that he was extremely positive in his wing play. I just wish he’d realised that he was a class above a lot sooner.