FA Cup FIVE THINGS: Bolton Wanderers 5-2 Walsall

Well that was eventful. Straight onto my five things:

1) Attacking Mentality

Phil Parkinson couldn’t slip off the habits of a lifetime and began the game with just one striker and it would come as a surprise to practically nobody that Bolton Wanderers struggled to get any sort of attacking rhythm even when the game was goalless.

Then, faced with oblivion, he brought on Clayton Donaldson and everything changed. My point here isn’t that Donaldson is the answer to all life’s problems because not even he could work out why the baddie in Luther felt half-baked by the end despite him being fantastic in the previous three episodes.

Two up front. It’s not rocket science but it gives us a chance.

2) Weaknesses Everywhere

The first half was nothing short of a disgrace.

Every single player who trudged off to boos at HT deserved the criticism of the crowd. Every single player should be ashamed of his first-half performance and every single player should be promising to themselves that they’ll never again put in a showing as they did between 3pm and 3.45pm yesterday.

The defence was weak. The midfield was shocking and the attack was non-existent.

Yes, by the end everything was rosy in the garden and life is just great but that hides the fact that our squad is struggling in more ways than one.

The problems with Gary O’Neil, Christian Doidge and Remi Matthews notwithstanding, Wanderers need reinforcements because by God we are hanging on by the skin of our teeth.

3) Supporter Apathy

5,000 odd turned up including 1,000 Walsall fans.

To be honest I don’t really understand why, after the week we’ve had, 4,000 Bolton Wanderers fans decided to ignore the chaos and mess of our present situation and attend the game. Nothing will ever change with us behaving like blind sheep and just paying without thinking about it.

That said, nothing will ever change anyway. Our fans are ones for creating Facebook groups to promote their protests but would they actually show up? Course they wouldn’t. Would they do anything more than balloon on Twitter about creating a hostile atmosphere to try and enforce change? Would they ‘eckers like.

Don’t try and pretend you’re something you’re not.

4) Chronic Mismanagement

This has been another low week in our history.

In a season of lows we have seemingly hit a deeper bottom by having the club shop visited by stock reclamation officers. The circumstances of which may never become public knowledge but speculation is often enough.

I’m not going to write line after line of just how badly the fans want change at the club because frankly it’s very boring. There is a thousand allegations to throw at the Anderson family but each one adds up to a situation that is completely untenable.

Something needs to happen and I can only pray it happens quickly because this cannot continue.

5) The Worst Thing Ever

I’ve seen Zat Knight. I’ve seen Will Buckley. I’ve seen Johnny English 3.

Now I’ve seen the worst thing ever.

This

Honestly.

I know young Thogden rubs a lot of people up the wrong way - extremely privileged though he may be and ‘piss take’ though this video may well also be intentioned, you have to be incredibly naive to do something like this.

Posh boy slagging off the north where his ‘favourite’ team reside? Not wise mate. Maybe you and your dad should’ve put your heads together before coming out with this mince.

Is it really wise and clever to be putting down someone because of a) their physical appearance and b) where they work? We aren’t all silver-spoon posh lads with rich parents you know. Very unwise.

Also I have no issues with people being called ‘inbred’ but if you can’t even do subs right then you should probably rethink your creative outlet.