Immediate Reaction: Bolton Wanderers 1-1 Mansfield Town

To quote my fellow LOV writer Liam: ‘A life lesson I have gained whilst watching Bolton over the last ten years is that no matter how bad you think things might be, they can always get worse’.

Truer words couldn’t be spoken after (bar a bright opening fifteen minutes) another lacklustre Wanderers performance against a Mansfield Town team that haven’t won a game in the league all season.

As soon as the half time whistle blew & we didn’t take advantage of the bright start to take the lead, it seemed an inevitability that Mansfield would grow into the game and open the scoring. It was deserved as well.

Billy Crellin’s performance will be discussed a lot once again. At this point, I feel sorry for him. He’s clearly feeling the pressure of being a first choice goalkeeper and needs a break from the team. It really can’t be good for his development to be in the firing line game after game.

Wanderers’ equaliser was a rare bit of quality that has been greatly missed this season. Crawford’s ball through to Sarcevic was sublime & something we expected far more of from a player we were all delighted to have kept hold of in the Summer.

Watching Wanderers at the moment is the footballing equivalent of a Smiths album. Is it down to the performance of the players? Is it poor recruitment from Mr Phoenix? Is it the style of play & tactics from Evatt?

Some sort of change is clearly needed - tactically or otherwise. Given the amount of compensation we paid for our manager, I can’t see him leaving anytime soon.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Thinking we’ll improve playing this formation is exactly that.