Bolton v Fulham Review: Getting What We Deserve

Hi! Well that was bordering on physically painful from a fans perspective. Now I'm going to preface all of this by saying I am in no way on the "Kit Out" brigade- but given the way we've been playing since Christmas in effectively all but the first half against Forest, and with the string of fixtures we have coming up we could easily end up finding ourselves in and around the Relegation Zone- more so than we already are. I think its generally accepted Blackpool are down- and while Wigan could still do it (and they have a game in hand) them being 8 points away from safety has to make them rank outsiders for survival. This leaves one spot in the Relegation Zone- and realistically everyone from 10th Downwards could still be included in the talk for that one spot. I'd like to think we are "too good to go down", and perhaps we are- but as I've said since Christmas we've shown a level of naivety that means we should be at least in the mix. 

The Goals were a mixed bag today, Our Goal was scrappy as anything- but at the time I'd say we deserved the goal and the lead given the chances we had through Hugo, McCormack and Bodurov. It seems the "Old Club Curse" stretches to unsuccessful half-season Loan Spells where Fulham is concerned- it was a really bad goal to concede, the scene too often this season has been Stafylidis the wrong side of on advancing winger; but this time Bodurov was horrendously out of position- and it was a complete miscue from Hutchinson culminating in a perfect storm of bad defending. There was literally nothing anybody could have done for the Saidy Janko goal however- it was an absolute screamer. The way the game was going Le Fondre probably deserved a goal- so I don't know if Bettinelli felt sorry for him or something, but as I said in my Sunderland Review, he's saved us too many times to start getting on his back yet. 

Speaking of Bettinelli- I thought he had a mixed game. As I've already said he was at fault for the third goal- but lets be honest the game was done by that point, and I don't think he could have done much for the first two- the second in particular. He didn't really have to make any outstanding saves, but in general he coped with everything well enough with the exception of the third goal- which only real effect was giving us another -1 on the Goal Difference. 

The defence was mixed today- I was firstly surprised that Richards was dropped in favour of Grimmer because I didn't think Kit would do it- and it makes me question why he didn't drop Fofana when he wasn't performing. Grimmer had an alright game on balance- I don't know if the opposing managers are targeting Stafylidis as a weak spot, or its just coincidence but we had yet another game where most of the oppositions play came down Stafylidis' side, this time through Janko. I've seen some people slating Bodurov again- and while he didn't have his best game this season he's still in my opinion our best defender and doesn't deserve to be dropped. The Partnership of Bodurov and Hutchinson is our best by a mile- that's not to say its a perfect pairing and we won't leak goals, but it is the best we currently have at our disposal. The Loan Window is open- and I think we might see what I'd call "Panic Loans" coming in just to make sure we limp over the Safety Line ASAP, and I can see us going in for Harry Maguire from Hull- or another Centre-Back. 

The Midfield wasn't up to much today, I said in my preview I didn't think Christensen was match fit- and while he had a better game than he did on Saturday that isn't really saying much. Tunnicliffe in the Parker role doesn't work- characterised by him nearly giving a goal away in the first half when he was robbed, which lead to a Gudjohnsen chance where he should have done better. However positively from that perspective it seems like he won't have to be playing that role for much longer. Fofana was, well Fofana- he does many Fofana things, none of them that good. Kacaniklic had a pretty indifferent game, but that was more because of the lack of pretty much any consistent attacking threat once we scored than anything else. 

Hugo did struggle today, but I wouldn't have subbed him off because when he was we were still in the game (on the scoreboard) and given Hugo's scored in the two games before this I wouldn't have put it past him to score had he have stayed on. But that was Kit's decision- and this time he got it wrong in my opinion. McCormack is on a run of indifferent games at the minute, and this was no excpetion. He only really looked threatening twice- once in the first half where he got a good save out of Lonergan, and another in the Second when a Grimmer cross came in. 

I think Kit's lost the plot with regard to Subs- and I don't say that lightly. Fair Enough I don't think he had a shot on target in the Second Half, but subbing off your Top Scorer when he's on a mini goalscoring run at 1-1 is suicidal in my opinion. Now I advocated bringing on George Williams at the Weekend- but bringing him on when we've already conceded in the midst of a poor second half display is idiotic. The positive I suppose is that Parker is back- and long-term thats a good thing, but I don't think we needed to sub on Parker the way the game was going, and while Fofana does have major flaws his energy could have made a different in the later stages and I'd have taken off Tunnicliffe who had a pretty poor game in my opinion. 

One positive that came out today was that Bryan is staying so it seems, I don't think Bryan is the going on strike type- and he is the sole reason I'm happy for Kit to persist with the Diamond because he's seemingly the only one who can play that role consistently and make us tick. 

Thanks for reading as always, I know its depressing sometimes- but I hope you enjoy the Reviews that come off the back of them. Anyway, we should be used to disappointment by now- and at the end of the day the only thing we can do is move on and try and get something from Ipswich.