Cheltenham Town v Bolton Wanderers

[Jon Palmer]

Team news, live updates and reaction all here this afternoon: https://bit.ly/BoltonWHome

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

Ferry, Goodwin, Bradbury, Links all on the bench. They will all start plenty of games when fit, so, fitness/sharpness aside, the bench is not too bad. Not seen enough of Adshead to comment.

[Shade]

Seen enough already to know I'd rather have Bradbury than Davies. 2 fouls, 2 yellows, 2 goals directly from them.

[PCrobin]

Game over after 30 mins

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

Seen enough already to know I'd rather have Bradbury than Davies. 2 fouls, 2 yellows, 2 goals directly from them.

Being told he looks finished.

[Wanderlust]

Curtis Davies has been a great player in his time, but he's off the pace today.

[Broadway Brian]

Ferry, Goodwin, Bradbury, Links all on the bench. They will all start plenty of games when fit, so, fitness/sharpness aside, the bench is not too bad. Not seen enough of Adshead to comment.

Weak bench.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

Ferry, Goodwin, Bradbury, Links all on the bench. They will all start plenty of games when fit, so, fitness/sharpness aside, the bench is not too bad. Not seen enough of Adshead to comment.

Weak bench.

Not really when Ferry is our best player, Bradders our second best CB, and Goodwin the rotation for Street/Keena.

[Shade]

No striker on the bench. Which is fine as long as they don't get injured as they're the least of our problems today.

The midfield and defence are so much slower in the brain than Bolton, who know where everything is going to drop before it happens.

[Ihearye]

So glad I am missing this only hope Bolton ease up now the job is done

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

No striker on the bench. Which is fine as long as they don't get injured as they're the least of our problems today.

The midfield and defence are so much slower in the brain than Bolton, who know where everything is going to drop before it happens.

JP said Goodwin was on the bench?

[Haitch]

No striker on the bench. Which is fine as long as they don't get injured as they're the least of our problems today.

The midfield and defence are so much slower in the brain than Bolton, who know where everything is going to drop before it happens.

JP said Goodwin was on the bench?

Can confirm Goodwin is on the bench

[Broadway Brian]

Ferry, Goodwin, Bradbury, Links all on the bench. They will all start plenty of games when fit, so, fitness/sharpness aside, the bench is not too bad. Not seen enough of Adshead to comment.

Weak bench.

Not really when Ferry is our best player, Bradders our second best CB, and Goodwin the rotation for Street/Keena.

No point stating their roles as a measure of strength.

Which one of them is going to make a huge difference to this today?

Links can introduce some energy. Adshead unknown. Goodwin and Chapman should be elsewhere come the close of the window.

Bradbury 2nd best. He shouldn’t be, we need much better.

Ferry should be starting granted although isn’t fit otherwise he’d be on.

Weak bench.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

Weak bench.

Not really when Ferry is our best player, Bradders our second best CB, and Goodwin the rotation for Street/Keena.

No point stating their roles as a measure of strength.

Which one of them is going to make a huge difference to this today?

Links can introduce some energy. Adshead unknown. Goodwin and Chapman should be elsewhere come the close of the window.

Bradbury 2nd best. He shouldn’t be, we need much better.

Ferry should be starting granted although isn’t fit otherwise he’d be on.

Weak bench.

Bradbury was bossing it last season when he came in. Decent enough.

Goodwin is decent enough and will only improve. Could make a difference, if fit - same as Ferry.

We had much worse benches last season (Chapman, Barkers, Norton, Baggott etc).

I said Adshead unknown. I wasn’t counting Chapman.

We are only going to be signing one or two more on loan so you’ll have to get used to most of today’s 18 being in the 18 most weeks, I’m afraid.

[theidlerich]

Not really when Ferry is our best player, Bradders our second best CB, and Goodwin the rotation for Street/Keena.

No point stating their roles as a measure of strength.

Which one of them is going to make a huge difference to this today?

Links can introduce some energy. Adshead unknown. Goodwin and Chapman should be elsewhere come the close of the window.

Bradbury 2nd best. He shouldn’t be, we need much better.

Ferry should be starting granted although isn’t fit otherwise he’d be on.

Weak bench.

Bradbury was bossing it last season when he came in. Decent enough.

Goodwin is decent enough and will only improve. Could make a difference, if fit - same as Ferry.

We had much worse benches last season (Chapman, Barkers, Norton, Baggott etc).

I said Adshead unknown. I wasn’t counting Chapman.

We are only going to be signing one or two more on loan so you’ll have to get used to most of today’s 18 being in the 18 most weeks, I’m afraid.

Suspect this may well be the case this season...

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

No point stating their roles as a measure of strength.

Which one of them is going to make a huge difference to this today?

Links can introduce some energy. Adshead unknown. Goodwin and Chapman should be elsewhere come the close of the window.

Bradbury 2nd best. He shouldn’t be, we need much better.

Ferry should be starting granted although isn’t fit otherwise he’d be on.

Weak bench.

Bradbury was bossing it last season when he came in. Decent enough.

Goodwin is decent enough and will only improve. Could make a difference, if fit - same as Ferry.

We had much worse benches last season (Chapman, Barkers, Norton, Baggott etc).

I said Adshead unknown. I wasn’t counting Chapman.

We are only going to be signing one or two more on loan so you’ll have to get used to most of today’s 18 being in the 18 most weeks, I’m afraid.

Suspect this may well be the case this season...

Très drôle. Nothing to be afraid of. We know our budget and how difficult L1 is for us. Embrace the challenge.

[Haitch]

As per pretty much all of last season and so far all of this one, Town playing WaitingForTheBall and Bolton playing FootBall

[Wanderlust]

Curtis Davies playing hoof the ball out of the stadium

[robinsrule]

A predictable but still worrying result today. Just don’t see where the goals are going to come from this season.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

Bolton different class. Couldn’t get near them. There will be more winnable games, which we have to capitalise on when they come round. That’s two of the 20+ defeats down!

[cliffy90]

It's going to be a very long season based on today's performance. Very little in the way of creativity, Keena and Street feeding off scraps. Only one team looking like they wanted to play football. Olayinka off injured hopefully it's nothing too serious. Curtis Davies may be experienced but he was awful today. He does know that you can keep the ball on the floor right? He has about as much pace as Aaron Downes.

[QED]

Expected to get beaten but that was the full yikes

[Alf]

Much as we’re going to miss him, I don’t think that even having Alfie May would have made any difference today. The service to the front players (such as they were) was extremely poor.
I accept Bolton are a bigger club with a lot more money to spend than us but we managed to get over that and stay up last season but we need a goal scorer and someone to provide the chances.

[Garby74]

Outplayed
Out fought
Out thought
Yet again shocking ref.

There is no plan B.

The system needed changing.

Hats off to Bolton. They looked hungry strong and full of ideas.

[QED]

We were physically outmatched everywhere - Davies for pace and strength, Williams and Smith for pace, Street and Keena for height and strength - but we didn’t try and make up for it with any desire or additional work rate, which is what set Alfie apart. He’d have been pressing and chasing down lost causes because he knew that extra bit of work rate would encourage the rest of the team and get the crowd going.

[robinsrule]

Agree with that last comment, we absolutely cannot coast through games. We are not good enough to do that - if we don’t give 100% every game we are going down.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

We were physically outmatched everywhere - Davies for pace and strength, Williams and Smith for pace, Street and Keena for height and strength - but we didn’t try and make up for it with any desire or additional work rate, which is what set Alfie apart. He’d have been pressing and chasing down lost causes because he knew that extra bit of work rate would encourage the rest of the team and get the crowd going.

Of course the players may have been trying to press, but if slower and less strong it wouldn’t be noticeable. Too easy, and too often incorrect, to say players aren’t trying.

[QED]

Haven’t seen it mentioned but that will likely be Olayinka out for 6-8 weeks - looked like a dislocated shoulder. Seriously unimpressed with the ref for not stopping the game (which I’m sure was because he realized he should have given the penalty), and also Nathan Baxter in goal for doing his best to ignore Olayinka screaming in pain and trying to signal the physio to come on. I get that he’s a very young keeper just starting out but if you see a fellow pro clearly crocked, at least try and signal the ref rather than f#!$ off to the top of the area and pretend it’s not happening.

[Shade]

Either dislocated shoulder or broken collarbone. Having had two myself, I'd say more likely dislocation as he wasn't leaning too badly to his right as he walked off.

Ref was an absolute w@nk£r, but we'd already lost the game before his wankery got involved. Unfortunately, it went pretty much as I expected, and exactly as I predicted.

[Robin]

That was alarmingly s#!t and we can't even blame the injuries either. Worried.

[Robin]

Not really when Ferry is our best player, Bradders our second best CB, and Goodwin the rotation for Street/Keena.

No point stating their roles as a measure of strength.

Which one of them is going to make a huge difference to this today?

Links can introduce some energy. Adshead unknown. Goodwin and Chapman should be elsewhere come the close of the window.

Bradbury 2nd best. He shouldn’t be, we need much better.

Ferry should be starting granted although isn’t fit otherwise he’d be on.

Weak bench.

Bradbury was bossing it last season when he came in. Decent enough.

Goodwin is decent enough and will only improve. Could make a difference, if fit - same as Ferry.

We had much worse benches last season (Chapman, Barkers, Norton, Baggott etc).

I said Adshead unknown. I wasn’t counting Chapman.

We are only going to be signing one or two more on loan so you’ll have to get used to most of today’s 18 being in the 18 most weeks, I’m afraid.

I am convinced you are trolling but he came on today, ran around but looked lost for the most part. No better than Norton right now.

[cliffy90]

Either dislocated shoulder or broken collarbone. Having had two myself, I'd say more likely dislocation as he wasn't leaning too badly to his right as he walked off.

Ref was an absolute w@nk£r, but we'd already lost the game before his wankery got involved. Unfortunately, it went pretty much as I expected, and exactly as I predicted.

Suspected dislocated shoulder according to JP.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

No point stating their roles as a measure of strength.

Which one of them is going to make a huge difference to this today?

Links can introduce some energy. Adshead unknown. Goodwin and Chapman should be elsewhere come the close of the window.

Bradbury 2nd best. He shouldn’t be, we need much better.

Ferry should be starting granted although isn’t fit otherwise he’d be on.

Weak bench.

Bradbury was bossing it last season when he came in. Decent enough.

Goodwin is decent enough and will only improve. Could make a difference, if fit - same as Ferry.

We had much worse benches last season (Chapman, Barkers, Norton, Baggott etc).

I said Adshead unknown. I wasn’t counting Chapman.

We are only going to be signing one or two more on loan so you’ll have to get used to most of today’s 18 being in the 18 most weeks, I’m afraid.

I am convinced you are trolling but he came on today, ran around but looked lost for the most part. No better than Norton right now.

I am not trolling. Same as I wasn’t trolling when saying similar things about Freestone in his first two seasons here.

If anyone is trolling, it is you writing off a player based on a 30 minute cameo, after missing pre-season with injury, in a dead game when the whole team was outclassed.

[Wanderlust]

Totally agree with the comments about the ref and Baxter's naivety - still undecided about him as his kicking is pants and the save from the header was unnecessarily over-dramatic. Think you'll be fine this season with a couple of signings - from what I saw I'd be going for some pace up front and perhaps a bit more steel in midfield but you guys will know best.

Just like to say thank you for your hospitality here on the site these last few days and wish you all the best for the rest of the season (apart from your visit to the Tough s#!t Stadium obviously) Might pop in then if that's OK?

[Nham68]

Freestone was very good today . That was the highlight for me .
We looked better when a ferry was on the pitch .
We will improve ,