Mark Albrighton

Chief football writer at the Bolton news -

Any time after 3pm is not “early in the afternoon” in my book.

OGS has done fairly well overall, although it does feel like the honeymoon period is over. That’s not on the back of the Barca game, it felt like it was over before last night. Five defeats in the last seven games now, and I think most would agree the wins against Watford and West Ham were a bit on the lucky side*. Like I say, OGS has done well, I just feel that the decision to appoint him was a bit rushed, like the club are desperately trying to find an “identity” as quickly as possible. It wouldn’t surprise me if this doesn’t work out. As for the squad overhaul, it’ll be interesting to see how much they throw at it this time. Another £200m? *incidentally there wasn’t much made of Pogba’s acrobatic clearance that nearly took off Snodgrass’ head in the West Ham game. Not even a booking.

I still call it “the football league”, but still. Edit - looking at that picture again, it does look like he’s holding a shotgun.

It would be a shame if this was cancelled. I can see the appeal of the extra rest and three points and it would be tempting to want that, but I think the players will want to play. I want to see this winning run continue on the pitch, it takes the sheen off it a bit for me if one of the games is just given to us. No asterisk next to this run of wins please. And no one wants to see a club relegated like this.

Yeah difficult to see where Brighton will pick up points. Maybe a draw against Wolves and a win against the Geordies? That could be just about enough I think, their goal difference helps. But it’s looking like a tough ask at the moment. The momentum, such as it is, will be with Cardiff.

Class of ‘92 stars Paul Scholes charged by the FA for betting misconduct and Nicky Butt arrested for an alleged assault. And they’re currently being knocked out by Barca at a canter. Man Utd have had better days.

In fairness the bone of contention with the Wolves thing wasn’t really to do with how much they spent (although admittedly that was questioned as well). I’m more relaxed about this whole thing than I was a while back, I feel like we’re in reasonably safe hands and they’re navigating our way through it in a correct manner so if people want to question it, fine.

The illegitimate love child between Steve Gibson and Lee Johnson is my guess.

If you’re thinking along these lines, wouldn’t it make more sense to hope Leeds finish second and Sheff Utd play Bristol City, as Bristol City have beaten them twice this season?

Off topic but about your post you allude to, I’ve referred to you lot as “Bristol” a fair bit, mainly because typing the full name out seems overkill and “city” is a bit vague, I don’t want people thinking I’m referring to small heath or Stoke or someone. If your neighbours were in the same conversation, I’d have to change that I guess. No harm intended. I have found just typing “Bristol” looks a bit weird and unfinished. As for calling us “Aston” - meh, we get called worse. I don’t find it annoying but a little bit odd, most people say “Villa”, it’s more natural to say. It would be like calling Leyton Orient “Leyton” instead of “Orient”.

Could be wrong but I think that would require Villa to win their two games and Bristol, Boro and Derby to drop two points each over their respective two games over the Easter weekend. That would leave us with - Villa 75 Bristol 69 Boro 68 Derby 67 With Bristol & Derby having that game in hand, but of course playing each other. So I think that would do it, but we’d need three results to go for us, along with our own. This weekend - Bristol have Reading home and Wednesday away. Boro have Stoke home and Forest away. Derby have Sha away and QPR home.

DDID speaks of a moral victory.

Positive news. Play him for the next two or three games/until his next yellow card. Then rest him. I’d be looking at resting a few of the players in the final game anyway....assuming we have that luxury of course.

Following on from Zatman’s post - Brighton - 33 points Cardiff (h) Wolves (a) Spurs (a) Newcastle (h) Arsenal (a) Man City (h) Cardiff - 28 points Brighton (a) Liverpool (h) Fulham (a) Palace (h) Man Utd (a) The final spot should most likely be decided this week. I would say Brighton really have to avoid defeat, as opposed to winning it, as their remaining fixtures are terrible. Cardiff have two winnable matches after it. It’s been looking like Cardiff facing the drop for a while, but if they do win on Tuesday that could be a real twist.

It’s 13 cards unfortunately. That extra one makes it feel a lot closer, if he was on 12 I’d be a bit easier about it. In his last 8 games, he’s picked up 4 bookings. I can’t see him going through the next 4 league games and potentially 2 semi final legs without picking up more (I don’t care if he gets booked in the play off final, should we reach it). A booking against Millwall and another against Leeds and he would be out of both semi final legs. He picks up a second booking between Norwich and the second leg, he’s out of the final (potentially).

That was my initial interpretation but then I read a comment elsewhere and it concluded differently and I doubted myself. I obviously hope play off games aren’t included, but as you say the wording doesn’t make it immediately obvious.

Just reading about this, are you sure it applies to the play offs? Unless I’m reading it wrong? http://www.thefa.com/news/2018/jul/31/red-yellow-cards-technical-area-2018-19 Edit - Re-reading that means the cut off date doesn’t apply to play off matches, doesn’t it? Balls.

I guess the best course is to play him in the Bolton and Millwall games, hope that he doesn’t collect any more, (hopefully) pick up the necessary points and then rest him for the final two games? A bit surprised there’s no reset at 46 games though.

I’m already braced to try and cheer myself up on 28th May 2019...

A long way to go yet, a few twists and turns I‘m sure will occur. So I really don’t want to sound like I’m getting ahead of myself. But it just feels like it’s shaping up to be a Sheff Utd v Villa final, the narrative of two local lads managing their boyhood clubs, it just seems inevitable.

As I now know how to upload tweets on VT I’ll upload it. Thinking about it, I’m not even sure it counts as a dive to be honest, more some form of performance art -

I think a lot of people accept that Jedinak can play at centre back when called upon (such as having four first team defenders unavailable for selection). It was the thought of him being one of two first choice central defenders for the entire season people were unhappy with. Glad he’s had a good game, his professionalism has never been a cause for concern.

One negative though, if this boy band is to be a success, McGinn is going to have to work on his choreography -