Super John's half-term report on Wanderers' squad

It has been a season of inconsistency where the expected push for promotion has failed to materialise.

We have seen a change in manager, and an overhaul in formation and style, but what has Whites legend John McGinlay made of the players on the pitch?

Here, The Bolton News columnist gives his half-term report to the players who have featured more than six times so far ADAM BOGDAN B ADAM has been steady overall, even though there are still a few shaky elements in his game.

I’d like to see him dominate his penalty area a bit more but that might come with experience – and he’s certainly had that in the last 12 months.

I think he has cost us a couple of goals but saved us quite a few with some great saves, and it’s the life of a goalkeeper I suppose that the only things people tend to remember are the ones that went by you.

TYRONE MEARS C+ FELT his way back and I thought he had a very good game on Saturday against Charlton.

Tyrone gets up and down the pitch really well and looks comfortable on the ball, but the main thing he needs to improve on is his final ball. He gets in some good positions but the crossing hasn’t been good enough.

Hopefully, Saturday was a good sign and now that he is back playing on a regular basis, we can see the best of him because we haven’t seen that at all since he came in from Burnley.

MATT MILLS C+ WE haven’t seen the best of Matt Mills by a long chalk.

It has all been a little stop-start since he signed from Leicester City with a good reputation at this level, but he has had a couple of injuries and been found wanting for pace a couple of times I have seen him, so he does need to knuckle down now and prove himself.

He is obviously better than the form he has showed so far, and you’d like to think you’ll see more from him next year.

TIM REAM C- IT seems that Ream has struggled to come to terms with the physicality of the Championship and that’s a shame because that is a huge part of the game at this level.

He looked good in the Premier League, where you tend to get a little more time and respect, but has been knocked on his backside a couple of times this season in the chances he has been given.

If he can get over that hurdle, then I think he still has a lot to offer us. There is more to come, I’m sure of that.

CHRIS EAGLES A CHRIS has been a revelation so far this season, no doubt.

He has quality at set pieces, scored some great goals and has been our main threat going forward in most games. He tends to leave absolutely everything on the park and I like that about him.

He has dropped off a little bit recently but that is probably because he is the only one who has not had a rest. He has been relied upon and because he has raised the bar so high earlier on, it has been noticed.

KEITH ANDREWS B- THE midfield has bore the brunt of the rotation system and that has probably prevented Andrews from really going on and becoming the player we thought we had in the summer.

I’d like to see more of him in an attacking sense because he showed he can get goals at Ipswich. But whether that is because of confidence, form, or just plain old tactical reasons, I don’t know.

He has been consistent of late and I thought he had a good game on Saturday alongside Spearing.

DAVID NGOG B IF I was marking him on Saturday’s performance against Charlton Athletic then I think I would be giving him an A-plus.

The same would be said of David’s appearance against Cardiff when Dougie Freedman first took charge.

Just when you start raving about him, he fails to back it up, and that is a shame because I think he could be a very important player for us this season.

He needs to get on a roll now, get some consistency, and start weighing in with a few more goals.

MARTIN PETROV B- WHAT goes up must come down, and that’s been the way Petrov’s season has gone so far.

He has once or twice looked like the player he should be – one of the best wingers in this whole division. But those days don’t come around often enough.

He doesn’t seem to fit in with the new system so now is resigned to coming on for 10 or 20 minutes in order to change games and that is not the return we should be getting from a player of his calibre. He should be absolutely running the show.

ZAT KNIGHT B+ THE big man has turned out to be one of the most consistent performers of the season so far, recovering from a very shaky start.

It seems he has had more responsibility placed on his shoulders since the new manager came in, and he has come on leaps and bounds as a result.

He can still make mistakes, the difference is, he is chasing back and rectifying them now as opposed to those errors leading to goals as they were earlier in the season.

KEVIN DAVIES B+ NOTHING ever changes with Big Kev, and I mean that as a good thing.

Whether he is playing well or not, you know you are going to get 100 per cent from him every single week.

He has scored a few goals – and I think he should have had more – and adapted quite well to the new style of play that Dougie Freedman has brought in.

He’s still playing every week near enough, so that tells you a lot about how highly the skipper is still rated at this football club.

STEPHEN WARNOCK B+ HE’S been fantastic since he came in from Aston Villa, even though against Chalrton on Saturday he struggled at times when the boy Wilson ran him a little bit ragged.

We had been struggling badly down the left side of defence and teams had targeted that position before he arrived. Now it is a lot more secure, and we have Warnock to thank.

I only hope we manage to convince Aston Villa to let us keep him on loan until the end of the season now, because he would be a big miss.

MARK DAVIES B THIS is a tough one.

I think already this season we have seen his very best and his very worst.

He seemed to have found a system that suited him before his injury and popped up with a few important goals but it hasn’t always been that way.

Earlier in the year he had been completely non existent, and looked a little bit of a luxury at times.

He is a match winner but maybe his big chance of a move in January has gone because of injury.

BENIK AFOBE C I HAD really high hopes for Afobe after watching him against Tranmere in pre-season but I have to admit, I’ve been a little disappointed with what I have seen so far.

He has all the tools – he’s athletic, he’s quick, he can finish – but we haven’t seen it all come together in the few little chances he has been given so far.

He is only young but as a loan player he should be pushing a lot harder for a starting place. It is okay coming on for 10-15 minutes here or there but he needs more games.

SAM RICKETTS B- AFTER making a really poor start to the season, Sam has started to show his consistency again and I think his partnership with Zat Knight is arguably the strongest one we have at the back right now.

Sam had been Mr Consistency for ages but for some reason didn’t look himself for the first couple of months.

He has looked a lot more comfortable since converting to centre-half and I thought he was very good again against Charlton on Saturday.

JAY SPEARING B+ SAW him give away the ball three times in the first half against Charlton, which was very out of character, because I think he’s one of the best passers in the team right now.

Always available to help out his team-mates in possession and is one of the all-rounders who has delivered consistently since he came in.

I was amazed when he was pulled out of the team at first by the manager, but it seems he has a settled place now and I think he has been a good signing.

DARREN PRATLEY C ARRIVED as a goalscoring midfielder but don’t think we have really seen that from him at all.

He’s athletic and gets from box to box but it seems he is suffering a little bit from a lack of confidence, perhaps because he knows the fans have been spiky towards him.

It is hard to judge him because he hasn’t had a lot of starts and I do hope he comes good because he has a really good record at this level. It looks like he will get chances under Dougie Freedman.

CHUNG YONG LEE B- I STILL don’t think Chungy is back to where he was, and might be operating at 80 to 85 per cent at the moment.

I haven’t really seen him beat a man for a while, and when he was at his best he would be making more happen.

He is still contributing in little fits and spurts but not at the same consistent level as he did before his injury and, like Petrov, he should be absolutely tearing this league up with the quality he had shown previously in the top flight.