Three vital killer blows - A Review of Wanderers 2011-2012 season

If it could go wrong, it did go wrong for Owen Coyle in the last nine months as injuries, illness, form and fixtures all conspired to make life as difficult as possible.

But this was also a season in which the manager himself was put under greater scrutiny than ever before. This, the man who led the club out of the Gary Megson slump, now being held to account by the supporters for the frustrating levels of inconsistency that dogged the Whites from day one.

To analyse the campaign as a whole, opinions were generally divided between two extremes. One was that the trials and tribulations that befell the club from a sunny afternoon in Newport to a windswept Britannia Stadium were largely to blame for the club’s decline; while the other was the more pragmatic view that the manager, players and staff did not do enough to warrant a 12th successive season at the top table.

To put in my own two penn’rth, I lean more towards the former than the latter – but only because I believe Wanderers were robbed of their three most effective players when they needed them most.

Way back at the start of August, I sat virtually alone in the slim press box at Newport County when I heard a sound I never want to hear again.

Chung-Yong Lee had danced around one tackle before inviting another from Tom Miller, a young and previously unknown midfielder. His lunge snapped the Korean’s leg in two and instantly I knew he would not be playing again for a long, long time.

Fast forward two months and I travelled to Villa Park for a Carling Cup game to see Stuart Holden make a welcome return to the midfield following his own injury ordeal at the hands of Manchester United’s Jonny Evans.

To see the US international harass, harry, tackle and track that night sent you straight back to the heady days where we were all contemplating Europe again.

Just days after Holden inspired a 2-0 win, I was told his knee had swollen, ruling him out of the next game at Arsenal. The following week, it emerged that screws inserted to heal his original injury had caused more damage – and he would ultimately miss the rest of the season.

In typical style, the midfielder tweeted me a picture from bedside within a couple of days of going back under the surgeon’s knife, smile back on his face – and I take my cap off to his relentless optimism. But secretly I feared for the team he left behind.

Sure enough, things didn’t pick up.

The early struggles were put down to a fearsome run of fixtures against the so-called top clubs, which contributed to the worst start since 1903, a year in which the club were also relegated.

So often was this mentioned at the time that I worried it could be an emotional crutch that excused under-performance, and certainly, Wanderers struggled to gain any sort of momentum, even after avenging their FA Cup semi-final defeat with a brilliant 5-0 victory over Stoke City at the Reebok.

That game in November would also prove to be the last time I got to work with one of my colleagues, and good friend, Liam Chronnell, who died at the age of 33 a month later.

Sure enough, it wasn’t until a gutsy 2-1 win at Blackburn Rovers in December did I really feel the club had shaken off their poor start and looked anything like the players they could be.

At this time, fans were questioning Coyle’s use of the 4-4-2 system with which he had become so accustomed. Certainly, he had struggled to find a front two in form, with skipper Kevin Davies looking off the pace, new signing David Ngog struggling for form and fitness and Ivan Klasnic adding goals, but not necessarily subscribing to the team work ethic.

Coyle changed to a 4-4-1-1 that night at Ewood Park, when victory meant the club would not be bottom at Christmas. I wondered if that would be the turning point, and sure enough, they lost just two of their next 10 games.

It seemed a changing of the guard was in place midway through the season, as Davies looked on from the bench – with new Sunderland boss Martin O’Neill looking on with interest from the Stadium of Light and Adam Bogdan having replaced Jussi Jaaskelainen in goal after the Finn picked up a thigh injury and could not get back in the side.

Defeats against Norwich at Carrow Road, then Wigan at the Reebok diminished the optimism. Tactics were again being questioned, while the lack of game time given to Fabrice Muamba had become a stick with which many fans were willing to beat the Wanderers boss.

The former England Under-21 international had not always been de rigueur with Whites fans, not least playing under the man who signed him for £5.75million from Birmingham City, Gary Megson.

But by mid-March his lack of action was fuelling the internet message boards, particularly as his replacement, Darren Pratley, had yet to find his feet in the Premier League.

On March 17, in an FA Cup quarter-final tie at White Hart Lane, Muamba collapsed off the ball, and as I watched on from the press box I saw the most miraculous thing I’m ever likely to witness on a football field.

The midfielder, then 23, had gone into cardiac arrest, and like 40-plus thousand others I watched as a team of medics from both clubs flooded on to the field to bring him back to the brink of life.

Much more work was done in the ambulance and in the nearby London Chest Hospital – but in that 10 minutes, the whole sport became a complete irrelevance.

We could never have imagined how Muamba would recover, nor how the story would touch everyone and bring Bolton Wanderers to the attention of the world like it had never been before.

Although the raw emotion and relief went on to fuel victories over Blackburn and Wolves, one wondered whether the mental toll would eventually hit home.

Coyle remained upbeat – and though his team were showing mid-table form with points against Swansea and Sunderland, those around us in the relegation race were also finishing strongly.

Giving up a two-goal lead at home to West Brom on the penultimate weekend took Wanderers’ fate out of their own hands as they prepared to head for Stoke City on the last day. And ultimately, the fact that their fate relied heavily upon QPR’s result at Manchester City on “Survival Sunday” cost them their place in the top flight.

Nervy and fractious throughout, Sergio Aguero’s goal to clinch the Blues a long-awaited title came after the final whistle at Stoke.

The Whites had gone through much of the 90 minutes believing nothing they did at Stoke would save them.

In the end, however, they would have stayed up had they shown more faith and snatched a winner.

So relegation was confirmed, triggering a clearout of up to a dozen first team players in order to nearly halve the overall wage bill.

Heading to a new frontier they have not experienced for more than a decade, Wanderers at least have the comfort of knowing Holden and Chung-Yong will be back in the fold, while Muamba faces some big decisions on whether he will resume his playing career after such an incredible escape.

And again, those who follow the club seem split between the optimism of an immediate return and the feeling that this is the end of a long and illustrious road.

For my part, I’m just praying for a straightforward, successful season, because covering this club over the last 12 months has done very little for my hairline.