Bolton Wanderers fan column: Portsmouth loss and atmosphere

The cross was delivered from the right, Jon Dadi Bodvarsson met the ball and delivered a header which was well saved by Will Norris before Dion Charles had the whole goal at his mercy.  

It seemed easier to score, it was a chance in which Charles had to react within a split second. You would say confidently that 99 times out of 100 he scores that, but on this occasion it wasn’t to be.  

I won’t sit here and slate Dion Charles. 11 goals in 17 league appearances so far this season allows him a reprieve, but that miss on Monday definitely turned the Portsmouth game on its head.  

Before that Bolton looked comfortable and were in the ascendancy, Ian Evatt also alluded to it but it seemed to drain the confidence out of the team and they never really recovered.  

Fair play to Portsmouth, they were good value for the win - their midfield was solid and pressed well, Kusini Yengi gave Ricardo Santos a torrid evening and Bolton just could not find a way back into the game after conceding on the stroke of half time. 

Call it an off day, call it losing to the better team on the day, call it what you like but it now represents some adversity that Wanderers have not had to deal with recently due to their good run of form.  

We talk about it a lot in these columns but the question is posed about what Bolton can do this season in which they have struggled to do over the last few years. One factor that stands out is consistency - playing well more often than not will evidently result in more wins than losses. 

But it is also how you react to those defeats, so if Bolton get back on track and win their next two home games against Bristol Rovers and Leyton Orient, then they have some breathing room with that game in hand still at play. 

They can put the Portsmouth game in the rear view mirror and move on, or they can let it fester and disrupt everything they have worked so hard for just to get to this point in the league table. 

Good teams react well to adversity, they bounce back and brush aside minor setbacks. I certainly feel that if Wanderers can take a 4-0 humbling at home to Wigan Athletic and find themselves second in December, they are certainly well equipped to deal with anything League One can throw at them. 

There are obviously questions to be asked after Monday, the main point being if Bolton can deal with a team who have the answers to our press and can effectively nullify it. The Portsmouth game felt eerily similar to the Barnsley playoff semi-final in which we just did not seem to have the answers to their questions. 

That is a job for Ian Evatt to solve as manager, he himself has said there will be more losses to come this year, so we knew this type of performance was going to happen at some point.  

League titles are not won at Christmas, just as much as Bolton are not the same team they will be come April - whether that is for better or worse remains to be seen. 

Stand and deliver at Bolton?

by Tony Thompson

IT’S a real chicken or egg situation – what comes first, the football or the atmosphere? 

Whenever I go to a game at Bolton, I know within five minutes of kick-off whether it is going to be noisy or just one of those games where everyone sounds in a bad mood. 

There isn’t a particularly big build-up before kick-off, or an anthem to get behind like at Liverpool, Leeds or Manchester City, although I have noticed that the pre-match music has changed to something a bit more guitar-based in the last couple of months to try and get people going a bit. 

Usually, after the obligatory roar once the game begins, nine tenths of the support sits back down and watch the game. The Crazy Corner, God bless them, tend to sing on regardless, and I don’t care how many naughty boys and girls sit in that area of the stadium, I’m glad they do what they do. 

We have seen much bigger crowds in the last couple of years yet I don’t really think that has translated into louder atmospheres. Work prevents me from going every week – so stop me if I’m barking completely up the wrong tree – but I think Ian Evatt has a good point when he says the atmosphere could still go up a level or two. 

Watching the game at Portsmouth on Monday night, you saw what a really loud crowd can get you. I am not someone who blames referees – tough job, evens itself out, etc – but it looked from where I was sitting that he got caught up in the noise, which won the home team a few big decisions. It is human nature, nothing more sinister than that, and the Bolton players suffered too. 

“Play good football and the fans will make noise,” I hear you say. Well, I agree.  

Personally, I enjoy the style Evatt’s team play. I do think, however, that some of the slower more patient build-up does not necessarily lend itself to stirring up the supporters in the same way, say, Pompey’s more powerful, direct football does. 

Not everyone likes it, either. There are always older blokes screaming at Ricardo Santos to “gerrit forward!” And that’s not to mention the terrace experts who spend the whole game muttering under their breath to “switch it” or “give it” as if they know better. 

You wonder what could be done to improve the atmosphere – and my suggestion would be to seriously look into safe standing. There is clearly an appetite, and it has been successfully trialled elsewhere now. 

Wouldn’t it be something to create our own White Wall and bring back some of the strength we used to have in the Burnden days, before all the plastic seats calmed us down?