By: Chris C.
Soccer City FC
For a club that’s still “in transition,” it’s hard to imagine where Bolton will be at the start of next season. The ‘experts’ say we’ll be looking at Bolton’s first trip to the Championship in over 9 years. Optimists say Bolton will finish at the top of the bottom half of the table, and still others say Bolton will finish dead last, numerous points adrift of safety. We still don’t know where the club will finish this season, but the Trotters recent trip to ‘Boro shows us all one thing; they’ve found the back of the net once again. Bolton have managed to keep the second best defensive record outside of the big 4, but their offense this year has been severely lacking. Managing typically 1 or no goals per-game, or in the case of the Manchester City game, managing one and having a second conceded by their players. This week, that changed.
It was as every Bolton fan believed it should be, Bolton, the White Hot Wanderers, took to the pitch with a flying start, dominating play and putting themselves 2-0 up before the break. While there was some controversy as to who scored the first goal of the match, there was no question that it had gone in, and given the Trotters a flying start. Though initially credited to Gretar Steinsson, the goal actually belonged to Kevin Davies, who claims his fifth goal of the campaign. Matthew Taylor would add a second to give Bolton some breathing room, and that’s how the first half would remain. The run of play stayed largely with Bolton in the first half, though after their second goal, the team appeared to have shut themselves down with little urgency and returning to the Bolton Wanderers we’ve seen many times this season. It certainly wasn’t the same Bolton that had just put two goals on the score sheet. What would the second half bring us?
Much of the same, it turned out. Upon the restart, Bolton continued to try to defend their lead, sitting back and becoming less aggressive on the ball in search of more goals. The match took on a turn and, in the 77th minute, ‘Boro took their chance and drew to within one goal. Not feeling particularly comfortable with only one goal cushion to support them now, Bolton again seemed to turn a switch on and get back to the dominating, attacking football we saw in the first half, and then it came. In the 78th minute of play, Johan Elmander, the striker that’s been taking so much heat for his inability to finish of late, silenced his critiques with a fantastic shot into the back of the net, restoring the two goal cushion at 3-1. The final few minutes played out in much the same fashion as before, with Bolton pushing forward, but not with such lethality that you would have expected a fourth goal to wind up in the net. Likewise, the back four remained resolute, and the match became somewhat of a stalemate as the final whistle blew. It was Bolton’s third away win of the campaign, and perhaps their most important win to date.
The win at Middlesbrough marked Bolton’s return to form after their somewhat expected loss to Liverpool the week before. Many wondered if Bolton had shown their last-gasp with the previous two wins against Hull and Manchester City, and that the loss to Liverpool would be the start of the long road downward for the Bolton boys. This wasn’t the case, however, and Bolton have managed to regain their winning form, pushing themselves to twelfth in the table, and looking like a team that could finish in the top half this season.
Indeed, it was a great showing from Bolton this week, but perhaps moreso for one particular Bolton player. After being the target of the Bolton fans for seemingly months now, Johan Elmander proved that he was well worth the money spent for him, with a performance that can only be called epic. It’s not just the fact that he put the ball in the net at long last, but that he played like an elite player on the pitch. He personified everything that was advertised of his skills, and yes, he put the ball in the back of the net in absolutely stupendous fashion. It was as if Bolton had their Nicolas Anelka back at last.
From a Bolton perspective, it was glorious to see our record-breaking signing put up such an incredible performance after so much doubt had been cast on him. That said, however, it’s only one performance, with many more games to come. After such an outstanding performance from the Swedish striker, Bolton fans will be expecting more of the same from him the rest of the way. It’s a lot of pressure to heap on one player, and perhaps deservedly so, but we cannot get complacent because of this performance. Bolton aren’t deep, and Elmander can’t play every minute of every game. It’s ludicrous to assume that he will, and it’s equally ludicrous to assume that he’ll be as astounding as he was in this match with consistency. It’s up to Gary Megson in this coming transfer window to find Johan some supporting players and get some depth for this team if Bolton fans are going to see that consistency. That’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with Bolton’s current composition, there are some fantastic players on the squad that have done very well so far. It’s just a complete lack of depth that keeps Bolton back, and what happened to Ebi Smolarek? Seems he’s just up and vanished.
Alas, this isn’t the point of this article, valid as it may be. We’re talking about the incredible performance of those White Hot Wanderers against Middlesbrough, and the hope of Trotters fans everywhere that the club manages to get into the winning form with great consistency. Well done boys, well done!
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