Bolton v Rovers - Match Report

A fantastic battling performance yesterday that epitomised the new work ethic and fitness that Hughes and his staff have installed into the squad. The spine of the team were just terrific. The two centre-halves won everything and took Bolton's constant bombardment in their stride. The midfield defended well, picked up most of the knock-downs and won most of the 50-50's - Flitcroft in particular put himself about and constantly won possession back from their midfield. And Dickov was just tremendous. He worked his balls off, took his goal very well, and defended superbly from the front. Man of the match, just ahead of Flitcroft and Todd. We could and should have won by more, Stead was unlucky with a header that hit the underside of the bar and how Reid missed when clean through at the death I'll never know. We were the better team in the first half, controlled midfield and looked threatening whenever we went forward, and then defended superbly in the second when Bolton put us under pressure. Bolton didn't have a clear-cut chance the whole game and looked devoid of ideas as the game wore on. If you think things are bad watching the Rovers, imagine being a Bolton season-ticket holder and having to watch that aerial bombardment every match. The team still lacks quality, we desperately need a new striker, but the need for a defensive midfielder is now perhaps not as great as it was if Flitcroft can keep up his current form. Despite the lack of real quality though, Hughes has got the team playing to their maximum most games and we are starting to out-work and battle other teams. If we can keep this up we should achieve safety without too many problems. However, if we drop our work-rate in games then our lack of quality will become apparent and we'll get beat more often than not. Match report written by Scotty

Bolton: Jaaskelainen, Hunt, N'Gotty, Jaidi, Gardner, Okocha, Speed (Hierro 72), Giannakopoulos (Ferdinand 76), Pedersen (Vaz Te 52), Davies, Diouf. Subs Not Used: Poole, Barness. Booked: Vaz Te, Jaidi. Blackburn: Friedel, Neill, Todd, Johansson, Matteo, Reid, Flitcroft, Ferguson, Emerton, Dickov, Bothroyd (Stead 25). Subs Not Used: Enckelman, Gallagher, Thompson, McEveley. Booked: Ferguson, Flitcroft. Goals: Dickov 6. Att: 27,038 Ref: R Styles (Hampshire).

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