Unbeaten in two games – that's how I'm thinking about things. I've been re-boosted by last week's battling win against one of our bogey teams and am feeling optimistic about this afternoon's match. By all accounts Batth had a great debut and the clean sheet told its own story while the signing of Jack Clarke and the possible return of Defoe are adding to the positive feeling. Bolton are in the lower end of mid-table and have managed to stabilise after the tumult of recent seasons. They've won their last two games after three defeats in a row so let's hope we can reverse their winning trend. We'll have five thousand fans there to roar us on so there should be a great atmosphere. It seems likely that Pritchard will return, maybe off the bench, which is a great bonus, and Patrick Roberts might well make his debut. If it's as windy in Bolton as it is in Sunderland, it'll be a major factor so we'll need to keep the ball on the ground. I'll be having a few beers with my Sunderland bubble while taking in the game. Match prediction: 3-1 to us.
When I got the team-news, Batth was starting again while Pritchard, Roberts and Clarke were all on the bench so I hoped to see at least two of them on later. My three mates were predicting: 3-0 to us as well as two 2-1’s.
The first action was in the second minute when Cirkin conceded a free-kick near the left angle of our box but it came to nothing. We soon settled and had a couple of decent forays forward before winning the first corner in the tenth minute. Elsewhere Rotherham took an early lead away to Crewe. It settled down to an end to end game but Bolton took the lead in the nineteenth minute when a long ball reached the edge of our box and for some reason the outcoming Hoffmann failed to clear it and Charles dinked it up and into the net. We were lucky not to go two-down shortly afterwards when Lee shot over from close range after receiving a cross from the right. We were suddenly sounding very vulnerable and despite creating some good moves ourselves, we continued to sound so whenever Bolton went forward. Three minutes before the break we went 2-0 down and again we sounded wide open as Bolton broke down their right, where they’d been getting plenty of room, and when a low cross came in Afolayan slot it home. I couldn’t see us getting one goal back let alone three so as the half-time whistle went things were looking very grim. At least Wycombe were losing 1-0 and that added a tiny ray of sunshine.
Major changes were needed, either through subs or a tactical switch or two, if we were going to get anything from the game and Pritchard was the man we wanted to see on. There’d been no changes as we kicked off again but we still sounded all over the place at the back. In the fifty-first we went 3-0 down and again the move came down their right. A cross came over and Charles was there to bang it home. There was surely no way we were going to come back from this when we hadn’t had a shot worthy of the name so far. About seven minutes in, we made a double switch bringing on Pritchard and Clarke for Dajaku and Cirkin, who’d been a major culprit in allowing them so much space down their right. It was 4-0 just before the hour-mark when Lee scored after a clearance which had gone astray gave Bolton the opportunity. Our goal difference wasn’t looking that great so if we could get a goal or two back that would at least ease the pain a bit. With about twenty minutes to go Bolton made a triple switch knowing the game was won but I was really hoping the game would end very soon. To put the cherry on the cake of an awful afternoon we went 5-0 down with about five minutes on the clock when Batth headed into his own net from what seemed like an unthreatening situation. The horror wasn’t over yet as a couple of minutes later it was 6-0 when an unmarked John smashed a good shot into the top-right corner. It ended 6-0 amid calls for LJ’s instant dismissal.
This was an unexpected and also terrible performance. What’s that coming over the hill? Well, it doesn’t look like promotion.
