Bolton 0-2 Brighton - e-Football Review

Article by e-Bolton Correspondent Alan Houghton

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Just as we all thought, everything was starting to come up roses in the Reebok garden, Brighton arrived and administered a dose of reality.

In the packed Fanzone, the debate was not about whether we would win but by how many. Nobody guessed the four team changes as yet again the man of the previous match, this time Zak Knight was relegated to the bench. No sign whatsoever of Mark Davies introduced doubts and dampened spirits.

Brighton played an intelligent passing game which had Bolton chasing the ball for most of the match. We went one behind early on when Buckley scored from an acute angle after a brilliant save from Bogdan was not cleared. Could our new found confidence provide some resilience and inspire a fightback? Certainly the heads didn’t drop as Baptiste, Wheater and Medo forced marvellous saves from Kuszczak. In the second half, the quality disappeared from Bolton’s play as passes and crosses went astray and it was no surprise when Buckley got his and Brighton’s second goal. Both Trotter, who was a waste of a Wanderers shirt and Danns were guilty of bad misses. In between Mason appeared to have equalised but the goal was ruled out after a tight offside decision from the linesman.

Brighton deserved their win as worryingly too many Bolton players had an off day. They showed us that we have some catching up to do before we start beating the top teams in this division. This match also demonstrated that 4-4-2 is not the simple panacea it’s cracked up to be. The recent improved results show that we are moving in the right direction but days like these show that it will be a long and winding road before we get back to the Premiership.

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