Huddersfield Town 0-1 Bolton Wanderers e-Football Review

Article by e-Bolton Wanderers Correspondent Alan Houghton

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For once the M62 was clear for our short drive over the Pennines. There was a fantastic turnout of Bolton fans considering the league position as over 2,300 made the journey. Both sets of fans mixed happily in the Yorkshire Rose. Hopes were high for a result as we devoured our Barnsley chops and quaffed a couple of pints of real ale. Huddersfield haven’t won in their last six matches, while we’ve only lost one in the last ten matches. Our optimism was matched by the local’s pessimism.

It was a short walk to Huddersfield’s yet again renamed ground, the John Smith’s stadium. Why don’t clubs nowadays give their stadium a real name and then prefix it with their current sponsor? The home fans knew all about Lukas Jutkiewicz and Neil Danns as they have both been on loan with Huddersfield previously, the latter helping them to say up last season. Of course, we knew all about Danny Ward, who started off as a youngster at Bolton. Neil Danns was the only change for us, coming in for the unfortunate Rob Hall, who suffered from the ‘drop the man of the match’ policy Freedman seems to follow these days.

The match had an end of season feel to it as the Bolton fans sang “We’re not going down, we’re not going up”. Neither team played particularly well as defences were on top and what few chances were created were well dealt with by both goalkeepers. Medo Kamara was just wide with a free kick after 10 minutes while Danny Ward clipped the angle as Adam Bogdan looked to have it covered. Chung Yong Lee hit the post soon after for Bolton while Oscar Gobern saw his header cleared off the line by Jay Spearing. The second half carried on like the first half with chances few and far between. Liam Trotter had a header easily saved by Alex Smithies and Lukas Jutkiewicz had a couple of chances, one of which he could have done better and give it to the unmarked Liam Trotter. Huddersfield countered and forced Adam Bogdan to tip two goalbound shots over the bar. But as the match wore on, Huddersfield seemed content to settle for a point and we sensed our chance to win as we piled on the pressure in the last quarter of the game. Joe Mason replaced Liam Trotter, who had his best game so far. Jermaine Beckford replaced the exhausted Lukas Jutkiewicz. Then just as we thought it was all over, Joe Mason brilliantly turned Chung Yong Lee’s low corner into the net to send most of the massed Bolton fans into ecstasy and the rest to their mobile phone media accounts.

We’re now on a similar run to the end of last season, which generated such high hopes. The close season is going to be critical as Dougie Freedman has to make the decisions to further his plan and to avoid a repeat of this disappointing season. We have six players, Neil Danns, Alan Hutton, Lukas Jutkiewicz, Arran Lee-Barrett, Joe Mason and Liam Trotter who have been brought in on loan and made varying levels of impact. We’ve had two other loanees this season, Liam Feeney and Kevin MacNaughton who made real impacts when they were with us earlier in the season. There are three senior Bolton players out on loan with other clubs: Keith Andrews, Craig Davies and Marvin Sordell. Five players are out of contract at the end of the season: Chris Eagles, Stuart Holden, Zak Knight, Tyrone Mears and Andre Moritz. There are several youngsters out on loan with lower division clubs: Cian Bolger, Tom Eaves, Samni Odelusi and Josh Vela. Dougie Freedman has to trim the wage bill and keep the club within the Financial Fair Play rules, otherwise we could end up with a large fine and points deducted. No doubt Dougie Freedman has targets of his own who will fit in with his plan and his way of playing football. He has to decide who to keep, who to let go and which youngsters may come through. He will have to juggle the finances to afford the deals he wants to do. There is so much to sort out and I don’t envy his workload.

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