Cheers all, good to see some proper logical and thought through opinions on here rather than the chaotic reactionary nonsense you get on Facebook!
Catte wrote:The season went off the rails when the young lad got injured and your midfield lacked the experience of a battle at the wrong end of the table and that can break a team, they will be better for it but the loanee's will return to their clubs with the experience under their belts.
Pains me to say it, but the Bolton fan is absolutely spot on! Been banging on about the midfield and balance all season - bags of talent, just not really the solid base to anchor things. That comes from recruitment problems, which stems from restraints we've had operating in the transfer market.
Keith wrote:I agree, Phillips getting injured was a massive blow for us. But, after our mini-winning streak, we played Derby, which no-one seriously expected anything, but the next game was FGR, where we had one up front. I think we could have played Hunter or Gnahoua up front with Stockton. That was the first of the 'must win' games that we failed to do so.
We played Hunter, him and Crowley had quite free roles buzzing around Stockton. That is quite attacking! Especially ahead of a midfield pairing of Weir and Shaw. Problem was that FGR's incredibly organised defensive block was super hard to break down (as Sheff Weds recently found out), and Hunter/Crowley consequently dropped deeper for the ball. Mellon sub and going a bit more direct worked in the final 10 minutes with the frenetic dynamic of the game at that point, but if we'd done that all game then there's every chance it would have been way too predictable and FGR would have had an easy time clearing/hoovering up second balls with the numbers they had back.
On Mellon, by all reports he was apparently a cracking finisher. But it seems his all round game was a bit lacking. I thought he showed some nice bits of movement at times but not quite on Phillips's level, and also was a a bit of a liability defensively. Quite a big lad for his age but didn't seem to cope well with physical treatment. Thought his head went a bit, especially after the disastrous 30mins out wide vs Port Vale before Stockton was subbed and we changed shape.
Ultimately, it was his first ever set of senior appearances. Compare that to Phillips, who had a handful of Championship appearances as well as last season on loan in League Two at a couple of different clubs. It can make a big difference!