The quest for a nine-point week continues with the visit of Bolton Wanderers to St Mary’s. Freshly promoted via the play-offs from League One, Steven Schumacher’s team will certainly be a challenge, given their away results so far this season.

It’s generally really difficult for newly promoted sides to make much of an impact away from home in a higher division, but in their five attempts so far they have managed a couple of notable wins at Norwich and, most recently, at Wolves. Consider that Norwich were pre-season favourites to be at least a play-off contender, and Wolves will be aiming for the top two and an immediate return to the Premier League.

Before the midweek games, there was a school of thought that we would be rotating some players for this game and going full-strength against Norwich, but that, of course, wasn’t the case. It certainly shows that, amongst other things, Tonda Eckert is taking Bolton seriously. They are another team who score a lot and concede a lot, so they are not going to be lacking in confidence.

An away game against Southampton is certainly not one that’s going to define their season, and I suspect they are going to approach it with a nothing-to-lose attitude. They will have had exactly the same approach for the Wolves game in midweek and, having won that, the pressure is off them a little bit today. I can’t see them flying into the attack and making it an open game though. It’ll be a case of them letting us have the ball and hitting us on the break, which seems to be the way their team is set up – the usual drill, pace on the wings and get it forward quickly.

This is the kind of game where we have to prove the “levels” argument. We have to go out there with the attitude that we are the big boys in this particular game, not give them a sniff, play with the right attitude and intensity and leave them in no doubt who the big boys are. As far as we are concerned, if we are looking to get promoted this year, then you cannot let your five-game winning streak at home come to an end against the team who won the League One play-offs.

One of their players we know all about, and that’s Gavin Bazunu. He was a goalkeeper who got completely mismanaged at Saints over the four years he was here. He was thrown into a Premier League team at a ridiculously young age of 20, which was well before he was ready, which must have absolutely barbecued his confidence. I worked out that he had eight managers and probably the same number of goalkeeping coaches over his four years here, so is it any wonder that things didn’t work out and he never improved? He was seen as the goalkeeper who was good with his feet, but the trouble was he was never particularly good with his hands and the catalogue of shocking goals conceded was very large. Bottom or near the bottom of the expected saves stats for three years running was a special achievement. I lost count of the number of times I was looking at a goal conceded and wondering how the hell that went in from there. Usually, it was angled efforts.

Like we targeted the weaknesses that Jaden Meghoma had when we played the Skates last week, I would anticipate us targeting Gavin’s weaknesses: shots from angles and crosses into the box. I do hope that he doesn’t have the sod’s law blinder and make 40 saves on the day. It will be interesting to see what sort of reception he gets as well, given that he is an ex-player who wasn’t particularly popular because of the mistakes he made, and also because of the recent shenanigans with the Ireland and Israel game and the obvious irony in him losing his place at St Mary’s to an Israeli goalkeeper.

I’m sure that Steven Schumacher will have him in goal this afternoon. Schumacher was proving to be a very decent up-and-coming manager in his time at Plymouth, but he made that fatal decision that so many managers make and regret, and took the poison chalice of Stoke City, which went the way it always does. Having rebuilt in League 1 with Bolton, he got them up in his first season, so this is a manager who should not be underestimated or doubted.

Same goes for Tonda Eckert really – as he pointed out on Wednesday. I can see there being a few deviations from our usual starting XI with maybe Downes and Larin not being available. If that turns out to be the case then the squad will be dipped into and the likes of Dobbin and Mubama will come into contention. Central midfield will be interesting as well with Braggy available again and then there’s Caspar Jander, who the medical staff will no doubt want held back.

The eleven names point to a normal 4-2-3-1. Larin is fit and Tom Fellows is in for Matsuki. Flynn Downes’ place in midfield is taken by Cam Bragg with Jander’s allocated number of minutes not permitting him to start.

Away we go and OK, there’s some weird shit going on with the formation. It almost looks like we’re playing with a back three with wing-backs. Fellows is on the left and Azaz is playing deep with Scienza pushed forward in a kind of inside-left position. It all looks a bit unnecessary but from our first attack, Azaz puts Bree in and he picks out Scienza running in and the Brazilian produces an absolutely shit effort that flies into the Chapel. He absolutely has to get that on target and test the keeper.

We win a corner as Scienza’s cross towards Larin is headed behind and when the corner is taken it is worked short to Leo, who is about 25 yards out on the left and he drills a low effort at Bazunu but it’s comfortably saved. I’m hoping this is a start of a shoot-on-sight policy, knowing that the opposition goalkeeper is not the best and stopping those shot things.

Dalby upfront for Bolton is having trouble getting anything off of Schlotterbeck but he does get the ball down and plays a cute ball to overlapping full-back Larrazabal, who really should pull the trigger first time but he doesn’t and this allows our emergency left wing back Tom Fellows to get in and get a toe to the ball and knock it back to Peretz.

It all suddenly starts to look a bit disjointed and Tonda changes things with Scienza going out wide right and Fellows pushing higher up the left wing. There immediately follows a spate of Saints, mainly Fellows, getting caught offside every time they go forward. Assuming that these decisions are correct, this is really brainless shit and takes any momentum out of our attack. Anyway, Scienza on the right gets in a good ball with his left foot which is curling towards the back post and Larin goes in with the keeper and appears to come off worse as the ball goes just wide.

A few minutes later and Welington puts a cross into the box which Larin goes for and it ends up as a corner, but Larin appears to be done for the day as he limps off to be replaced by Lewis Dobbin, which will mean another tactical shift. Maybe 3rd time lucky.

As we approach half-time Bolton left-winger Gale decides to take a pot shot from 35 yards and it swerves all over the place and hits the diving Peretz on the knee and bounces back out to Gale who can only put the rebound over the bar. Strange save but I guess it doesn’t matter how you keep them out as long as you do.

As the half draws to a close, Saints try and attack quickly and Scienza beats Famewo in midfield who from the prone position, kicks out at him and catches him high on the thigh. OK, he’s just trying to take a yellow for the team but surely that’s violent conduct, is it not? Not according to the referee and it’s just a yellow card.

Half-time and that’s been a pretty shit effort so far. I am failing to understand why we have changed the way that we have attacked from those four games pre-Pompey, when we rattled in loads of goals. It doesn’t make any sense to my mind and Tonda is clearly frustrated with something because off comes Fellows to be replaced by Matsuki, who takes up station on the left. I feel it’s just a game where we are going to play everybody out of position and hope that something works.

Bolton have a bit of a spell at the start of the second half and a shot comes in from the edge of the box and Captain Jack sticks a foot out to deflect it wide. Stephens then lost his credit in the bank by giving the ball away as we play out of defence but we scramble it away and the confusion leads to Saints on the break with Azaz being taken out by Famewo. The ball runs to Scienza and the ref plays on. On to Matsuki who lofts up all over the top and Dobbin is clean through. He takes a great first touch and gets to the edge of the box and then, faced with the unintimidating non-presence of Bazunu, takes it early with the outside of his right foot and plants it wide. A main course of not hitting the target from there with a side-order of a complete lack of conviction and belief that he was going to score. Meanwhile, back on half-way, there’s a booking handed out but it’s to Cam Bragg for pointing out the obvious that Famewo should be walking off.

Saints on the attack again, and Scienza runs at Gale on the right hand side and beats him and gets a cross in and another defender Rodrigues, slides in with his arm up and the ball quite clearly hits his hand and goes over the goal line. “Handball”, yells 99% of the crowd, including several in the Bolton end. That’s the clearest penalty you’ve ever seen and the ref is pointing at the spot but he wants confirmation from the linesman who does absolutely fuck all and we get a corner out of it. Fuck off. That’s absolutely fucking ridiculous. How can that not be a penalty? Fuck sake. JWP, Matsuki, Stephens, Bragg and Bree are all around the referee but the useless twat has not given it and he’s not going to. He’s actually pointing to his face as if the linesman has told him that it’s not hit his hand at all. Everyone has seen it, even the referee. Absolute shite.

Another shuffle with Wellington off for Manning and Bragg off for Edozie, which means Matsuki goes into the centre of midfield. Another Bolton attack down our right, with Larrazabal getting a cross in and it’s headed up in the air and bounces down with Manning not really knowing where it is and Sheehan gets in the shot from close range and only exceptional reflexes from Peretz keeps it out of the net.

Though Bolton are maintaining a threat, it’s mainly Saints on the attack and Edozie gets put away down the left-hand side and the man with no end product actually finds some, with a low ball across which Dobbin meets in front of Bazunu, but he can only knock it wide. Fucking hell. In fact, I don’t think he even got a touch but it’s a goal kick anyway.

Finn Azaz has been a peripheral figure this game because he’s been buggered about a few times changing position but he finally gets the ball higher up, jinks past a couple of players before putting Scienza in on the left and he squares it into the middle to the unmarked Bree from 8 yards….. but it doesn’t matter if you’ve just got the keeper to beat if you side foot the ball 10 yards wide. Fucking hell. We’re never going to score.

As we go into the 90th minute we are getting increasingly desperate over the incoming two points dropped and the ball is launched diagonally left to right and eventually the ball squirts down to the edge of the box and with his back to goal, unfortunately, it’s Kevin Schlotterbeck. He turns and it’s absolutely a central defenders finish as it flies into the Northam. The end. Bollocks.

The first question that will be on everyone’s mind after that, is “why didn’t we win that?” .

There are a few reasons that we could help… and one that we couldn’t. The one that we couldn’t was of course the penalty that was not given. It’s not an argument for VAR to be a thing in the Championship but it is more evidence that officials in the EFL are generally absolutely fucking dreadful.

The referee (M Donahue) wanted to give it but didn’t have the bottle to give it on his own so he needed the linesman (A Blind-Twat) to fucking confirm it. That linesman of course was solely there to give offsides. Never in a million years is that not a penalty. Fucking ridiculous. He’s sliding to block the cross with his hand above his fucking head. The 4th official said to Eckert that the ball hit the defenders head – which is something he was obviously told by the blind twat with the flag. You can always tell by the way the ball rebounds off a hand, with all the pace taken off it.

The referees are bad enough in the Championship, but the linesmen are even worse. They can’t even spot foul throws and they don’t get involved in any on field decisions, so why the hell Mr. Donahue feels that he needs a linesman to confirm the fucking obvious that he clearly saw with his own eyes, is completely beyond me.

Now for the reasons that we could prevent and this is a much longer list. The shit referee and shit linesman should not have been an issue and they wouldn’t have been if we could hit a cow‘s arse with a fucking banjo. The worst misses were by Lewis Dobbin and James Bree but there were others that were pretty shocking as well and both Leo Scienza and Keven Schlotterbeck should’ve got efforts on target and worked the goalkeeper.

Don’t forget, this is a goalkeeper who as we all know, is not the greatest at stopping shots. We just didn’t work him enough. So why was that? Well, in the first half, we spent most of it brainlessly running offside. It’s unusual these days to come up against the team who have a pretty good offside trap. It was all the rage in the 80s and early 90s as anyone who can remember Tony Adams will testify, but you don’t see it much these days but fair play to Bolton, they did it well and it’s not their fault we kept running into it, frustrating though it is. If you are caught offside six times in 45 minutes of football then it’s either the fault of the striker, for running too early or it’s the fault of the midfield player for not releasing the ball at the right time.

As we know, last week Tonda got a little bit prickly when it appeared that a journalist was doubting him. I expect that made the journalists think twice about pressing him on what the fuck that was this afternoon. We’re playing a team who have just got promoted from League 1 and we are at home and we have won five games in a row at home scoring loads of goals. So, why the fuck did we need to change tactics from what has served us so well at home? Maybe there was something about Bolton that Tonda thought could be exploited but by trying to exploit whatever that thing was, we took away so much from what makes us a good attacking side at home. Leo Scienza started up front before going onto his least favoured right wing. Finn Azaz was taken out of his role as the number 10 and was playing a sort of right midfield role. On top of that we had other players out of position with Tom Fellows as a left wing back. It clearly wasn’t working pretty early on because everyone got moved around halfway through the first half and then Larin got injured and having picked a team that was presumably set up to Larin’s strengths, we then changed again with Lewis Dobbin coming on instead of Divin Mubama, who is of course a much more similar profile to the man from Brampton. Cyle getting injured was an event that should have come as no surprise to anybody, as he did not look fit against Norwich. Update: Apparently, Tonda was worried about the Bolton right back coming forward so made it lopsided deliberately. That’s extremely negative thinking.

Having started with a weird formation, from then on he was fighting fires all over the place and Eckert was chasing his tail. Matsuki came on and played on the left and then he went to the number 10 position for a bit before dropping into midfield alongside JWP. So in 45 minutes he played three positions, none of which are his best one. Dobbin was struggling like fuck up front, missing easy chances and generally not being effective. We found a way we could use him against Norwich by playing Azaz up with him, but Dobbin was virtually on his own up front today which 100% does not suit him. To be honest he should’ve come off with about 10 minutes to go to give Mubama a run but subbing the substitute is never an easy thing to do.

We sacrificed our strengths to cater for Tonda’s weird tactical flights of fancy which were not needed for this game. The main thing sacrificed was getting the best out of Finn Azaz. The attack is never as good when Azaz is not in the middle of the pitch. Absolutely fucking ridiculous to take our best player out of the centre of the attacking effort.

I have said on numerous occasions that we need to be the big dogs in this division, especially when we’re playing with all due respect, teams like Bolton. We need to do what we’re good at and let them worry about us. It all seemed completely unnecessary. There was an interesting little video from before the Portsmouth game where just before the boys came out, Eckert was telling them to stand big in the tunnel. Basically, show who’s the big dog here – this is who we are and this is our house kind of thing. What we did was send out the signal that we were somehow worried about Bolton and that will have been a lift for Steven Schumacher and his players. Overthinking at its finest.

As for Bolton – they were decent. Well managed, well organized and they carried a goal threat throughout. It remains to be seen how they cope with injuries and suspensions etc with their squad later in the season but they are going to do much more than stay up. We have played and we will play many worse teams than them this season. On another day they could have nicked it and then all the things we’ve brought upon ourselves would be much more significant.

A week’s break now before quite probably the hardest game of the season, away at West Ham. I can actually see a reason for changing the set up for that game and I’m pretty sure we’ll see a three man central midfield which will include all of Flynn Downes, JWP and Caspar Jander. That in itself probably means Azaz playing wide again but that’s for another time. For now we have to reflect on seven points out of nine, which is of course acceptable, as is three clean sheets in a row, but it feels very much like two points were needlessly thrown in the bin today. The collaboration of shite from the ref and lino was partly to blame, but mostly it was all our own doing.

Up the fucking Saints