Last season our away games were the ones where we conceded copious amounts of goals. Early indications suggest nothing has changed.

Normal service resumed once we come up against half decent opposition. Rothwell must be looking at Armstrong and wondering how he can possibly be behind this clown in the pecking order.

There goes the clean sheet.

Hopefully people will stop slating Dack for a few days now.

I know. The implication was that the EFL are pretending it didn't.

Arms and Gallagher can swap positions which at least makes us a little more flexible. Remains to be seen if Dack can be effective without Graham to play off.

EFL: ??? what Brentford game?

Mowbray's comments are less important than his actions. Smallwood is behind Travis but I think Evans is behind Johnson (which is also switching an older player for a younger player, albeit to a lesser extent and in this instance justified). Judging from the past few league games I think Mowbray's preference is Graham up top with Downing, Dack and Gallagher behind him, so I don't consider Armstrong a first teamer at the moment. He was last season but his favoured position was LW/LM, which has now been taken by Downing. No argument on Dack, although he's never had any competition for his place from an older player and it's well known he's a key player for us so dropping him is almost impossible with the way Mowbray plays. Honestly I'm not sure Nyambe is good enough, although his progression obviously isn't being helped by Bennett taking his place. Ideally I'd be looking at bringing in a new RB in January anyway, as imo it's one of our weakest points at present. I would not be surprised at all if Nyambe was gone by this time next year as I don't think Mowbray rates him and barring a long-term injury to Bennett I can't see him getting a solid run in the team. I'm not necessarily blaming Mowbray for Travis but I do think from the manager's perspective it was good fortune rather than good judgement which got Travis into the starting eleven on a permanent basis. Travis did his part in playing well when he got his chance, but the manager was ready to loan him out last January. https://www.clubcall.com/news/2019/01/03/travis-loan-an-option-for-mowbray/ Fortunately Travis had the ambition and drive to stay and push Smallwood out, but I don't think it's unfair to note that the manager was open to loaning him out so clearly didn't see him as a big part of his plans and was only convinced by Travis' excellent performances in January - which suggests that sometimes what's being seen on the training pitch isn't enough, sometimes a player needs to be put into proper matches to determine whether he's ready or not.

Completely agree. It's an aspect of TM's management I 100% disagree with. With that said I wouldn't want him to single out any player in public, senior or otherwise. I prefer for that stuff to be done behind closed doors. Travis is thus far the only younger player to really push on under Mowbray. There's potential with the likes of Buckley getting appearances but otherwise our problem positions have been filled by older players, not younger ones. At RB we've seen Nyambe (21) demoted for Bennett (30). Rothwell (24) has had a potential place taken by Downing (35), as has Armstrong (22) to some degree, although Arma has had a couple of shots up top lately. Graham at 34, however, still seems to be the preferred option up top ahead of Gallagher (23) who plays wide, and Brereton (20) who barely plays at all. Raya has left and whilst his replacement is the same age he also isn't our player so it remains to be seen who ultimately ends up between the sticks. I'm not saying we should be throwing a bunch of younger players on at the expense of getting results, absolutely not, but whilst Mowbray has brought in a lot of younger players I'm yet to see any convincing proof he can or will integrate them effectively. I hope I'm wrong as the likes of Graham, Downing and Johnson in particular don't have that many years left in them so we need to be looking to the future in these positions rather than short-term solutions. Players like Rothwell and Nyambe aren't going to hang around forever waiting for opportunities - in particular Rothwell who at 24 has to be getting regular game time in the near future. He isn't a youngster anymore and can't be treated like one.

Technically correct, but you can't deny the impact Rothwell had in those games. Nor can it be denied that our attacking unit hasn't been firing on anything close to all cylinders so far this season. Our recent victories have come on the back of improved defensive performance rather than attacking performance. If we keep getting good results then OK, fine, but there's a chance we'll eventually lose Rothwell who will surely want more game time elsewhere. We'll then potentially be left with only strikers to play in the wide positions along with an aging Downing. I really hope Rothwell gets significantly more game time to show what he can do. If he fails to impress after that then fair enough. He's one of our biggest potential stars and it would be a huge shame if he left because we wouldn't give him an opportunity to prove himself.

Travis was going to be loaned out until Smallwood was suspended at the end of 2018. That's a fact, Mowbray said as much. Travis thankfully impressed enough to make the position his, but if not for that suspension he would likely have ended up in League 1 for the next six months and who knows where he'd be in the pecking order now? Obviously no point stressing over hypotheticals but Travis' inclusion was not part of Mowbray's plans - it was something that happened due to circumstances and credit goes to Travis for stepping up when he had his opportunity. Rothwell did the same at the end of last season, but unfortunately he was back on the bench for game one this season, which we duly lost. Still no goals from open play in the league but Rothwell remains on the bench, except for one match against Fulham which for some appears to be enough to decide he deserves to be a bench warmer for the foreseeable, forgetting how he invigorated our team at the end of last season and was a pivotal figure in rescuing us from an alarming slump. There was no justifiable reason, imo, for him to be relegated to backup again this season. Granted there are things going on in training, etc, that I'm not seeing, so maybe there's something else going on. Even so, I believe he deserves more of a chance than he's getting at the moment.

Much like Rothwell I fear it's just a case of his face doesn't fit. I hope I'm proven wrong on that, but Travis went into a very long exile after falling foul of Mowbray with his red card back in the L1 season, so it could be a while before we see Chapman in the first team, if at all.

It's looking that way. I'm sure the excuse will be that they want to help the new owners settle in and stabilise Bolton, but it ultimately sets a precedent that can and I imagine will be brought up going forward when similar situations arise.

Not sure why this needs such a detailed, warts-and-all explanation. Could easily have just said "Harry is in contention for the first team, but competition is tough at the moment and he has to be patient". But nope. Full on discussion as to every little detail which I, as a player, would not appreciate being put out in the press. Maybe our players are different.

Great, so if Walton gets injured or suspended we'll have two League 1 level backup goalies instead of just one.

If his major contribution came from out wide with a cross then it surely suggests that's where he's better positioned? Granted he's only been given brief appearances up top but I don't think our style of play necessarily suits to running behind defenders, but rather getting chances from crosses and set pieces. In that case you'd want a DG or SG up there to maximise potential damage. For me he's too inconsistent with his goalscoring to play up top by himself. It might work if he was in a two but I don't see us going with a formation that has DG or SG alongside AA in attack so if Armstrong is to play I'd rather it was out wide where his pace can hurt full backs and maybe even CB's if he makes an incisive run into the centre. We simply have to find a way to make our chances count more frequently. Having a lot of shots is meaningless if they don't go in or are off target. With that said if we are able to solve that problem whilst keeping ourselves defensively solid then we could be in for a good season. I have my doubts at the moment though.

According to the administrators if nobody puts in any cash then the club are insolvent and therefore must begin winding up, as it would otherwise be illegal to keep running the business. So either the admins were twisting the truth in their earlier statements to try and scare KA/FV/EDT into reconvening, or there has been or will soon be money injected into the club's funds in order to make the necessary payments.

I appreciate text is sometimes easy to misread but I'd hope I don't come across as a poster who would think something as crazy as that, so I assumed it would be understood that the tone was not serious. Obviously not, so just to make it clear - whilst the selection of Evans, Smallwood and Leutwiler checked me out of the match immediately as I knew we'd lose, I do not actually consider it a lack of integrity or ethics, although I do find it amusing and strange that Mowbray was sent off for trying to lecture a ballboy on these things. Let's end it there and resume discussion of the match Interesting stats on this one. You'd expect a team with such domination in stats to win the game comfortably or at least draw. But when you can't keep the ball out of the net at your end and fail to take your chances at the other end this is where it leads. Hopefully this puts the Armstrong up top method to bed as he just isn't good in that role, and Gallagher scoring in the middle may give TM a bit more confidence to try playing him in the centre again rather than out on the wing. I still think a midfield spread of Downing/Dack/Rothwell with Graham or Gallagher in the centre would yield solid results. Not sure what this result/performance means for Nyambe. Will Tony see him as part of the reason we conceded two goals, or part of the reason we otherwise dominated a PL team? Bennett will almost certainly be back in at RB on Saturday regardless.

Mate, I'm not being 100% serious here. I'm just making a little light of the situation. Maybe I needed to add a smiling emoji or something to make it clear I don't consider picking Evans or Smallwood on the same level as cheating - I thought it would be absurd enough to be obvious but I guess not. For the record disagreeing with TM's decisions doesn't equate to me "hating" him, although I find it interesting you've come to that conclusion. Whilst I often disagree with what he does I've always said he's a decent enough bloke and would be a good manager if not for his inability to adapt to change. It's not just you, but people do need to stop taking criticism of TM so personally. The fact I can joke about picking Evans/Smallwood as having a lack of ethics, integrity, etc and it actually being taken seriously is a bit worrying to me in all honesty!

True, it's worse.

Destroying Bury by the sounds of it.

Somebody needs to talk to TM about the ethics, honour, integrity and personal values of picking Smallwood/Evans in midfield and giving Leutwiler an extension despite not being good enough to start in League 1, let alone for a Championship club.

Somebody must have injected some money then, as it would be illegal for them to continue trading whilst being insolvent.

Sad for Bury, but it feels like this is only the beginning. The EFL is completely rotten at the moment and the structure as a whole makes no business sense as most clubs lose money. Bury are the first EFL club since Maidstone in 1992 to go under, but this time there are many other clubs who could easily fall into the same pit. Indeed we have Bolton on the brink themselves right now. If the balance is not redressed soon then I fear we are going to lose more clubs over the next decade.

So whilst I imagine FV will eventually complete their takeover of Bolton, if they are expelled what does that mean for the league structure? It's already been determined that League 1 is reduced to three relegation places and League 2 reduced to one relegation place. If Bolton also get expelled would that mean nobody gets relegated from League 2 this season? Some real #integrity there.