KwAcKy's Konfessional |
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Nothing of interest; just mindless links to bikes Birmingham City Football Club and useless junk  
  
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26 October 2003
Back from Bolton Not the most attractive game if you're a fan of attacking football but 8 clean sheets in 10 games tells its own story. Once again Steve Bruce's men in Blue showed strength at the back. Cunningham is so good at is job he looks casual. Throughout the game he pushed the back line forward and the result was Bolton's only goal was ruled offside. That's not to say that Bolton didn't have a go, far from it. From the off, they set about is if their lives depended on a win and althought it's early in the season this is a team who knows about relegation battles. For me it was Matthew Upson who stood tall at the back. Not only was he reading the game better than usual but his balls out were almost always to a Blue shirt. And some great passes too. Clapham is under-rated and understated and rarely puts a boot wrong. Cisse snarled and prowled like a proverbial lion and made sure that the defence and midfield had support thoughout the game. Tebily did a great job but was replaced by Kenna when Bruce had a change around. Clemence came over to the right, which probably explained Kenna's appearance - his experience well placed in protecting a palyer out of postion. Dunn moved into the centre and showed all why he should play here more often. Dugarry went over to the left and did an excellent job in breaking down some of the Bolton attacks as well as keeping pressure on the home sides defence. My main Dugarry gripe was a lack of communication between him and Forssell with both often going for the same ball. Hughes and Morrison both made short appearances and both looked fairly sharp. Hughes did some fine work on the right which opened up their defence and Morrison made a couple of telling runs but in both instances the goalie or a defender snuffed it out at the last moment. Player Ratings Taylor - 8 - Assured Clapham - 7 - Reliable Cunningham - 8 - commanding Upson - 9 dominant Tebily - 7 - stalwart Lazaridis - 6 - quiet Clemence - 7 - involved Cisse - 8 - snarling Dunn - 8 - midfield engine Dugarry - 7 - polar Forsell - 7 - timely Kenna - 7 Hughes - 8 Morrison - 7 One Bolton player who should get a mention is the Greek player Stelios. He looks a good prospect; was involved in a lot of their play and didn't drop his head even when it became blody obvious that no one could penetrate our defence. Bolton Blues 7 Shots On Target 3 9 Shots Off Target 4 14 Fouls (Conceded) 16 7 Corners 3 1 Yellow Cards 2 0 Red Cards 0 |
