Saint86

Did you watch the game? Time after time bolton's defenders simply switched off and let multiple boro players in behind. was laughable.

Pretty easy to score 5 goals when the bolton players can't be arsed to track their runners or step up for offisde, and just casually walk around at the back...

Truly embarrassing defending by Bolton tonight. Just invited boro to walk it in.

That wasn't the decision though was it. Aston Villa delayed and signed THB right at the end of the window after we'd missed out on preferred targets - and the club decided to keep their powder dry until January (rather than panic spend it on the wrong players) 🤷‍♂️

The laughable thing is that they spend all this money on players, managers, directors of football etc... consistently get it wrong, and yet never seem to learn... Like ffs - look at the league, look at who does it best, and then use your money to buy that team of people.... i.e., use those millions to go and pillage Brighton's management and scouting setup... not Jason bloody Wilcox from 2nd tier Southampton 😄

And we've also only lost twice - both times against physical sides that were allowed to kick lumps out of us. Conversely, every team that has tried to take the game to us has lost - often decisively.

Sorry to break it to you guys, but i think you're getting ahead of yourselves with the Martin / Leicester revival. Reading their forum (https://www.foxestalk.co.uk/topic/140672-has-martin-turned-the-corner-and-we-should-support-him/page/3/#comments) its seems abundantly clear that he's temporarily abandoned his principles to save his skin... as we know he did with saints going into the play offs. In this case, it appears he has switched to a back 3 and stopped the tippy tappy passing along the back line (not too dissimilar to what he did with saints) which has resulted in an uptick in form... He's secured a couple of wins, got himself some breathing space etc., so i'm 99% sure he'll be reverting to type before too long. It would seem that even Martin knows he can't afford to fail at Leicester so quickly (for fear of terminally killing his career). Based on previous Martin form, who wants to tell Leicester that its likely all is temporary to buy himself some more time, rather than having a footballing epiphany?

This will be an interesting game vs the stand out favorites to win the league. 1st year parachute side vs 2nd year parachute side (although West Ham under Nuno should never have gone down). Its also the 2 best managers to ever grace the championship (statistically). If it was the first half of 2026 we'd all be going there with zero fear and expecting to turn them over. This season its still early and a bit disjointed with the personnel changes, spygate fallout etc. But we go into it with 3 clean sheets, full of confidence, and in reality the best CM in the 2nd tier fit and looking like he's come back on fire. No one is living with Jander and JWP in CM and Azaz in front. There defence is better than ours. Only really Schottlerbeck that threatens that starting back line imo. Although Bree would perhaps have a shout at breaking into it. Keeper wise its a lot closer. Still haven't seen last season's Peretz yet - maybe this weekend is the start of that?! Attack wise. Larin (if fit) is without question the best CF in the league. But their wingers are a scary prospect - Bowen will be a real issue vs Manning/Wellington with Scienza playing in front - but then equally that will be an interesting dynamic because will Bowen get full freedom if it leaves Leo free to cause havoc himself? Attack the best form of defense down the left? Pretty confident we'll see Matsuki down the right with Bree - which will give us industry and allow those overlaps we've seen so much off in recent games. If all of Jander, JWP, Azaz, Larin, and Scienza are fit and avaialble, we will cause any side a whole host of issues - and it will be interesting to see whether Nuno goes toe to toe with us on the attacking front, or we see a cagey game early in the season. One thing i think that is in our favour is that we are playing the away game relatively early on in the season - West Ham have been solid if unspectacular lately. 2 wins in their last 5 (all comps) and frankly the 9men Lincoln implosion is the oddity there. The other was a 1-0 win vs high flying Swansea, which is not the comfortable win we enjoyed vs them. I would rather be playing them away now than when they're in full flow later in the season, and when their impressive squad gives them the advantage of depth. As it is, we will have home advantage for the crunch home game at St Marys. In summary, I think this will end up 1-0 to saints or 1-1 (someone needs to back Tonda and the boys!). But lets see. Either-way, its nice to be playing a side of their quality (i.e., not parking the bus or trying to kick the crap out of us) and it will be a very good test of the team. Ultimately, this side beat Arsenal, Fulham away, and it took Man City 80+min (and a deflected bouncing outside of the box strike) to score against us at Wembley. The belief, confidence, togetherness, and relish in this side will come out in a game like this. I also wonder if the 4-1 might odly play in our favour - sets an expectation among their players and fans that has no grounding in reality.

The number of times opposition players have been allowed to kick Scienza (in particular, but not exclusively) out of the game essentially without punishment is really poor. The penalty was also a shocking decision which obviously cost us points. Conversely, boro have had at least 2 offside goals (i think both match winners) and were getting quite evident bias in the games i've watched (Stoke/cardiff). Not saying the refereeing approaches towards both sides are related (as that would be a proper conspiracy), but we're already looking at a circa 4 point swing if you just take one offside goal and the penalty. Add in the bias vs cardiff (which they won), and other matches and its already adding up to a lot of points. Let alone with the 4 points deduction. Unless the officiating luck balances out asap, or west ham's form drops off a cliff, we aren't getting 2nd.

At the moment, the difference between ourselves and Middlesbrough is a load of dodgy refereeing calls and the points deduction. Bit of a farce really. Hopefully it starts to even itself out otherwise we've got next to no chance of coming 2nd.

My point was that he's going to cost them a lot more than double larin. Larin was a great buy.

If he keeps scoring as he is, he'll cost them circa £20M...

No. I'm suggesting we're getting punished.

The officials are absolutely in Boro's favour as well this season. The decisions they've been getting are just laughable.

Yeah obviously that is totally uncalled for. Twitter / X is a cesspool for that kind of crap unfortunately. Thankfully no one on here is behaving like that 🤷‍♂️. But regardless, it is still perfectly legitimate to comment on the hole he has dug himself over spygate and with Eckert.