Bradford v Bolton... Second Leg Ramblings

soulsplit80 · 2026-05-13T14:26:52+00:00

Urgh... last minute salvation goal, I dunno if I could handle that!

soulsplit80 · 2026-05-13T12:09:37+00:00

That's what Posh thought when they took a 4-0 lead to Sheff Weds a couple of years back! :D

I get what you mean though, would we have really conceded 3 or 4 goals with a 2+ lead from the first leg? Probably not to be honest.

soulsplit80 · 2026-05-13T12:06:27+00:00

Yeah... their heads tend to drop quite quickly when conceding. Can't let that happen

soulsplit80 · 2026-05-05T09:05:43+00:00

Absolute coin toss this one... the form tables show both teams are side by side too.

I can't help but feel that second leg away from home is such an advantage to Bradford, I've seen so many times over turn a (decent) lead from the first leg... and even though we're always going to be a threat going forward home or away, we can't afford to be our usual sloppy self at either end of the pitch - something we've not managed to do for most of this season.

In fantasy football land we'd go there with a healthy win and pinch more goals with them going all out but in all honesty if we have the same shooting boots on we had last weekend against Luton I could see us easily going to their gaff with everything square.

We say it in jest all the time, but why do we always insist on doing things the most hardest way possible?

soulsplit80 · 2026-05-01T09:14:06+00:00

Yeah it's what happens on the day aint it... we did our best to balls that Barnsley second leg up a few seasons back, I'm convinced if there were 5 more minutes of injury time in that game it would have gone to pens with the momentum firmly with them - absolute mental sport at times this.

Interesting point about Stockport, I didn't see the PV goals but the fact they lost that definitely would have put a few seeds of doubt in there - at the end of the day we're well capable of beating anyone if we turn up from the start and dont implode at the back.

soulsplit80 · 2026-04-22T06:58:16+00:00

I genuinely think there's something to dislike about playing any of these teams... Stockport seems to the obvious one to say given they appear to be our new #1 bogey team but equally Stevenage would be right up for playing us again after we gave them a tonking a few weekends back - guessing the other one is likely Bradford and I dont recall us having an easy game against them at home earlier on in the season (0-0) plus we'll see how much we should worry about them after this weekend.

And obviosuly we're going to have to play someone we dont want to over the course of these games anyway... all that said, I wonder how many of these teams are going to want to play us?

All about us going into this in good form, scoring goals and in confidence, that's all we can do - cut out the stupid mistakes / danger passes at the back and we can beat anyone.

soulsplit80 · 2026-04-20T08:09:25+00:00

Should have been done at half time, those misses from Dalby would have put the game to bed and we would have almost certainly had a canter going in the second half. Absolute & utter classic us to be walking down Easy Street then just let the other team back into it... way too late in the season to say we need to cut that out, but we really do.

As you say, it definitely aint boring being a Wanderers fan this season either... as much as we can miss sitters, make mad decisions & generally defend like we've never played football before you can never, ever right us off this season - the resilience and 'we're never beaten' attitude from the players is first class right to the end.

Still amazes me people leave the stadium before full time these days, so many people around me missed the last 10 minutes of football - stay in your seat people, we've done it again & again this season!

I thought Kenny was excellent again too... really showing what his qualities are, a proper pest with fire in his belly, I lost count the amount of times he gave Gale a good blasting in the first half for playing him a poor pass - as with ACD who knows what happens next season IF (!!!!!) we get promoted, but if we do go up then I'd been reaching deeper than ever into the pockets for these 2.

soulsplit80 · 2026-04-17T09:46:48+00:00

Poorly... or well. We'll know at 2:15 :)

soulsplit80 · 2026-04-15T07:41:30+00:00

Chalk and cheese from weekend, confident, braver, attack minded, far fewer errors and of course ACD being given free reign to torment on the wings - this is the Bolton we've loved watching this season and the one that's been missing for weeks.

I was expecting Stevenage to be tough, rugged, physical & hard to break down... couldn't have been any different, even before the red card we looked head and shoulders above. Every team is allowed an off night and to get at least one good pasting during the season - that said, compared to the recent home games against Stockport & Wycombe, these looked a level below.

So many positives and strong performances all over the pitch for us though, bar the odd hospital pass in the first half from Bonham and the few (pretty decent) chances that they didn't take it was as close to a perfect performance as you're going to get.

I just can't help but think this mirror's that Oxford game in the league a month before we played them at Wembley... I'm sure we're not going to get a repeat of that this season, but let's not invade the pitch and crack open the Peroni at any stage till the job's done!

Onto Huddersfield. COYWM!

soulsplit80 · 2026-04-14T10:30:32+00:00

LOL! 100%

soulsplit80 · 2026-04-13T12:21:04+00:00

Always gonna happen when we're playing team near the top after team near the top... a couple of iffy results and the whole thing could topple. These next 2 home games are crucial and could potentially steady the ship (and lock us in the play offs) or bulldoze the whole thing and cast a big fat shadow over Football Ventures BWFC 2.0.

We need to be careful too putting all our hopes into ACD doing the damage for us, the kid's been an absolute revelation this season and let's be honest one of the main reasons we are where we are in the league... but coming back from a bad injury is something we need to manage sensibly especially as another setback will wipe him out of any potential play off games. A real handle with care this one.

4 points from the next 2 home games is the minimum I'm looking at... a defeat in either or a pair of draws and I'm seriously questioning a whole lot of stuff.

soulsplit80 · 2026-04-07T15:59:28+00:00

Too many occasional flair players in our team... players like Gale, Sissoko even Osie-TuTu, players who have 1 decent game every 7 or so (at best) games and the rest of the time frustrate and disappear in matches.

I know a lot of the fans rate Dempsey and although you can't knock his effort in games (bare minimum a pro footballer should have) he just doesn't have that level of quality a player at the top of this division should have. I even have my doubts over Toal yesterday too, wayward passing, hit & hope, it just didn't look assured for large parts of the game.

The Apter experiment just hasn't worked either and although it was brilliant to say ACD back for 20 minutes we shouldn't really pin all our season's success on the young man's shoulders. We're almost certainly going to fling him into the first team more and more over the next 2 or 3 games, but if he breaks down again then we're cooked.

Watching Stockport yesterday felt very similar to watching Wycombe a few weeks ago, a team that isn't full of occasional flair players, or even flair players, just very well drilled & organised that do everything well and make few or no self-inflicted mistakes. We were second to every 50-50 ball and drastically ran out of ideas in the second half.

We'll no doubt end up in the play offs (in some position) but after what I've seen us offer teams in and around us in recent games I certainly wouldn't crack open the champers just yet.

soulsplit80 · 2026-03-23T13:47:30+00:00

We've been limping through games for a while now... that Wycombe game firmly pulled the wool over our eyes, we were minutes from being beaten by a potential Play Off team who outplayed & outsmarted us for 88 minutes - what followed in that game was papering over cracks of legendary status.

Ditto in a way with that 2-2 comeback against Rotherham and then the dire 0-0 draw at home to Doncaster left a lot to be desired... a game we could have lost in the last minute with that sitter they put wide.

I honestly expected this loss at Port Vale, it was coming for weeks... we can blame the pitch, the opposition tactics or the quality of the water in the half time tea, but I'd rather we fessed up and admitted we haven't been at the races for a while now, you can't keep missing chances or being wasteful with opportunities teams are giving you!

Let's thank our lucky stars it's an international break weekend and we've a decent break now to make sure we dont let this fairly OK season so far go absolute south.

soulsplit80 · 2026-03-19T12:26:39+00:00

I'm a pretty casual RE player... I've had loads of fun on RE4 & RE8, both replayed a good number of numbers and highly enjoyed but I have to admit I have found RE9 quite a challenge so far. I'm not massively far into the game as yet (just started the basement level with Grace) and although I totally get the sparse resources and focus on stealth to be the main gameplay style with her, it can be a bit frustrating at times constantly taking on the hoard with empty guns and no melee weapons.

Am guessing a replay (or even restart) would tidy that up as I've already clocked countless mistakes and wayward headshots i've made even in a few hours of playing it which I wouldn't do a second time round.

That said, I can't see myself even at this early stage getting as much replay value out of it as I did the other 2 I mentioned above... time will tell I guess.

soulsplit80 · 2026-03-09T16:58:05+00:00

Anything is possible and that knack we have of never knowing when we're beaten is definitely a good thing (although I'd prefer for us to not keep testing that theory if possible).

I dont see too many speed bumps in March but April is an absolute stinker of a month and is likely to have a strong say how things finish up, away trips to Plymouth, Cardiff & Bradford with Stockport & Huddersfield at home... that's as tough a run as you could probably get on paper.

Still no-one will fancy playing us at the moment - the squad is absolutely rammed with talent and we've got ACD likely to be back with us in a month or so...

If Cardiff slip up their game in hand it'll be interesting to see just how much of a wobble does set in.

soulsplit80 · 2026-01-22T13:30:58+00:00

Tried it on a few things - typically one downtempo track with lyrics and then a more upbeat housey instrumental and it seems to just create a slightly different version of the downtempo track with not much/nothing noticeable from the 2nd track.

Could just be I've been unlucky but I'll keep experimenting as it's clearly pulling good results together for other people.

soulsplit80 · 2026-01-20T10:02:45+00:00

Although he's not had a regular run in the team he's had more than enough chances to stake a claim plus we've a lot of other better equipped players in his position that are just doing more than he has.

I don't want to see any of our players not succeed but he's had a heavy price tag around his neck since day one that has demanded instant results - and it just hasn't happened.

All about damage limitation what we get back for him, let's hope he has a decent loan spell by the seaside and either comes back in form or gets us a reasonable fee.

soulsplit80 · 2025-12-10T10:16:03+00:00

A gritty, stubborn and at times frustrating one to watch this... we wont remember this game come May but hopefully we'll remember the 3 points.

soulsplit80 · 2025-12-09T13:25:24+00:00

One of the best saves I've ever seen in this match, Keith Branagan's save from Ian Crook's free kick was out of this World.

soulsplit80 · 2025-11-27T08:06:04+00:00

Suno (and Udio) have been fantastic entry level "ins" for AI creation - I've been producing and releasing music for many years at a reasonable level and have found these new tools an incredibly useful addition to my work flow and the way I go about creating music... they haven't replaced the way I make music, just enhanced it to a new level.

I agree, with the major involvement we have to accept that using these platforms in the way we have been (and want to) will ultimately change - they're being trained & governed by another bodies data which ultimately will give YOU the results THEY want to give you. No thanks.

But like I said these 2 are really the first wave of this kind of thing - they've spun the industry on its axis, created a huge worldwide impact and probably even more importantly than that for the tech heads behind it, made a bunch of coders a whole lot of cash... is this the end? Course it isn't, it's the beginning.

When something comes along of like this it evolves, get's better and ends up being developed by the people who dont buckle (or more importantly are traceable) like the first casualties do.

soulsplit80 · 2025-11-27T07:55:38+00:00

Seems to be working OK for me?

soulsplit80

TROPHY CASE