Roast

Just to give you an insight into the hilarity in our house let me tell of yesterday's pre-dinner conversation. My missus asked if I was cooking a roast.
" Yes " I said.
" With roast potatoes ? ! she enquired.
" Of course ! "
"Well, don't make them too oily ! " she replied.
" Don't worry, I'm not doing it before 7pm ! "

Can we give Bolton a roasting a la Shrewsbury on Saturday ? Highly unlikely I'd have thought. The Trotters are top of the table and aside from a slip up in the League Cup ( I refuse to call the EFL cup - what nonsense ) have won all their games.

Bolton arrive with some familiar faces in the shape of Phil Parkinson, Dorian Dervite and Lawrie Wilson. All were good servants of the club and as such, are due a warm welcome.

Parkinson's efforts in his time with us were perhaps not appreciated as much as they should have been. I know I'm guilty of that. Given the background to his tenure at The Valley what he achieved was to an extent remarkable. His subsequent success at Valley Parade and Bolton to date are testament to his ability.

One missing ingredient on Saturday is THD. Having been part of the squad for all league games to date he has moved onto to Huddersfield for a reported £400k. If we thought so little of him why was he involved each matchday squad ? Why didn't we put up a fight to keep him ?

I understand Mr Slade saying he doesn't want to keep a player who doesn't want to be at the club but he is a very promising player. THD's chances were very limited although he impressed greatly when I saw him play. He was a very probable solution to our left sided problems. Why he wasn't given a chance to play in front of Fox in left midfield I don't know.

There you have it, another young player is allowed to depart and we can now watch from afar as we no doubt see him flourish elsewhere. In all probability fulfilling Katrien's wish to see our players moving to appear in the Premier League as that is the raison d'etre of our academy eh ?

Huddersfield are nicely set up for promotion this season so it won't surprise me if they are in top flight next season. In the meantime we leave ourselves with a further depleted squad and no real cover at left back.

Saturday's game should be a good one with in form teams. My wish is that Mr Slade would have them play out from the back more. I'm a bit bored of seeing everything from Rudd banged up to Magennis.

Brighton showed that it possible to do this when they won the league a few years ago under Gus Poyet. It was no better illustrated than when they beat us 4-0 at The Valley when Kishishev ran the show. It would be nice if we tried to play in a similar style.

I appreciate you need a certain type of player to do so and that we are lacking in midfield but we really ought to try and be able to do so. I can but hope.


As I said it should be a good game on Saturday with Bolton no doubt bringing a few thousand to the game and will be in good voice. Sadly we may struggle to match them due to our current low turnouts. No doubt, like the team, we'll give it a good go though.

Come On You Reds !