Watto’s Report: Bolton Wanderers 2-2 Birmingham City

Blues had this game taken away from them as Owen Coyle’s hoofer’s and chasers pillaged a point aided and abetted by Ref Friend (to whom?). Match of the day pundit Martin Keown tried to suggest that Bolton tried to play football and to illustrate his point showed them passing the ball 5 times after the kick off. I am willing to bet they would be hard pressed to find another such sequence in the remaining 98 minutes the game lasted.

This as a game was as ugly as a smacked back side and Blues did try to play football in the windswept soccer outpost that the Reabok has become. It was hard to believe that there is still a month to go of summer as the 1500 Blues fans shivered on the shady side of the ground.

Blues opened the scoring for the first time this season when Mcfadden freed Bowyer on the left and the returning midfielder crossed, Jerome flicked on, and Roger Johnson fired home from six yards. Blues were in total control and Bolton’s tactic of lumping the ball in the box with Davies backing into the opposing defence while frustrating the Blues, showed no sign of causing much more than annoyance.

After 35 minutes Blues should have gone further ahead when a dazzling run by Gardner saw his cross find Mcfadden whose volley was well struck but bounced of Finnish goalkeeper, Jaaskelainen.

Seconds later there was an incident which beggared belief. Roger Johnson tumbled clumsily into the Bolton keeper and while apologising and helping the keeper to his feet received a smack in the gob as Jussi lost the plot. The ref who had not stopped the game should have awarded Blues a penalty but bottled it and settled for a Red card to Jaaskelainen. There were several minutes of ugly scenes and as TV pictures showed Mr Friend cautioned Johnson at the direction of Martin Petrov.

Petrov was subbed and exchanged words with the Blues bench before being told to sit down and shut up. Bolton reacted to this setback by increasing the number of balls in the box and continued to batter and barge the Blues back line as Mr Friend lost all will to punish the home side further.

Six minutes into the second half Blues added a second goal when Mcfadden picked out an unmarked Jerome who headed into the path of Gardner. After a couple of goes the Brummie netted to sttle the match, or so it seemed.

With twenty minutes left and the game becoming even more disjointed by the minute, Bolton was awarded a mysterious foul near the half way line. Robinson’s high punt into the box saw Davies cleverly make Johnson commit himself to heading a ball which he was never going to get near.

The decision was probably right if harsh and Davies put away the penalty. Having awarded several fouls against Davies without a card and missing at least as many more, the ref had to get one right eventually. Johnson should have been more careful.

The free kick awarded to Bolton with ten minutes to go was just a mystery. At the time no-one could understand what offence had been committed and watching Tv replays showed that Cahill had jumped all over Ferguson.

Robbie Blake must have thought it was Christmas as Blues wall gave him half the goal to aim at and Foster was a yard too near the centre of the goal. Blake netted with ease.

Blues were then tasked to go and win the game again and should have done so when a neat pass from Bowyer found Jerome but the striker’s weaker left foot was not capable of beating stand in keeper Bogdan.

This was a second game where Blues left an away ground with two points squandered. Blues only conceded 2 penalties last year while this season has seen one per game. We have suffered three appalling referees but it would be foolish to blame that on the points dropped. Blues and Johnson particular need to get officials to make mistakes that go our way. Sympathy towards the itinerant ref will work wonders rather than get on his case.

Whatever the officials try to do to us, Blues have two more points than they had in the equivalent fixtures and are in a European position.

Blues: Ben Foster, Stephen Carr, Lee Bowyer, Roger Johnson, Liam Ridgewell, Seb Larsson (Keith Fahey, 76), Craig Gardner, Barry Ferguson, Scott Dann, James McFadden (Matt Derbyshire, 68)

Subs not used: Maik Taylor, David Murphy, Garry O’Connor, Nikola Zigic, Enric Valles.

Goals: Johnson (4), Gardner (51)

Bookings: Johnson (36), Larsson (72).

Trotters: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Gretar Steinsson, Paul Robinson, Gary Cahill, Fabrice Muamba, Stuart Holden (Mark Davies, 78), Johan Elmander (Robbie Blake, 68), Martin Petrov (Adam Bogdan, 38), Zat Knight, Kevin Davies, Chung Yong Lee.

Subs not used: Matt Taylor, Sam Ricketts, Marcos Alonso, Andy O’Brien.

Goals: Davies (71, pen), Blake (81)

Bookings: Muamba (89) Davies (80)

Sendings off: Jaaskelainen (36)

Referee: Kevin Friend (Frankly incompetent, free kicks that led to penalty and the equaliser we just wrong. Davies committed 10 fouls before cautioned. Muamba should have been off after his tackle on Bowyer and was not cautioned till last minute.)

Attendance: 18, 139

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