IT’S always the hope that kills you. And for just a passing moment Steven Schumacher appeared to have unlocked something hidden deep inside a group of players that have badly underperformed this season.
Defeat at Barnsley doesn’t mathematically end Bolton’s chances of usurping Reading and claiming sixth spot but is sure as hell highlights why the most expensively assembled team this club has ever had at this level of football is floundering so.
For all their attractive football, their technical ability, the pleasant demeanour of the squad, there are issues with consistency and balance which simply can’t be corrected with a fresh voice and a new set of ideas.
Schumacher has shuffled personnel, swapped tactics, brought a much-needed element of calm after the combustible final months under Ian Evatt but he is inherently riffing on someone else’s long-term plan and truly deserves some time and space to come up with his own.
It seemed for a short while that just the arrival of a different voice would coax something out of players who had disappeared entirely for the previous boss. There were no sweeping tactical changes, just a clear plan from a young coach who knows his way out of this division – but the expression on his face at Oakwell in a particularly turgid first half was of someone who knew he has a big job on this summer.
As football fans, we all demand change to happen quickly. Some think a summer clear-out is on the cards and that next season’s team will be unrecognisable from the one that has staggered wearily from last May’s play-off final to where we are now. But in truth, there are 18 senior players with cast-iron, well-paid contracts who won’t necessarily be shifted just because it would be nice to give the new man in charge a clean slate.
Recruitment-wise, few decisions made in the last two or three windows are free of scrutiny, and while Evatt and Chris Markham have moved on, no longer having to substantiate their decisions, Schumacher will almost certainly be left with the job of making some of those sums make sense.
Unless the ownership group are prepared to invest even larger chunks of cash to engineer deals, grease the wheels for outgoing loans, etc, then most of what we saw finish second best at Barnsley will still be here next August saying they can do better. And who can blame the cynics at this stage?
Before kick-off, January’s two biggest signings – the £1.2million Joel Randall and Cardiff City loan Kion Etete – jogged uncomfortably with the strength and fitness conditioner, knowing full well they wouldn’t be playing any part in the next 90 minutes. As it turned out, they were the lucky ones.
Schumacher met with incoming sporting director Fergal Harkin last week to further recruitment plans for the summer, and one would suggest that any ‘Championship-only’ work should be filed away indefinitely.
Just as the prophecy was written, Wanderers seem intent on playing out their ‘Phil Neal season’ to the end in the hope that next year can be their Bruce Rioch masterpiece. The great man was up in Bolton on Friday night to speak with supporters at the Last Drop Village, but he chose wisely to spend Saturday with his son, Gregor, taking in a 0-0 draw between Wigan Athletic and Wrexham, rather than hitching a lift with John McGinlay down the M62.
In a season of many lows, the first 40 minutes of this game threatened to set a new benchmark.
Wanderers were laughably off the pace against a side that had not won in seven and boasted one of the worst home records in the division. The scant number of home fans who bothered to turn up could hardly believe the ease with which Adam Phillips, Fabio Jalo and Davis Keilor-Dunn were pushing the ball around unchecked, and it was no great surprise when Jonathan Russell opened the scoring 15 minutes in with a smart finish after coasting around Chris Forino on the edge of the box.
Schumacher had set up 3-5-2 with Ricardo Santos recalled to the starting line-up for the first time since January. The 3,000-plus travelling fans sang his name continually through the warm-up, willing him on to make this his afternoon. Unfortunately, this looked a shadow of our former club captain.
Switching to a four-man back line didn’t help. Jalo made it two after Josh Earl had headed a Phillips free-kick back into the six-yard box. Bolton’s defenders possibly thought it rude to interrupt.
Josh Dacres-Cogley and George Johnston were hooked ignominiously after less than 40 minutes and Aaron Morley left the pitch on a stretcher after falling awkwardly on his ankle. Jay Matete came as close to a ‘positive’ for Bolton on the day, shaking things up a little in midfield, and creating a big chance for John McAtee, steered wastefully wide just before half time.
Aaron Collins also missed a good opportunity, laid on by McAtee’s cross, and though he would eventually find the net in the second half with a well-taken goal, Barnsley were already three-up and coasting to their first home league win against Wanderers since August 1997.
Jalo’s second had an element of farce about it, with Jordi Osei-Tutu off the pitch after receiving treatment on a knee injury. The Bolton player came back on momentarily after the goal before thinking better of it and signalling to the bench – who had just made their fifth substitution of the day, exchanging Klaidi Lolos for the spent Santos. It was no wonder Schumacher failed to make eye contact as the player limped weakly to the bench.
Three became four by the end, Bolton now down to 10 and pondering the quickest route back past the away supporters into the tunnel. Russell headed home at the far post from Phillips’ cross, Alex Murphy chipping in with more charitable defending en route.
If Barnsley and Rotherham have previously laid claim to the biggest under-achievers in League One this season, Bolton have now surely eclipsed them? This, a performance devoid of any redeeming features, was right down there with the lowest moments under Evatt, and hints at something systemic, something deeper.
Considering his obvious frustration, Schumacher reined in his rage. Unless there is a miraculous turn of events he can start planning for life in League One next season and we can start dissecting the reasons that this costly and flaky team has missed its intended target by some distance.
