On a beautiful sunny day, we all headed across the Pennines to Barnsley, the birthplace of characters like Michael Parkinson and Umpire Dickie Bird.
Those travelling by train had to use their creative skills to get round the lack of trains between Bolton and Manchester again. But by hook or by crook, we made it to Oakwell, one of the few unrenamed stadiums in the country.
Pre-match we were invited into the Dove Inn, about 10 minutes walk from the stadium, where Barnsley and Wanderers fans happily mixed. Over an excellent pint of Barnsley Bitter, there was no real debate about what we had to do. We had to win.
Dropping points was not an option as we were outside the play-off positions. Most fans were just bewildered about how we managed to lose the Rotherham match, after being so dominant in the second half. Surely, we couldn’t create so many chances again and not score.
There were congratulations all round for the Bolton Wanderers Women’s Team, who had won the Lancashire FA Cup this week.
We welcomed Rico Santos back into the team. The fans were up for it from the start but sadly, the team was not. We were awful.
We just did not compete for the first 35 minutes. It was so bad that Steven Schumaker was forced to make three substitutions before half-time.
We improved slightly but we were still giving the Barnsley players the freedom of the park. Injuries did not help as we were forced to finish the match with 10 men, when Jordi Osei-Tutu limped off and we had no substitutes left to use.
But there can be no excuses, this was as bad as it gets, when we needed the team to win. The 4-1 scoreline arguably flattered us in the end.
Although mathematically it is not over, the gut feeling from the fans is that we have blown it this season and that we need to have a good clear-out in the summer, allow Steven Schumaker to mould his own team and then give it a real go for promotion next season.
Having listened to Stelios and Bruce Rioch recently, we are missing the real passion and spirit that these fellas engendered.
They both stressed the importance of everyone being together, manager, players and fans alike. It is very difficult to achieve this and warm to our current set of players.
