First of all let's get this straight, Boro did not do anything like enough to win the match and as Southgate said in his post match interview, Bolton deserved their win.
Sometimes a clear game plan is all you need, score early (they actually managed two) out-muscle everyone, have two men marking anyone considered a threat (Downing, Aliadiere, Tuncay had three keeping him company early on)and then defend extremely well, knowing you have one of the best keepers in the Premier League behind you.
And Boro had... well a thoroughly miserable afternoon. Pogatetz made a rash and rather stupid decision, they surprised us with a goal and banged another one in before we could recover. And that was it really, although we tried to get back into it we lost the match in the first ten minutes.
Bright spots included Didier Digard who is steadily improving and was ready to battle and Adam Johnson who came on as a sub for Aliadiere and made an instant impact skipping past the Bolton defenders.
Ali, like Tuncay, had started well but got frustrated and faded. It looked like he picked up a knock from falling awkwardly under one of Bolton's enthusiastic challenges and Southgate may have already had half an eye on the upcoming derby when he made his substitutions.
Low points were, well, almost ninety minutes of the match.
We were not even particularly bad - those who were saying it was our worst performace of the season were obviously not at the Chelsea or West Brom games - but they were ruthlessly efficient. Any threat Boro managed to create was smothered before it really got going and Gary O'Neil watched two decent efforts get cleared off the line.
At times it seemed like Bolton had, at the very least, an extra player. Although it also felt like they had the referee and his assistants.
Looking at the match stats is deceptive, we had Pogi and Digard booked while five of Bolton's players saw yellow. The problem is that they pretty much had a free pass for the first half of the match. That and the fact that the referee was inept and neither of his assistants knew the offside rule (any incarnation of it) but were fond of using their flags. So fond in fact, that the flag broke and Gary O'Neil sprinted off to retrieve a replacement!
It is easy to blame the ref when you lose and as I have already stated Boro did not deserve anything out of the game, but both sides deserve an unbiased referee with the confidence to make the right decisions.
I would hazard a guess that had you brought someone with absolutely no knowledge of the basic rules of football to the match, they would have been none the wiser after the final whistle.
Both Joe Kinnear and Roy Keane have complained about yesterday's ref Martin Atkinson and it would be tempting to suggest a southern bias were it not for the fact that Mr Atkinson hails from Leeds...
Andrew Taylor got a lot of stick for his role in Boro's downfall yesterday but the diminutive defender simply had no chance against the big strong boys of Bolton. That is certainly a problem, but it is not his fault and he worked hard for the team despite getting increasing abuse from the home 'fans'.
Afonzo Alves somehow managed to get his second free-kick even higher into the cold white sky than his first but at least he stayed on his feet. Once again he massively disappointed the majority of the fans and the excuses are wearing thin.
Scared to tackle and with our goal threat effectively neutralised it was up to Boro's defence to hold strong and prevent another Bolton goal. Unfortunately just seconds after we had pulled one back, through Pogi of all people, they restored the deficit through Johan Elmander. Game well and truly over.
Boro's young, fit and pacy players faced opposition twice their size - both in height and width in most cases - and we had no big strong boys on the bench to bring on. Mido 'isn't ready' Robert Huth was pronounced fit last week but no-one's seen head nor dodgy ankle of him since, Arca was the closest we had to 'muscle' in the subs line-up and was duly brought on for er, defender Andrew Taylor.
You cannot deny the way Bolton play is effective but would you really want to watch that every week? I wouldn't.
Next week, or whenever Newcastle decide that the smattering of snow isn't a problem after all, it is for Boro one of, if not the biggest game of the season - Boro v Newcastle at the Riverside.
With the cold and the credit crunch keeping those without season cards away, it is vital that the Boro faithful turn out and cheer the boys on, but it is up do the players to turn it on on the pitch and another lacklustre performance may not be forgiven.
First published on www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/sport/fanzone - Nov 08
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