Defeat under Souness for the first time, and pretty deservedly so. In a game where Bolton showed they have turned scrappy into a valid system we never really did much to show we could rise above their long throw set pieces. Souness again showed he's not afraid to tactically tinker with formations, playing three strikers with Kluivert sitting behind Shearer and Bellamy. In general this is perhaps something to be commended, too often manager's of this team have seemed to completely lack ideas or to be oblivious of the opposition they are playing, but I think in this case it may have been a formation that never was really going to work. I can understand the justification for dropping Robert if playing with the tight three midfielders across the middle. Bernard's replacement with Hughes also seemed sensible, giving more aerial presence and a lesser tendancy to venture forward down the flanks where there is no real cover. But there in lies one of the major disadvantages. The formation and team suffered terribly from a lack of width. With three in the middle it is always going to be a little too intricate and tricky to thread the ball through to the third striker, especially against a hard working team like Bolton. Not surprising then that Kluivert made little impact. And that lack of width means that once the ball isn't coming through the middle the front too are largely absent as well.
Things actually started quite brightly, with an initial burst of play which must have had Bolton worrying that they might just have a problem containing their opposition. But it lasted barely five minutes before Bolton settled into their routine of disrupting play and winning set piece after set piece, not least the long throw. For the first half our defence actually managed to cope but it was never looking comfortable and often a little paniced. Early in the second half it could hold out no more. Given may have broken Jaidi's nose but Diouf pounced to break the deadlock. One must wonder if the imminent birth of his first child wasn't playing a little too much on the normally ultra reliable keeper's mind as he put in a display where it might be argued some fault could be found for both goals. The first his attempted punch never really got near the ball. The second his rush out seemed too tentative, and it may have been more advisable to stay where he was anyway---Davies was never going to do much more to stretch to reach the ball and it would have been a comfortable save. There was also a terrible clearance at one point. Given's cause was not helped by the lack of confident protection he was recieving, and he must have felt at times (like coming for the punch he never got) that he had to do something to try and get some control of the box. Given (no pun intended) the number of times he's saved us, one can't criticise too harshly.
Bolton's opener was cancelled out in spectacular fashion by Ambrose beating a couple of men and hitting as fine a shot as you're likely to see into the top corner. Some things really are unsavable. It never looked like the genesis of a Newcaslte domination though and it was little surprise when Bolton's second went in. Souness tried to change it. We looked more dangerous when Bellamy found himself in wide positions and the introduction of Robert did lead to a couple of chances but he was effectivly cancelled out.
In all a draw would have been kind and the defeat was pretty much deserved. Once again the inadequacy of the defesive organisation has been exposed. If Souness wants players come January, like he says, hopefully most of them will be defensive. There is also the hope we can bounce back from this defeat. After all, we're not Arsenal and we were always going to lose at some point, and this was away to a in form high flying team (though there is still the suspicion that that is something more to do with those below the Arsenal's and Chelsea's, who just play through it anyway, not yet having worked out how to handle Bolton's bustling scramble system than anything like skill). A win in the UEFA cup midweek would do nicely to aid that bounce.
(@23:10)
