QPR meet Bolton Wanderers this Saturday for the first time since the R’s survived in the Premier League at the expense of the Lancashire side on the final day of the 2011/12 season.

Overview

The final day of the 2011/12 Premier League season was a real sliding doors moment for both QPR and Bolton.

Bolton had to get a better result than QPR, who travelled to Manchester City, to survive in the top flight and given that their final game of the season was at Stoke— who’d long since put the cue on the rack and gone home for the summer — they’d surely have fancied their chances before kick-off. QPR’s situation was complicated further by City needing a result to win them their first title in 44 years.

What happened that afternoon will go down in English football folklore, with City scoring two goals in injury time to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 win that left Manchester United, who’d won their game at Sunderland and were celebrating on the pitch, potless. What will probably get lost in the annals of time is the subplot that QPR survived anyway, as Bolton could only draw at the Britannia Stadium.

Wanderers boss Owen Coyle bemoaned poor refereeing on the day and he certainly had grounds for complaint about Stoke’s first goal - scored when Jon Walters seemed to head the ball out of goalkeeper Adam Bogdan’s hands (pictured above) - which would have been disallowed 99 times out of 100. Coyle could also point to some rotten luck with injuries that had seen Lee Chung-Yong and Stuart Holden both ruled out for the season before it had even begun and then of course Fabrice Muamba coming close to death on the pitch in January — essentially the team’s entire central midfield gone.

But, ultimately, Bolton had only themselves to blame. The week before they’d been 2-0 up at home to a West Brom side with nothing to play for, 15 minutes from the end, and only drawn. Victory there and they’d have survived. With the benefit of hindsight, it could easily be argued that it would have been best for both QPR and Bolton had done.

Rangers hardly made the most of their good fortune, spending the following summer burdening themselves with a series of expensive, ageing, mercenaries who destroyed the team spirit, delivered a lousy on-field performance that saw the R’s relegated 12 months later anyway, placed a heavy financial burden on the club which is keenly felt now and will linger for months and years to come, and destroyed a previously excellent bond between supporters and players at Loftus Road.

Had Bolton remained in a division where they’d previously looked safe and secure for a decade they’d have probably mopped their brow, learnt some valuable lessons, added to the squad, got their injured players back and carried on much as they had before for the previous ten years. QPR meanwhile would have found a rebuild much easier than they are doing currently, with less big earners to try and shift on, and would have been spared the subsequent Mark Hughes-Kia Joorabchian wankathon that obliterated a decent, spirited squad of players and turned the R’s from many people’s second favourite team into a club to be despised and mocked in equal measure.

Last season Bolton never looked like mounting a sustainable push for immediate promotion back to the top flight and sacked Owen Coyle midway through. Prior to his appointment at Wigan this summer I imagined Coyle sitting in his car outside Chris Foy’s house night after night, sternly looking in at the referee enjoying his family life and cursing his performance in that Stoke match.

Dougie Freedman looked a shrewd acquisition as his replacement, having done an excellent job turning Crystal Palace from relegation candidates to a team capable of mounting a promotion push, and indeed had last season gone on a week longer, or Freedman’s reign started a week sooner, they probably would have gate crashed the play offs as the form team. A penny for Freedman’s thoughts when the Eagles he left behind soared into the top flight without him.

That late play off push — ten wins and four draws from the final 17 games — made Bolton many people’s tip (yes, ok, LoftforWords’ tip) for promotion this time around but with last season’s star loanee Craig Dawson now back at parent club West Brom, Freedman has been forced to pair Zat Knight and David Wheater at centre half. Wheater never was the most mobile, and looked like a full laden articulated lorry trying to accelerate when Burnley’s Danny Ings ran round him to open the scoring on day one, while Zat Knight has never been very good full stop. Table topping Nottingham Forest made light work of them (3-0) last week and three games into the season the Trotters are yet to win.

How different things might have been.

Interview

On Tuesday we had no Bolton fans to speak to this week, and now we seem to have dozens. We thank John from the Voice of Bolton website, and Phil who we got off the Twitter (@bwfcphil1) for their input, and if you’re in the mood for some more forthright assessments of Owen Coyle then there’s also this thread we posted on The Wanderer forum which brought in a range of views. Thanks to everybody who took time to help LFW out this week.

Looking back at last season first of all, what did you make of the sacking of Owen Coyle? Should he have gone in the summer to enable a fresh start, or been given longer to turn things around? How do you think he'll do at Wigan?

John: As a former player of the club, he was a popular appointment in early 2010 and delivered initial success, saving the club from relegation that year. The club started to play flowing football and the next year started brightly, making it to the FA Cup semi final and coasting in the top half of the table. However, highlighted in that semi final, when Bolton were embarrassingly trounced 5-0 by Stoke City, it became apparent that when this passing football left us exposed, Coyle tactically lacked an effective plan b. This was further backed up by losing the final five fixtures of the 2010/2011 season.

I don't feel relegation at the end of the 2011/2012 season was completely down to the managerial style of Coyle. The fixture list was a contributing factor, the first eight games included fixtures against the teams who finished one to seven the season before. This was twinned with what felt like an injury curse affecting key players such as Chung Yong Lee, Stuart Holden and who can forget the fate of Fabrice Muamba. This was basically the fabric of the successful midfield the season before. Take that out of any team and they will struggle.

However, the Bolton side seemed to lack passion, poor defensive positioning left them exposed and the seeming failure from Coyle to provide a plan b when things weren't going right ultimately cost the club a place in the Premier League, which lead to criticism and split fans. Upon relegation the chairman, Phil Gartside stuck by Coyle believing he was the man for the job. Unfortunately, results matter in football and 11 points from the first 12 games with the playing staff we had wasn't good enough, nor was the unconvincing playing style.

Despite Coyle being such a character and fantastic motivational speaker, his sacking was met with almost unanimous agreement across the fan base. In hindsight, probably the club and Coyle should have parted at that time to create a fresh start, but there was still faith in the manager at the start of last season. The truth is, everyone wanted Coyle to come good as manager for the club, as any club hopes with a former player at the helm, but ultimately it didn't happen. Still, there should be no blood between the fans and Coyle, I personally wish him every success at Wigan where he seems to have been extremely busy in the transfer market.

Phil: Coyle was very hit and miss with the Wanderers. He played some of the best football the fans had seen at the Reebok and had been something of a cult figure during his playing days in the mid 90s. However his demise was very much his own doing: he had poor tactical awareness, poor attention to health and fitness, he had no plan B, and most importantly he didn’t learn from his mistakes. He had to go before it got worse. I think he may have the same honeymoon period at Wigan with some good football and results, but with a fairly thin squad and a distracting Europa League campaign I think the squad will struggle for fitness in a long Championship season. The playoffs beckon for Wigan at best this season.

What did you make of the appointment of Dougie Freedman at the time, and the job he did for the rest of the season?

Phil: In fairness I didn’t know a lot about Dougie’s background at Palace before they beat us at the Reebok in September. When we were linked with him to take over as manager I was very happy with the choice but thought we had no chance of coaxing ‘Mr Palace’ to the Reebok. It took some time for Dougie to stamp his authority and style on the team and, more importantly, get them fit again. He did extremely well to take us from fourteenth in February to missing out on the playoffs by one result that was in our own hands in May. It was a massive turn around for somebody taking over a disheartened, unfit team mid-season.

John: Initially when Coyle was sacked there were a pocket of supporters who believed a more mature manager such as Mick McCarthy or Alex McLeish would be a more ideal candidate to get the club back into the Premier League, and this would have been an easier option. So it was a little bit of a surprise when Gartside opted for youth and inexperience in Freedman. There was more to the eye with this appointment though, as his backroom staff includes the highly experienced Lennie Lawrence. The key change Freedman tried to implement was organisation at the back, creating less chances for the opposition to score, which admittedly cost Bolton going forward too. However, the results improved, the team looked much more comfortable and started to believe they could win promotion, as did the fans for the last couple of games. Sadly it wasn't to be, but hopes were high going in to summer.

Tell us about the summer transfer business - who left, who came in, has it been successful? Any more comings and goings likely?

John: Kevin Davies, a player of almost ten years service and club captain, was the most notable casualty in summer. It was sad to see the player go, but most would agree we had seen the best of Davies, at least in a playing capacity. Defenders Sam Ricketts and Marcos Alonso also left on free transfers, the latter to Fiorentina. Recently Keith Andrews has joined Brighton on loan too until the end of the season and from his comments upon departure, it's unlikely we'll see him playing for the club again. Marvin Sordell has also joined Charlton on loan.

Jermaine Beckford, Jay Spearing, Alex Baptiste, Andre Moritz, Marc Tierney and Robert Hall have been first team summer acquisitions, while youngsters Connor Wilkinson and Hayden White have been added to the ranks. Jay Spearing was last year’s player of the season so his permanent arrival is a massive plus for the fans.

Freedman has commented he would like to bring more players in, but due to financial fair play rules, fringe players would need to move on first so it's a case of watching this space. It's too early to tell initially if the summer business has been successful or not yet, but I think most fans would feel more comfortable if there were to be at least a couple more signings before the end of the transfer window.

Phil: The notable exits would be Marcos Alonso at left back who I felt would have benefited from another season with us before moving up to a better level. The loss of Kevin Davies looked harsh given his long service, but in reality he lacked the impact on the game he once had and was on a blockbuster wage to be kept at the club as a benchwarmer. Sadly, the time was right for ‘Super Kevin Davies’ to leave. The biggest loss was never ours to lose in West Brom loanee centre half, Craig Dawson. The mature 23-year-old shored up the back four and helped us drive up the league towards the playoffs. He has a bright future and I’m not the only one bitterly disappointed that’s not at the Reebok.

Dougie has signed a lot of young players in the close season, with most of them more set up to feature next season maybe. In terms of first team players, Tierney and Baptiste have come in at the back and have been fairly hit and miss so far. Jermaine Beckford was a promising signing up front which hasn’t really clicked yet but there is still plenty of time for that to happen. The marquee signing was our Player of the Year last season and instant fans favourite, Jay Spearing. It’s good to have him back and he has all but picked up where he left off… with a couple more tough tackles and bookings. New signings seem unlikely, with Dougie all but indicating no more permanent signings will be coming in but a few loans may still happen. My opinion is that it’s Craig Dawson or bust this season for Bolton, we will struggle without his presence and quality at the back to sustain a promotion push.

Given the way you ended last season many (including LFW) thought you were a good bet for the title this year but it's been a slow start so far. Assess the start to the season for us and how you think things are going to go this season.

Phil: It’s been a slow start to the season, but that said we have had some tough games which is set to continue with QPR this week. Time is on our side and I think Dougie is the man to bring us up on a much reduced budget. Our new back four is still bedding but needs to do so as soon as possible before we fall off the pace. I don’t feel we will mount a title challenge this season purely due to the number of teams in the league that have brought in or kept quality players. It was a real wake up call going to the Forest game on Saturday, they really outclassed us and look to be in good shape this season to be in the automatic promotion spots. I feel QPR, Forest and Watford will be up there, with Reading, Leicester and Wigan coming up behind. I just hope we can get some results and sneak into the playoffs at the expense of one of those teams (preferably Wigan).

John: Momentum is a great thing to have going into a new season, but due to the summer break and the large change in personnel, there is bound to be a transitional period. In the last months of the season when the good run took place, three out of the back four are no longer playing for the club this season, so the defence needs time to gel. Craig Dawson was a revelation at the heart of the defence during his loan spell, and although his replacement David Wheater was popular amongst fans, he is returning from a long term injury so is not yet back to his best. This has left the club worringly exposed at the back, evident in the simplicity Forest disposed of us last Saturday. I'm still confident things will pick up, but unless there are a couple of signings, notably at centre back and up front, I can't help but feel Bolton won't be serious promotion contenders. A word of warning to QPR as we found out last season, underestimate this division at your peril.

Who are the key men we should be watching out for, and where are the weak links?

John: Chris Eagles looks like he'll be fit this weekend, and he is always a threat going forward as is David Ngog. Medo looks as if he'll be getting a few goals from midfield this season too, and new signing Beckford will be hoping to open his account. As mentioned above, the defence could be argued as a weak link largely down to the lack of game time with each other, but there does look an improvement on the actual personnel, perhaps with the exception of left back.

Phil: The surprise key man so far this season has been, without a doubt, Darren Pratley, however his sending off last week rules him out of this game. Chris Eagles, if he is back from injury, is the man that can really make something happen for the Wanderers and pull something out of nothing. The team is a little empty creatively in his absence but he can be a real force in midfield on his day. One to keep you entertained should be tough tackling midfield linchpin Medo Kamara - he’s a fiery and controversial character that wins and holds the ball well, while also distributing it effortlessly. There is never a dull moment with this lad, which is why he has been so popular since the first few minutes of his debut.

The weak link would be the central pairing of David Wheater and Zat Knight. They tend to be fairly strong in the air with their height, but are painfully slow which has been exposed a number of times already this season. A good ball and a well-timed run from a quick striker will cause real problems for Bolton.

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TacticalR added 14:00 - Aug 26 Thanks for your overview, and to the Bolton fans. I agree that it would probably have been better if we had been relegated that first season, as we ended up digging an even bigger hole for ourselves. I'm still glad we weren't though. As an outsider my impression of Coyle is of a man whose relentless talking abilities and optimism hide a lack of ideas. I presume Freedman went to Bolton because they have an existing Premiership infrastructure (which does not bode well for Palace).

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