A new formation 4312 with Kranjcar in the hole behind Charlie and AJ. We struggled in midfield where we were outnumbered and gave the ball away far too much. LTC played some excellent balls but more poor ones, needs to be less complacent.

Great save from Green but we were fortunate that it flew off his hands and over the bar.

Good substitutions Phillips and Traore both added pace and width and made chances for the team.

Yet again we grind out the first half and are more dominant in the second. Huddersfield played nice football but struggled with the final ball and the finishing. They will be difficult to beat for our rivals. A good three points.

1

Huddersfeild were impressive and should have been a couple of goals up by half time. Poor finishing let them down and a week Rs midfeild did not help
If Robbins had a bit of money they would be promotion challengers
Second half Rs display improved -Austin was clinical with the first one but at one nil we were still on thin ice.
As expected Town equalised with Wells-he seems a good buy!
That only encouraged Rs to put int their best passage of play -Phillips and AJ should have done better with their opportuinites but it fell to Austin to make a brave header for the points
Felt we were a touch forunate to gte the points and think Town will affect the promotion teams.
Great to have Phillips and Traore speeding down the wings-they could really run havoc
Got a weak link with Carroll-just seems too laid back but did not let his head go down and made a fine tackle towards the end
Really missed Barton
Fantastic away support -prob the best of the season

2

A routine win in the end, but the team's shape was wrong first half. Town exploited our lack of width well and should have taken at least one of their two or three clear chances. Second half, it felt as if there was only going to be one winner, even after their equaliser.

Individually (player for player) we were streets and streets ahead of them, but I'm still concerned that Arry hasn't translated that to the team - there wasn't actually much between the teams in the end.

2

Very fortunate Rangers.

Huddersfield won the first half in a canter in all aspects except scoring.

The use of width and speed in the second made all the difference and we were at least able to move up a gear after they equalised in order to nail it.

Individual superiority is not being fully translated into team performances. Harry, time to up your performance fella.

0

I wonder if Rangers would have had a better shape with New at the back. Huddersfield seemed to find lots of space between our midfield and defence. And the flat midfield? Carroll might look better (and his mistakes might look less threatening) further forward and Henry slow movement of the ball would matter less if he played deeper.

1

We're still trying to find a formation to suite our style, when we play 4-2-3-1 we play boring short pass football, while when we play 4-4-2 we play extremely direct football, a middle point would be grand, but not complaining too much, we must be safe from relegation now!
I actually thought Henry was our MOM because he did a lot of the dirty stuff and was much better with distributing the ball to our better players.
Hill and BAE weren't particularly great today defensively, although I think BAE had one of his better attacking performances.
Good result anyways!
Oour fans still p*ss me off mind

1

The same as usual, opposition in our faces, we find it hard to get into a rhythm and give the ball away frequently. Opposition fail to take early chances and Green watches one long range effort hit the crossbar. So we survive the first half and even go one up. Second half we start much better score a second, opposition runs out of steam for a bit, we look like we will score at least one more but on numerous occasions the final ball lets us down. We don't and, with one eye on Saturday, Harry withdraws Austin and Krancjar. Bolton are rejuvenated by their own subs and go close a couple of times, score a late goal and we endure another nervous finish but get the three points.
A great effort from Phillips who ran up and down the right wing and kept two or three of Bolton's players occupied trying to stop him. A brave performance and a deserved goal from Austin and just hope he is ok for Saturday. Good to see Henry score to add to first goals for O'Neil and Traore this year.
I will happily settle for the same again but we will probably have to play a bit better to beat Burnley.
PS Did anyone see what happened to Charlie and was he to blame for the first minute injury to their defender?

0

Yes same old same old (for this season)

The removal of Charlie and then Niko really adversely affected the team.

SWP still cant keep on his feet.

Carrol and Henry deteriorated greatly in last 20 mins.

Better teams would have punished us in those last 20 /25 mins.

Thought Dunne and BAE did well. Phillips too. Charlie was, well, Charlie.

And surely its time that BZ was put out to stud???

Need to up our game somewhat for Saturdays 6 pointer

0

Well ok - we won. And if we were in the bottom six and struggling I would have that down as a gritty and valuable 3 points. But of course we're not. I thought the first half hour was dire, as bad as the City Ground on Boxing Day, and I lost count of the number of times Karl Henry was caught in possession. So when Charlie Austin got injured I was expecting a similar outcome.

But then we got a goal - which started with Tom Carroll (who was my MOTM) being strong in midfield to keep the ball and get it out wide to Matty Phillips. And of course it was a great header.

Bolton are clearly short on confidence and the second half was a bit better. Carroll looked the part in midfield, BAE grew into his unfamiliar role playing on the "wrong" side for him and Phillips and Traore (who I thought had a good game albeit with one defensive blunder early on) marauded down each wing to some effect.

And of course I'm pleased for Karl Henry - it was a great strike from what, 25 yards? - but the shouts of "shoot" around me every time he got the ball anywhere on the field after that rather summed up what we all thought - one great goal doesn't make him a decent player.

I know Joey Barton isn't everybody's cup of tea on here, but from what I've seen there is a stark difference between what we look like when he plays (a decent team without enough cutting edge), and when he doesn't (mid-table scrappers at best). So I just hope he's fit for the next three games. Our record against the top six so far this season in case anyone's forgotten - P5 W1 D1 L3.

0

The first 30 minutes was very casual and another team would have punished us for this. However, from the build up to the goal for the next 45 minutes I thought we played well and really had control of the game, with good movement and understanding. We should have buried the game then but a refusal to go for goal seems to pervade.

The substitutions were understandable, especially Austin, but it was always risky at only 2-0 as the midfield was weakened now.

I cannot see the point of SWP, am I missing something? He offers nothing in any department and severely weakens the team. I thought BZ did quite well. Not sure if that is because he has been so bad previously.

Saturday will be interesting!

0