After eighty-minutes of no goals, it was getting a bit worrisome for Bolton supporters. Would we do it again? Would we give points to a lowly team that we should beat? Well, where as it might be the nice thing our mothers taught us to do, we didn’t. It was Kevin Davies, the man who could only play fifty-odd minutes against ManUre, the man that supported the Blades as a child, the man that our style of play seems to be made for, who eventually netted for us.

Bolton dominated much of the game, but a few Sheffield United counter attacks sent hearts racing. Thankfully Davies came to the rescue with a blast into the bottom right corner.

We may have won, but we lost our skipper for the next two games. Nolan picked up his tenth foul of the season and will miss Wigan and Everton. He will join Campo - who is also serving a suspension - for tea and discuss their poor behavior when we take on Wigan at the JJB next weekend. Thankfully we got Faye back from injury who was able to fill in the middle where Campo likes to play. Faye showed a great effort, and a good amount of energy, something our midfield more than occasionally lacks. While it may seem that lacking Kevin Nolan may hurt us, perhaps in the end it is something that will help us. Big Sam doesn’t like to introduce new players. For some reason, he loves to go with Pederson and keep the talent on the bench. With both Campo and Nolan out, perhaps the Iranian Andranik will get a well deserved start. And maybe, just maybe we’ll even see the likes of Idan Tal actually on the pitch. We fans can look forward to this as a time that Sam is forced to try out some of his new talent. Unfortunately, he’ll probably stick Pederson in somewhere he doesn’t belong, and move players around. Before you know it, we’ll have Anelka playing center back with El-Hadji Diouf.

The Blades have picked up one point in the past three games, and while this form is utter crap, the Whites haven’t picked up any in the past three. It’s actually a bit frightening going into this game. Six games ago there was talk of us with a chance of getting into European football. This idea has been scrambled and now we’re hoping to hang on to UEFA Cup Footy. Poor. Absolutely piss poor.

We will have Kevin Davies back, and hopefully he’ll be able to go a bit longer than he did against ManUre. We also hope to have Faye back from injury, however we will be without the great Ivan Campo. Campo picked up his tenth yellow card of the season, and consequently will miss this match against the Blades. On a lighter note, Hulse is out through injury. And let’s face it. Hulse was fifty-percent of that team.

Bolton Wanderers 2 - 0 Sheffield United. El-Hadji Diouf, and Anelka are due.

Idan Tal scored for Israel in their four - nil stomping of Estonia. Israel continues to keep the pressure on England at this point.

After starting in Greece’s four - one loss to Turkey Stelios sound himself on the bench while Greece went on to a one - nil win over lowly Malta.

Michalík who wasn’t even called up for Slovakia’s three - one win over Cyprus had a spot on the bench for Slovakia in their one - nil defeat by Ireland.

Jääskeläinen started in net as the Fins lost to Azerbaijan.

Méïté and the Ivory Coast picked up a three - nil win over Madagascar keeping them atop their group with six points in two games.

El-Hadji Diouf and Abdoulaye Faye picked up a win with Senegal four - nil over Tanzania. Diouf contributed two assists. Jamaica picked up a draw in their friendly.

It is assumed that Ben Haim will be picked up by one of the Big Four as he has the quality to play for them, and they have the funds to pay for him. I could see him moving to the Pool, or Chelski. Personally, I don’t see ManUre or the Arse in need of him, although I’m sure Ben Haim would be content to sit on the bench and roll in the dough. If he wasn’t, he’d end up staying with the Whites, not making as much, but getting all the playing time he wants.

Tal Ben Haim will almost certainly be starting in the back for Israel when they take on England in Israel in a Euro 2008 qualification map. As Ben Haim sees it the loser of this match will fail to qualify, and although England is the favorite to win, he feels like giving them a run at it.

We did it again. We lost four to one again. A few early goals from the opposition and we were shot. Scrambling around the pitch hoping not to let too many more go by in the remaining three-quarters of a game. In all three games, the goals came early on and proved to be too big of a mountain to climb. And in all three games it seemed that there was one essential player that destroyed our defense (Downing, Keane, Ronaldo).

Oddly enough as I told you the other day that Davies wouldn’t make it due to his semi-recent injury, he started, and didn’t prove to be much help to our cause as he was subbed out after only the fifty-second minute. For some reason unbeknown to anyone with the exception of Big Sam, Pedersen started the match but was replaced after only by twenty-eight minutes by El-Hadji Diouf. Was this some tactic to save Pederson some energy after the game had more-or-less already been lost? I don’t know, but it doesn’t make sense. Come on Sam.

Most of Man U’s goals came from set pieces. Our set pieces. Their counter attacks. Aren’t we supposed to be the ones that dominate set pieces? Aren’t we a “set piece” team (aside from being a “long ball” team)? And they were our set pieces that Man U just swiped from us. Piss poor. Depressing. Yes, it’s Manchester United. A very good Manchester United side, but four to one? Our set pieces? What’s going on Sam? When are you going to get our boys together and turn this decrepit form of ours around? We’re waiting.

Hopefully we can get a win on the thirty-first when we take on Sheffield United and keep a few points between us and sixth place.

Well if we were to have a team consisting solely of Englishmen when it came time for international weeks like the one ahead of us, most of our team would be sitting around and training. This is good, but at this stage in the season, it’s good to keep match fit and play a match a week or so. When we field only a few quality individuals from any given country, it’s likely they’ll be called up for international duty, so it is with Bolton this upcoming week. Of our eighteen listed possibilities for Saturdays match against Manchester United, nine have been called up for senior international duty. On top of that, one of our players out on loan has been called up for the national team, and a handful have been called up for their countries youth squads (most of them on loan.) All in all, fifteen of our boys have been called into international duty.

Idan Tal, and Tal Ben Haim have both been called up by Israel. Tal hasn’t seen much time for the Whites while Ben Haim has really been a stand out in the back.

Stelios will play for Greece

Jääskeläinen will mind the net for Finland.

El-Hadji Diouf and Abdoulaye Faye will play for Senegal against Tanzania.

Ricardo Gardener will play for Jamaica.

The other Faye, Méïté, will play two matches for the Cote D’Ivorie.

Andranik, who has really showed his promise when he’s been given minutes, will play for Iran.

New signing, and on loan defender Ľubomír Michalík, has been called up to the Slovakian national team.

Our youngsters Johann Smith, and Ricardo Vaz Té (both on loan) have been called into action for the US and Portugal respectively, while the Polish threesome of Jaroslaw Fojut, Blazej Augustyn and Przemysław Kazimierczak have all been called up (I really can’t wait until they make it to the first team and we have to wrap our mouths around those names.)

Saturday sees the fifth placed Wanderers take on a tip-top Manchester United side at Old Trafford. Bolton face an uphill battle, but it would be a little less steep with the help of Davies upfront. Unfortunately according to Big Sam, it’s probably a bit too soon to see Davies back in the line up as he “hasn’t been able to kick a ball” in the time that he’s been injured. Undoubtedly it would be too soon to see Davies back in. No need to jeopardize another injury facing an already tough match.

Although difficult, the Wanderers will look to put two recent defeats to Spurs and Blackburn behind them and do their best to collect at least a point from Man U. As much as I’d love to see the Whites take some points from the league leaders, and keep some distance between them and sixth place, I’m afraid it won’t happen. Three - one to Manchester United. Hope I’m wrong.