A NEW year and it is the same old Bolton with the nightmare at the Reebok continuing.

More valuable points needlessly dropped because of pathetic defending. Dougie Freedman rang the changes in favour of one up front again with Joe Mason chasing lost causes.

I don’t know what the deal is with Cardiff but we would be better off giving some experience to one of our own youngsters.

Most fans seem stunned after reading the financial report yesterday. It has left us in no doubt as to what a dire financial position we are in.

God bless Eddie Davies as without him we would have been in administration a long time ago. The crowd were up for it from the start giving the Wanderers great vocal support but any goodwill was extinguished in the first 20 minutes as Zat Knight committed two horrendous blunders and gifted Middlesbrough a two-goal start.

He was deservedly booed thereafter and why he was allowed to stay on the pitch I don’t know. Without Knight’s interventions, Middlesbrough didn’t look dangerous.

We battled and deservedly pulled one back through our goalscoring full-back, Alex Baptiste.

We dominated the second half but were poor at creating chances. Andre Moritz, Jermaine Beckford and finally David Ngog came on to boost the attack and it was Ngog who managed to fire home in the last minute to salvage a point.

At the end of the day, this was two more points squandered against mediocre opposition. Looking at the fixtures for the rest of January it is difficult to see where the next point is going to come from. After our brief good spell in October and November, we have gone backwards again.

Freedman needs to do some wheeling and dealing in the January transfer window to get back on track. He needs to get rid of the players he does not want before he can bring in the players he does want.

There are too many players playing well below their best. The immediate outlook is not good at all.

Dougie needs time in a job that is getting more difficult each week. The fans will only give him time if he begins to show positive signs that he is making progress on the pitch.