Bolton Wanderers fans' column: Straight From the Stands

Matheson and Khumbeni shine in troublesome trophy

by Liam Hatton

TUESDAY night saw Bolton ease to an emphatic 8-1 win over Manchester United as life has started pretty well in their defence of the EFL Trophy.

Okay, it wasn’t that Manchester United - it was their under-21s, but there is an old saying that you can only win the games that are put in front of you.

Fortunately for Bolton, albeit unfortunately for the competition in general, the fallacy of letting the elite clubs dump their academy setup into a legitimate lower league competition continues to look like a nonsensical commitment to whatever cause the EFL deem necessary.

I digress, purely because that is not what I want to discuss this week. What I do want to talk about is that game, but more so a few players who have benefited and will continue to do so by playing in this competition.

Luke Matheson is one of many footballers who broke through at a young age. There are players who impress very early in their careers, they walk down Broadway and they see the dazzling lights. Sometimes the lights are too bright; sometimes the lights are not bright enough and they rise to the occasion.

Matheson impressed at Rochdale, with the story about him scoring at 16 years old against Manchester United at Old Trafford before having to go back to school the next day one that you have most probably heard.

Truth be told he has struggled since his big money move to Wolves, but looking at his career since and it appears it has not been down to his attitude as much as it has been a series of unfortunate moves out on loan.

The lad has always seemed to have had his head screwed on, he does not appear to have an attitude problem and Ian Evatt has raved about him.

“The kid is an absolute diamond – his attitude is first class,” Evatt said to The Bolton News.

“Given the journey he has had so far people perhaps perceive him to be different, but he is humble, down to earth, he has had adversity but I love players and people who have been through adversity because they come out bigger, better and stronger. He has learned from his time at Wolves and I think he comes out of it a better person and a better player.”

It very much seems as if he is following the path George Thomason has taken, albeit their progressions are not quite linear. Matheson has the potential - which has never been questioned - and you feel it may not be long until he’s a regular in and around the first team.

He did himself no harm on Tuesday, scoring and assisting for another B team standout in Nelson Khumbeni - who himself may be knocking on the door at some point this year.

Fans may talk about the B team and whether it is paying dividends. Matheson was brought in externally and you can question whether he is already too good for that level, but there are some players who have the potential to give Evatt something to think about, with Matheson heading up that list.

I suppose this competition is good in some aspects - Let’s just scrap the under-21 teams next year please?

Football finance to answer for owner issues

by Tony Thompson

I had half written my column for this week, aiming to make the point that Reading’s absent owner Dai Yongge was exactly the type of person who didn’t deserve to run a club, then the fellas at Scunthorpe United and Sheffield Wednesday asked me to hold a beer.

It seems weird looking in from the outside at the supporters of those three clubs coming to terms with situations and reading statements that we, at Bolton, experienced not that long ago.

In Reading’s case, you have a guy who has taken more points off his club than any opponent in the last 18 months. Let that sink in.

In Sheffield Wednesday’s case, you have a man whose appetite for long-winded and self-centred explanations reminds me of a guy who used to sit in the chairman’s suite at Bolton.

And the story at Scunthorpe, who announced a few days back that this Saturday will be their last game at Glanford Park and that they would soon be playing at Gainsborough Trinity WITHOUT ACTUALLY INFORMING THEM was nearly too far fetched to print in the Sunday Sport.

It chilled me to the bone on Friday morning when Bolton Wanderers tweeted out an EFL statement, thankfully without a corner flag, but instead with a nice trio of shiny white footballs (don’t ask me why, it made me feel better). Within it, a complicated message about discussions with the Premier League over funding, the fact nothing has been agreed, and that there would be more meetings.

We are very lucky to have Sharon Brittan, Football Ventures, the Swiss Consortium, the Government and all the other constituents that make up the shareholding at Bolton, and I cannot pretend to understand how it works. It just does.

I am not daft, though. Football clubs are stupidly expensive to run. Unless you are in the Premier League, you sell players for a big profit, or somehow manage to spend nothing and still satisfy the ambition of the supporters, you are left with someone funnelling a shedload of money in with nothing in return but a padded seat and a hot meal on a Saturday afternoon.

The rich are getting richer and to have any chance at making the big money you almost always, at some stage, have to speculate to accumulate. And it shouldn’t be like that, football should find a fairer way.

Until they do there will be rich people who get bored, get frustrated or lose the plot completely, who leave their club in the lurch, toddle off elsewhere and forget all about it.