Davies has been on the books at Reebok Stadium for 6 years, but has missed this season through injury.

Mark Davies, once dubbed the English Iniesta, is near a return to Wanderers after missing out for the last 9 months due to Strained Knee Ligaments is nearing a return to full fitness. The midfield and attacking midfielder, who has played for Bolton since the 08-09 season after a successful loan spell with the club ended in them purchasing him for about 1 million pounds from Wolves.

Davies, who looks to regain both fitness and form in the coming weeks following his return is a 25 year old with fire in his heart, eager to prove himself to his manager, Richard Hammond, Davies had a few things today after his first practice back with the squad, “It’s been a strong season for Bolton so far under the new gaffer, and some guys have been brought in who play in the same role as me. I’m going to have to not only be working on my fitness in the coming weeks, but I’m really going to have my work cut out for me in order to see the field. Andre Moritz has come in and made a huge impact at the club, and Franco Zuculini has really been a key to our midfield performances this year, I’m going to have to be at my best to take one of their spots on the starting 11. I’m really hoping to push for it, impress the gaffer and earn myself a new contract. After sitting for 9 months, I really have a long road to recovery, but I hope Hammond decides to stick by me.”


Hammond was all smiles again when facing the media after the session had ended, “Davies has been a key player in this camp long before I came aboard. He has a place on the squad, but it’s up to him to dictate that place to me through his attitude and his drive to succeed. I’m sure Davies will impress, he’s already impressed me, his work on rehab that knee this season has been nothing short of excruciating and he’s done a great job to return so quickly. I’d wager you’ll see on the pitch in the coming months.”


Bolton have had 2 of their key midfielders out to start this season, Stuart Holden, who has only made 2 appearances for the club since the 11-12 season due to a series of unfortunate injuries is hoping for a return to the field sometime this next year. However he still has, at least, 7 months more of recovery time from his latest bout with knee problems.

Hammond is reportedly excited to have such talented players coming back into the squad, “It will be really nice to see both Davies, and Holden out on a pitch again soon. They’re both players with the ability to change the game from midfield, both have great abilities with the ball and an ability to pick up their hands and create chances for others. It will be a nice boost to the lads, as a whole, to see them out there playing again.”


With Davies back, and Holden on the return, Richard Hammond has plenty to be excited about these next few months, not to mention his squads great run of form this year as well.

Bournemouth vs Bolton 0-1 win

Bolton played only 4 games this month, but kept their winning run going with 4 wins. Hammond has yet to know anything but victory in his first 4 months in charge of Bolton Wanderers FC, and the team is really playing well for him and each other.

The first game of the month brought the Wanderers to Dean Court in Bournemouth to take on the Cherries. Bolton outplayed the home side throughout the match, keeping the ball more, creating more chances and forcing Bournemouth to really fight for this match at home.

However, 10 minutes into the second half, an inform David Ngog managed to pounce on a loose ball resulting from some sloppy defending on a corner kick and tuck it home past a confused keeper and a failing defense for the only goal of the game.


In a match where both sides threatened the goal, a one goal win wasn’t the result the crowd expected but the Trotters fans were happy to leave Dean Court with the 3 points.





Bolton would travel back home to Reebok stadium for their next match vs Millwall, who’d they would play again in December for the Capital One Cup quarter final. Bolton dominated this match, allowing Millwall only 4 shots all game, only 2 of which were on target. Bolton’s Lee Chung Young stood tall in this match, and took it into his own hands to find the win.

14 minutes in David Ngog received the ball with his back to the goal, turned his defender, saw the streaking run of Lee Chung Young and played a perfect lofted through ball right into the South Korean stars path. He raced on to it, took the ball in stride and with a lovely touch sent the ball skipping past the diving keeper and just beyond the far post into the net.


Things would remain 1-0 until 7 minutes after the hour, when, presented with a long range free kick, Lee Chung Young hit a perfectly floated shot over the wall, dipping low afterwords and into the bottom corner of the near post. It was a lovely effort and Lee looked quite pleased with it.


Bolton looked to close the game out 2-0 and keep the clean sheet, but it was not to be as a lovely team move by Millwall resulted in their second shot on target, a half volley off the boot of Nicky Bailey that, despite the best efforts of Adam Bogdan found the net in the 90+2 of the game.





Bolton would next find themselves playing against Watford in Vicarage Road, and the Trotters brought the spirit of the fight with them. Again, Bolton found the net in the 14th minutes of the game, when after a series of lovely team passing, Lee Chung Young found himself with space on the right wing to play a little through ball into the path of surging striker David Ngog for him to smash home a shot the keeper had no chance with. After the match the shot was revealed to have been clocked in at 97 mph, a true display of David Ngog strength while striking the ball.

Ngog’s powerful shot leaves the keeper rooted to his spot, helpless to defend his goal.

The rest of the game was tightly contested, both teams battling for a goal, with neither of them being able to find one and both squads giving their all for it.




Bolton traveled to the Riverside stadium to take on Middlesbrough in what most people thought would be Wanderer victory over relegation placed Boro. Bolton did not take their expectations lightly, playing a wonderful possession brand of football new to them under Hammonds reign. Wanderers fans were showed a side patient in build up, and clinical in front of net compared to a Boro team that played a style more akin boot-ball than football, and managed a host of shots, but were not impressive in the final third.

The first goal of the match came from a wonderful piece of play by both wingers for the Wanderers, as Robb Hall the 20 year old, received a pass already running at his defender, skipped past him with a lovely bit of skill and drilled a cross far post into the path of the unmarked Lee Chung Young for his 3rd goal of the month, a crushing volley past the keeper and into the net.

Rob Hall watches from the wing as Lee Chung Young crushes in the opener off his inch perfect cross.

Not to be outdone this month, and 11 minutes later, David Ngog made a lovely run onto an Andre Moritz through ball beating his defender with his physical ability and the keeper with a lovely outside of the foot effort rolled into the side net behind the far post for his 3rd of the month and 13th goal this year.


Nothing of great remark would happen again until the 61st minute of play when Chris Eagles, brought on seconds before to replace the flagging Hall found himself at the far post with an Andre Moritz cross gliding in towards his head. He barely had to move to put his head in the path of the ball and smash home a goal with his first touch of the night.


Boro fans begin to trickle out of the stadium at this point, and the Trotters managed to see of a late thrust to finish out with the clean sheet as Adam Bogdan would not be beaten today.



Hammond didn’t managed to bring home manager of the month this time round, as he finished in 2nd place just below Nigel Pearson managed to complete his second perfect month in charge of the Leicester Foxes and took home the prize. However, Hammond will still undoubtedly be pleased with another perfect month in charge of the Wanderers, “If we keep this run going, we may be looking at a very strong side come the January window. We’ve got one more month left to play til then and maybe we’ll see some of the guys looking to leave get some pitch time in December in a hope to raise their value. It won’t hurt to give those guys some time too, we have a solid lead on the table, and a lot of fixtures next month. We’ve got an incredible amount of momentum, and we’d really love to carry it into the New Year with us.”

A rough month of December for the Wanderers ending with an away fixture to Nigel Pearson’s in form Leicester.

Lee Chung Young

With 3 goals and 2 assists this month Chungy contributed to 5 of our 7 goals this month and has been impressive overall all year long. He’s fully recovered from the gashed leg he suffered last month and is back in form as one of our more valuable pieces offensively.

Wow 17 unbeaten is incredible with Bolton! Great story so far can you make it an unbeaten season??

@k1rups: I'd love to be the invincible Wanderers, but it's a tough ask for sure. Been really lucky so far.

You're doing amazing mate! keep it up like this!

Thanks for all the support thus far! I really wouldn't still be here without the community, glad to be a part of it! Looking forward to keeping it up.

James May has announced that the impending christmas special Top Gear does every year, will not be put on hold without Richard Hammond, who is still enjoying a particularly wonderful start to his new career in football management. When asked about Hammond, May replied, “Oh.. him? Clarkson and I have moved on. We don’t need Hamster back, we’re almost better without him. We could afford 3 new cast members on the salary it was taking us to keep Hammond around. Now we’re almost glad he quit. If he ends up getting the sack at Bolton, unlikely as it is after the start he’s had, he won’t be able to come crawling back to Top Gear.”

James May, normally the most level headed of the group, seems to have come forward to take on the mantle of lead presenter after Hammond departure which has left Clarkson “elusive, and annoying,” as May put it. We’re still not sure if Jeremy Clarkson will be continuing much of a Top Gear career after he and May start up the new series with some new cast members and he was unavailable to comment.

May did say, however, that this Christmas special would truly be a Top Gear even to remember. Alluding to many things, such as castle building, cranes and a whole horde of super cars it sounds like an episode Top Gear fans won’t want to miss and that the new presenters will have a great time with.

“Remember, Top Gear has been around a long time. We’ll be around a long time. Probably a lot longer than Hammonds football career I can tell you that much.”

Captain Slow is taking some leadership, you don't see that everyday

Best of luck in taking your side to the invincibles of the Champ!

What is your secret?

Richard Hammond, having enjoyed 3 perfect months in charge of Bolton Wanderers FC has enjoyed a startling start to the season, as no one expect a self proclaimed non-fan of football to blossom into one of the more promising football minds in the Championship this year.

Having masterminded a Wanderers march up the table to a strong first place standing this season so far with the likes of Lee Chung Young, David Nog, Jay Spearing and Franco Zuculini turning in some stellar performances in attack. However, it has been in defense that Hammond’s side has really showed their teeth, with Alex Baptiste, Sofian Chahed, David Wheater, Tim Ream and Marc Tierney featuring regularly as starters for him. They allowed only 7 goals going into December.



Bolton’s first game of the month allowed them to play in front of their home fans at the Reebok Stadium versus a Huddersfield team that had struggled of late, but brought their A game to the Wanderers. It was a bitterly contested match with Wanderers controlling possession but unable to find a decent area to shoot from. A game that only produced 9 shots in total, it was mostly a defensive battle and it could be said that Wanderers came out on top if only because they continued their unbeaten record.




Bolton continued their homestay with a match versus Doncaster in their next game in December and with Christmas approaching the Trotters did their best to give their fans another unbeaten month as the perfect gift for the Holiday Season. Trotters fans only had to wait 18 minutes before David Ngog managed to find the net after a series of tight knit passing around the Doncaster 18 lead to him receiving the ball from Chris Eagles with little left to do but tap it into the opposite corner of the goal past the helpless Russ Turnbull.


Doncaster were keen to respond and did so 2 minutes later when Sofian Chahed misjudged a long ball and over ran it leaving Danny Redmond through and on to goal. Adam Bogan did his best but the error of Chahed left Redmond with a simple finish which he took with aplomb.

A grave error from Chahed leaves Redmond with a simple finish.

It took Bolton 12 minutes to find the goal to put them back in the lead, and it was the seasons star player David Ngog who both started and finished the play. Winning a header from a long kick from Bogdan Ngog held up play, before playing back to forward moving Jay Spearing who clipped a lovely one touch pass onto Andre Moritz who carried the ball into the Doncaster box, drawing two defenders before finding David Ngog surging late into the box unmarked who took one touch onto his left foot and unleashed a fearsome shot that Russ Turnbull managed to get hands to but was too much for him to stop finding the net. Hammond looked extremely pleased with the play, as it shows another step in the evolution of the Bolton philosophy under his rule.

Ngog finishes off a play he started in midfield with a lovely weak foot finish

The first half came to a close with Wanderers in a deserved lead.

The second half was a tightly contested affair, with both teams trying to find the 4th goal of the match to either put the game to bed, or rally their side. And it looked like neither would find it with Russ Turnbull and Adam Bogdan turning in great performances for their clubs. However, it was Bogdan who had the chance to come up big in the 79th minutes when Marc Tierney was judged to have made contact with a Doncaster player before the ball. David Cotterill stepped up to take the spot kick and did himself justice with a low shot towards the bottom left corner but Adam Bogdan came up huge for the Trotters to push the shot wide with an outstanding save that we’ll be seeing for some time in the Reebok’s replay reels.

Bogdan makes a save of the season, pushing Cotterill’s effort wide.

With the save made, and the Wanderers manager looking mildly stressed, the team decided to sit back and defend for the remaining time and ground out the game to a 2-1 finish, which Richard Hammond will certainly be okay with.




Bolton and Richard Hammond traveled to DW stadium to take on Wigan in their 3rd match in a heavy December month. It turned out to be another defensive battle as both teams struggled to make an impact in the attacking third. In a game that produced only 6 shots, it was a boring game for fans of either team and a lot of pundits placed the blame on the fitness issues such a congested month has brought to both teams.

Bolton vs Millwall Capital One Cup 1-0 Win

It took a dominant Bolton side 26 minutes to find the net against a very weak looking Millwall side whose only contribution to the match was keeping the referee busy. Bolton destroyed Millwall in their Capital One Cup game, keeping the ball most of the time and creating more chances for themselves than their last game produced in its entirety. In the 26th minutes David Ngog received a lovely lofted pass from Darren Pratley and was left spoiled for choice before 3 defenders collapsed into him. 2 of which went down with him in a heap and the ball popped out to Bolton youngster Robb Hall who crushed it home for the only game of the match.





Bolton carried their momentum from their capital one cup game into this match vs Charlton, another match in front of their home supporters and they did wonderfully in the opening minutes. With the attack firing on all cylinders it took only 10 minutes for David Ngog to loft a lovely ball forward onto the chest of a sprinting Lee Chung Young who controlled it, tapped the ball once to set it up and slotted past the keeper for his 11th goal of the season.

Lee Chung Young has made these type of finishes look easy this season.

Bolton continued to play on the forward foot, but Charlton also had chances as both teams looked to score the second goal. However things went in at halftime 1-0, thanks to Lee Chung Young’s classic finish.

Medo put Bolton’s lead in jeopardy when, after a bit of laziness in the midfield tried to make up for it by diving into a challenge very late, and very much from behind and saw a red for his effort.

Medo dives in after a bit of laziness needs to be made up for.

Bolton were forced to pull back after this, sitting deeply and seeing off a Charlton side who were desperate for a goal but unable to find it in the closing moments.

Leicester vs Bolton 0-0 Draw

Bolton traveled to on again, off again Leicester who have had two perfect months under Nigel Pearson, but have faded this December to a 5th place. The Wanderers and the Foxes put the game to each other but both keepers came up huge for their sides in this match. With Adam Bogdan managing to stop 2 wonderful shots from the Foxes and Kasper Schmeichel managing to stop an outstanding 5 shots from a well firing Trotters offense that just could not beat him.



And so the Trotters finished out another month unbeaten. With a couple stumbles in their play against some of the tougher opponents Hammond is undoubtedly looking towards the transfer window to strengthen his side in offense, as it seems both Chris Eagles and Rob Hall are having a bit of trouble in the bigger games for him.




David Ngog has been in sensational form this whole season, but he’s finally clicked into a player of the month spot for the Wanderers scoring 3 goals and chipping in with an assist in a long month of December. He also put in some wonderful performances defensively from the front end, putting pressure on keepers and back lines and really terrorizing the league as well as scoring.

Authors Note Next Months fixtures will come after a special edition fixture vs an old friend! Look forward to some build up soon.

Still an impressive month! Looking forward to seeing you in the Prem!

Another undefeated month! Can this fairytale continue?

Dougie Freedman and the Middlesbrough board have announced that Freedman will takeover the role of manager for the struggling club who sit 19th in the Championship after 21 game managing to gather only 20 points. Dougie Freedman, who managed both Crystal Palace and Bolton Wanderers, before this appointment is delighted stating, “It’s nice to be back at a club with some history, and a club that’s willing to stick to a footballing mindset. Unlike other clubs in the league, Boro have decided to stick with a footballer and I’m delighted to have signed a deal here with the club.”

Freedman enjoyed his spell at Crystal Palace, and looked to be enjoying a career with Bolton before it was cut short.

With his first game in charge coming against the Trotters on New Years day, Freedman is surely looking to undo some of the work his successor has done this season and start with a positive result against his former club. It certainly seems as though Freedman is hell bent on revenge stating, “Hammond’s playing largely with a squad I built him. He’s made one or two changes here or there. I’ll give him Sofian Chahed has done well and even taken Tyrone’s (Mears) spot as their right side fullback. But it’s mostly my team, and I should know how to play against it.”

Freedman eyes revenge.

This will be Freedman’s first club since his sacking at Wanderers and what a way to start it. A game on the first day of the New Year versus his old club. Everyone will be watching, it’s going to certainly be one hell of battle.

Things are going great for Hamster! Top couple of updates and good to see James May involved!