Thanks to AAN and Tallery for the banners, I’ll swap ‘em per update.
November in Review
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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.
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Ngog tucks in for his 11th goal of the season.
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.
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Bolton vs Millwall 2-1 win
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.
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Lee’s first goal gives Bolton an early lead.
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.
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Lee watches, a twinkle in his eye as his free kick floats goal wards.
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.
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Bogdan gets down, but is unable to stop conceding a late, late goal.
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Watford vs Bolton 0-1 win
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.
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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.
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Middlesbrough vs Bolton 0-3 win
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.
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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.
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Ngog clips a lovely effort with the outside of the foot and into the goal.
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.
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Eagles puts the game out of hope for Boro fans, as he gets up and heads home 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.
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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.”
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Hammond was his usual riotous self after another great month as Wanderers manager.
Next Months Fixtures.
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A rough month of December for the Wanderers ending with an away fixture to Nigel Pearson’s in form Leicester.
The league, as it stands.
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Player of the Month
Lee Chung Young
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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.
Honorable Mention
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The entire defensive line has been outstanding all year long. This month they allowed only one goal and have really proved that a solid defense is the key to a good offense. A large number of our one goal wins could have very easily been the other way around.