Wanderers face Reading tomorrow night on the back of a decent win over Brighton - Chris spoke to a Reading fan to get the skinny on their season
Our mate Dan, a member of the excellent Tilehurst End website, has kindly agreed to both be the man who teaches us how to podcast (more on that topic soon) and the man who provided answers to my somewhat rambling questions ahead of tomorrow's game at Fortress Reebok against his beloved Reading.
So I asked, and he responded.
Read on, readers:
1) Adam Le Fondre has done well since joining Bolton - will he get a good reception from the travelling Reading fans?
Well he didn't up at Cardiff from a minority who gave him a bit of a boo.
However, by and large most Reading fans respect what he did for us and acknowledge the fact that without his sale we could well have started the season on -10 points. Hopefully he'll get a decent clap but as soon as the game starts he'll be treated the same as any other Bolton Wanderers player.
2) Steve Clarke was interviewed for the Bolton job before Neil Lennon was appointed - are you happy with your new boss?
So far I think fans are generally pleased with the job he's doing.
Results haven't exactly been outstanding but he just comes across far better than Nigel Adkins and given that he's not had much chance to reshape the squad he's probably getting about as much as he can from a squad that I've long since argued has gone stale.
He's got a massive job on in the summer to turn things around so we'll have a better idea this time next year.
3) What went wrong with Nigel Adkins' reign?
Nigel was dealt a pretty bad hand by our previous owner who promised the world and then delivered little.
I don't think Nigel would have come to the club had he known the true extent of the club's impending financial doom and he was obviously told he could reshape the squad and told to get us playing like Southampton. The problem is is that the players we had in the squad just couldn't play that way and without reinforcements it was always an uphill climb.
Last season was a respectable effort but we were only heading one way and he seemed to have totally run out of ideas when he was sacked in December. Like Brendan Rodgers he was possibly the right man at the wrong time but unlike Rodgers, Adkins had plenty of time to realise his mistakes and yet still failed.
4) How would you describe your season to date?
Meh...... and without our FA Cup run, ugh.
I'd say it's been a roller coaster but it's actually been more like a teacup ride with the team spinning from good to bad with no real clear pattern, logic or reason. Just like the teacup ride it's got to the point where we all feel pretty sick and just want to get off so we can find some firmer ground.
5) Your own Danny Guthrie is one of the poorest players to turn out for us in recent years - is he well established at Reading now?
He's established the fact he's not very good.
He had one bright run at the start of last season but he's spent most of this year injured and he'll be worst remembered for refusing to travel to a game with Sunderland because 'his head wasn't right'.
Thinks he's far better than he is and has been a waste of time and money, thankfully he's out of contract this summer.
6) What do you make of Neil Lennon and his impact at Bolton?
Like Clarke he seems to have got you back to basics and tried to move forward slowly. You're slowly grinding out a few more results and have stopped the slide of the past 12 months or so.
Losing Lee Chung-Yong must have been tough because he looked excellent at the Madejski in an otherwise pretty awful game of football.
I've read that your financial position isn't fantastic so I don't know how he'll cope with trying to build a squad in a post-parachute payment era at the Reebok/Macron/Burden Park/Whatever you want to call it these days ;)
Neil was nearly a Reading player once, but Sir John Madejski refused to stump up an extra couple of hundred thousand to bring him to Elm Park, money we would have certainly had if Fabien De Freitas hasn't decided to make his only meaningful impact in English football at Wembley 20 years ago, or the ref had sent off Jason McAteer for slicing down Michael Gilkes.
Yeah I'm still bitter OK?
7) Give us a score prediction!
We run a prediction league for our Tilehurst End Podcast and I haven't got a result yet alone scoreline right in the past 6 games but for what it's worth I've said a 1-1 draw.