DrCake

BOLTON Wanderers have confirmed Steven Schumacher has been appointed as their new head coach.

The former Stoke City and Plymouth Argyle boss will be in the dugout on Saturday for his first game at Reading after agreeing a three-and-a-half-year-deal with the Whites.

Schumacher, 40, led Plymouth to promotion from League One with 101 points in 2023, and has been out of work since leaving Stoke in September five games into the Championship season.

He has turned down offers to return to the game since then but felt the opportunity to manage Bolton was one he could not pass up.

“So many things attracted me to this great club,” he said. “The history, the fanbase, the ownership, the quality in the squad. It has got so many different things, and I am just really excited to be here.

“When you're out of work, you are trying to reflect. I tried to go and do some extra learning, tried to take some time as well, spend with the familly"

“It was the first Christmas in 23 years of not being involved in the game. And it was good, hectic, but it was good.

“You are always just looking for the right opportunity and when I got the call late last week and started discussions over the weekend there was just something that felt right about it.

“I have obviously spoken to other clubs in the four months that I've been off, and this one, as I say, it felt right. I've got a really good feeling, and I'm super excited.”

Schumacher takes over a club which had been moulded over four-and-a-half years by his predecessor, Ian Evatt, with a squad that had been recruited to a specific style of play.

In the end, the manager’s footballing philosophy became a bone of contention, accelerating his exit, confirmed after the 2-1 defeat against Charlton Athletic on January 21.

Asked to sum up the style of management that he will bring to Wanderers, the new man in charge hoped to create a buzz around the fanbase.

“I'm the type of manager that is ultra-positive, tries to play football in a way that the fans enjoy coming to watch us, try and entertain, but ultimately I'm a young manager that is desperate to win,” he said.

“I think over the years, since I've been a head coach, even as an assistant coach, we have found a way to adapt our teams and to try and get points on the board and success, and that's what I want to bring to Bolton Wanderers.”

Schumacher says his goal is promotion and hinted that he will be picking up some of the existing transfer plans which have been worked on by sporting director Chris Markham and the recruitment department.

“You have to concentrate on the short-term plan,” he said. “We’re in a really exciting part of the season and in a fantastic position in the league.

“I'm quite fortunate, really, to come into a club that is only one point outside the play-offs.

“That doesn't happen too often, and that's obviously credit to the work that's gone on before me with Ian and his team.

“I know that hasn't gone exactly to how Bolton Wanderers wanted it to go at the start of this season, but it's still a brilliant opportunity and loads to play for and loads to be excited about.”

The right decision but sad to see him go. Despite a good performance yesterday, we just haven’t looked the same team as last year.

So I’m walking to an evening class at a local college, it’s dark. There’s a bend just before the junction and as I’m walking across a car comes round way too fast. I had to step back to avoid being hit. I was wearing gloves and as it went past I hit it, no idea why, just instinct and anger.

I carry on walking and I see the driver has pulled over a bit down the road, I was expecting a “sorry are you ok” but she instead shouted “did you just hit my car?”. That set me off, shouting at her that she almost fucking ran me over. Then she says “you don’t have to use that kind of language”, the fucking nerve.

Gave up and just walked off. Wish I’d have smashed the wing mirror or keyed the car or something.

Has anyone else almost been run over and how do you deal with the anger of it?

I live in the Uk and fancied a holiday just going around Great Britain for a week by train and saw this was an option.

Just wondering if anyone has used it and was it worth the price vs booking each trip in advance.

No new injury concerns. Bodvarsson is back in training, will be interesting to see if he makes the bench.

The club will receive 36,550 seats for the Saturday, May 18 showpiece, and will take up the ‘East End’ – just as they did in April 2023 when they beat Plymouth Argyle in the Papa Johns Trophy.

Prices are split into six categories as follows:

Category 1 – Adults £86, Young Adult (17-21yrs) £64.50, Over 65 and Under-16s £43

Category 2 – Adults £67, Young Adult (17-21yrs) £50.25, Over 65 and Under-16s £33.50

Category 3 - Adults £59, Young Adult (17-21yrs) £44.25, Over 65 and Under-16s £29.50

Category 4 – Adults £55, Young Adult (17-21yrs) £41.25, Over 65 and Under-16s £27.50

Category 5 – Adults £41, Young Adult (17-21yrs) £30.75, Over 65 and Under-16s £20.50

Category 6 – Adults £31, Young Adult (17-21yrs) £23.25, Over 65 and Under-16s £15.50

WANDERERS are on their way to Wembley after a night of high drama against Barnsley.

Ian Evatt’s men are now 90 minutes away from the Championship but, of course, they didn’t do it the easy way.

Coasting at 2-1 at half time, 5-2 on aggregate, there seemed little chance of a Tykes revival.

Aaron Collins and Eoin Toal had cancelled out Sam Cosgrove’s opener, and things looked to be going the Whites’ way once again. But the second 45 minutes proved an exercise in torture for the long-suffering Bolton fans who had been nothing short of magnificent from beginning to end.

Cosgrove scored again, Adam Phillips put Barnsley back to within a goal. The final moments were as tense as anything this stadium has seen before.

But the joyous scenes at the final whistle showed exactly what this means to a club now not only on the mend, but nearly back to full health.

Unsurprisingly, Wanderers stayed with the same starting 11 that started the first leg, whereas Barnsley brought Sam Cosgrove back into the starting line-up for their leading goal-scorer Devante Cole.

Much has been said and written about the former Wigan Athletic striker’s history with Bolton, and Toal in particular, but there is little doubt that he is an awkward customer and it came as little surprise that he was the one who got the nerves jangling 36 minutes in.

Wanderers had been the better side to that point, Collins had seen one goal ruled out after Mael de Gevigney got himself in a real mess facing his own goal, losing the ball to the Welshman who rolled a shot past Liam Roberts. Referee Oliver Langford felt there had been a foul.

Cosgrove had a penalty shout turned down when he went sprawling in the corner of the penalty box, Nathan Baxter having charged out to the extremity of his area to push the ball to safety. Again, ref Langford was unmoved.

Barnsley had little answer to Collins’ movement and 17 minutes in it took a full-length save from Roberts to push away a goal-bound effort after he had cut in past Corey O’Keefe.

De Gevigney then made a risky challenge on Collins close to goal which brought another vocal penalty appeal from the home crowd. Say what you want about referee Langford, he was not about to let himself be swayed by the noise.

Wanderers were asking most of the questions but Barnsley’s need was great, and as the away end finally filled to the brim, those fans who had been stuck on the motorway arrived just in time to see their hopes briefly flicker into life.

After struggling to clear a long throw, Bolton were pinned in, and a magnificent chipped cross from John McAtee gave Cosgrove the chance to bulldoze two defenders and force the ball into the net, sparking scenes of Yorkshire joy.

The few minutes after that felt the most nervous of the night. Santos took a poor touch, a couple of passes went astray. Resolve was tested.

But then a moment of pure class from Collins, which showed exactly why the club pushed the boat out in January to bring him in. Cutting in from the left a couple of strides he crashed a right footed shot into the bottom corner to beat Roberts, and the tension was released.

Celebrations had hardly calmed when Collins found himself through on goal again, this time fed by an excellent pass from Charles. He got around Roberts but couldn’t shoot first time, eventually denied by a brave block from Jordan Williams at the foot of the post.

Wanderers were not done yet. From the corner Toal rose above everyone to power home a header and set the stadium buzzing with electricity yet again.

Close your eyes and it could just as easily have been El-Hadji Diouf scoring against Atletico Madrid. Call it the Reebok, the Macron, the UniBol or the Toughsheet, on a night like this there is nothing comparable.

Would Barnsley manage to raise their game again in the second half? Well, nobody told Luca Connell the match was dead. The former Bolton youngster remains a credit to the academy and a player who should definitely be operating at a higher level.

It was the 23-year-old who fizzed a shot just wide of Baxter’s post a few minutes after the restart to remind Wanderers that despite the party atmosphere, there was still work to be done.

Thomason might well have killed the contest, bursting through just before the hour he unselfishly looked for a reverse pass to Charles, who drove his shot just wide.

Over-confidence felt just as dangerous at that point – and that might just have crept in for Santos as he took a poor touch just outside his own penalty box with 25 minutes to go, the ball eventually worked through Cosgrove and substitute Cole to Adam Phillips, whose shot then bounced off the Whites captain and past Baxter into the net.

Just as in the first leg, the lapse in concentration put a slight question mark over what should have been a foregone conclusion.

With 15 minutes left and with Kyle Dempsey waiting to come on, Wanderers went behind on the night. Maghoma had only moments earlier been bearing down on goal with two team-mates for company but lost control, Barnsley switched play and sub Conor Grant came up with a sumptuous cross for Cosgrove to head his second.

Another heart-in-mouth moment followed as O’Keefe arrowed a dangerous free kick right across the box, Cosgrove threw himself at it and De Gevigney couldn’t steer his shot on target.

With nine minutes left Cole out-paced Sheehan on the left and swung another dangerous ball in – this time Cosgrove couldn’t bring it under his spell. At this stage the seconds ticking down on each of the big screens started to slow to a crawl.

Five minutes of added time was met with a guttural roar. If the players needed an extra shot of energy for their last task of the night, there it was.

Could Barnsley go again? I think we all knew the answer.

Williams somehow found space to drive a shot at goal which looped off a Bolton leg and dropped inches wide of the post.

Grown men and women just couldn’t look.

As the minutes finally became seconds, a clearing header from Santos was celebrated like a goal, as was a throw in won by the old campaigner, Cameron Jerome, now off the bench.

And then, the whistle. Que sera, sera, we really are going to Wembley.

Super nervy last half hour but we got the job done. Bring on Oxford or Peterborough at Wembley

League One Play-Offs Second Leg Bolton VS Barnsley Live build up and commentry via Bolton News