Megson looking to push on

Bolton boss looking for results to improve

Last updated: 3rd December 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Megson looking to push on

Megson: Targeting bright December

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Gary Megson is looking for Bolton to push on up the league in the coming weeks with a string of what look like easier ties.

The Trotters currently languish in 18th place in the top flight after picking up just 12 points from their opening 13 matches.

They have played eight of the league's present top ten in that sequence but now Megson's side face Wolves, Manchester City, West Ham, Wigan, Burnley and Hull in their next six fixtures up to 29th December.

At that point it will be midway through the league season and Megson believes that will give a more accurate reflection of the league and the Trotters' position within it.

He said: "By then you have played every team once so it is starting to take shape.

"With clubs like ourselves, every now and again you are going to beat a Manchester United, or a Chelsea, an Arsenal, a Liverpool, but when they all come along in one sequence that is going to make life tough for that kind of football club.

Push on

"That is what has happened to us and now we have played those teams we now need to push on.

"I don't want to be disrespectful to those teams that are around us, but we have survived the last two seasons by having a decent record against those kinds of clubs and we have got to do it again."

But Megson acknowledges that his team need to score more and he believes they have missed goals from target man Kevin Davies and Matt Taylor this season.

He added: "Kev is a good player and a big focus of what we do at the football club, but I know that he, like myself and everyone else, has been a little bit disappointed with his goal ratio compared to last season.

"He has slipped back to what it used to be, and we are missing that. We are missing it from Matt Taylor as well, he got a lot of goals for us last year.

"We now need someone to step into that position and get those goals for us. Whether it is Ivan Klasnic, Chung-Yong Lee, whoever it may be it doesn't particularly matter, but we are in need of scoring more goals."

Springboard

But at least the Trotters halted a run of three successive league losses with their 1-1 draw at Fulham last time and Megson is hoping the result can act as a springboard up the league.

He added: "Take the Fulham game in isolation, look at what we did and then compare it to what other people have done there over the last 18 months.

"It is a difficult place to go and I think we did ever so well. We looked a lot more combative, our work-rate was through the roof, defensively we looked more solid and they didn't have a huge amount of efforts on goal. The goal they did score was a wicked deflection.

"Individually, I thought all the players did well and collectively I was really pleased.

"It was one of the places we haven't had too much success at and hopefully that can kick-start us again."