1 week Ago
AARON Morley hopes Wanderers can make Barnsley pay where their Yorkshire rivals Rotherham were let off the hook in midweek. Puzzled as to how Bolton emerged empty handed on Tuesday night, the midfielder has plans to take out his frustration on the Tykes at Oakwell. Wanderers have some happy memories of that stadium, having won there in the play-off semi-final last season, and Morley is in the mood to create some more.
“We could have still been playing now and we wouldn’t have hit the back of the net,” he said of the 1-0 defeat which leaves the Whites just outside the play-off picture. “I don’t know why, sometimes it just happens like that, we’ve just got to make sure that it changes on Saturday. “I think there were 30 final third entries in the first half and we didn’t score, we couldn’t believe it, and then in the second half, I was just in shock that we hadn’t scored.
“But at Barnsley we have got to find a way to get that detail to finish things off. “We’ve done well there before and that might give us a bit of confidence but we know it’s a tough game and they can be pretty dangerous on the attack.” Morley fears that Wanderers will need to win all five of their remaining games to seal sixth spot ahead of Reading, who travel to face Kevin Nolan’s Northampton Town on Saturday.
If they do so, it could mean a reunion with Wycombe, the club with whom he spent the first half of the season on loan, inadvertently rejuvenating his Bolton career in the process. “It would be a bit weird,” he laughed. “I do still keep in touch with some of the lads and they got a great result on Tuesday night, so I’m hoping they can get the second spot.
“Knowing all the lads down there it would be a strange one if we had to meet in the play-offs but I hope they can go up automatically and we can get sixth.” Steven Schumacher is reluctant to name a points target with five games remaining, and though his side will certainly be aiming for a 100 per cent return in the final five games, he believes there could be some twists and turns to come. “Who knows? You can't put your finger on it,” he said, asked how many points it will take to be certain of a top six spot.
“A point tally of X usually guarantees you it, and then you get a certain point of tally and it doesn't guarantee it, you need Y. “I still think with five games to go, it never pans out the way everybody expects it to. I don't know whether any of the teams in the top six will win all five, I don't know whether we'll win all five, but all we can do is take one game at a time.
“The most important thing is that we get three points on Saturday, and I think our players understand and we’re all aware of that. “We can't slip up too many more times, because if you do, then the other teams around you will capitalise.”.
