9:22am Monday 29th October 2007
By Gordon Sharrock
HE saw things that pleased him - what manager wouldn't be happy to see a Nicolas Anelka "special"? - and things that concerned him - players should know better than to switch off - but overall Gary Megson had a satisfactory first day at the office.
It would have been even better had he banked the three points that looked to be in the bag at half time, but the new Wanderers boss at least has the consolation of knowing they are no longer propping up the entire Premiership.
Only by a matter of goal difference, but it's a start.
Where they go from here will depend on how the manager reacts to what he has seen - the good and the bad - and whether the players respond to his actions.
But the signs are encouraging: not shout-it-from-the-rooftops stuff or anything like that, but the fans who bothered to turn up - there were many who didn't considering this was the Reebok's lowest ever Premiership attendance - showed the new manager that, however unpopular his appointment may have been, they are prepared to give him a chance.
He showed them that, given the tools, he might just be able to do the job.
He knows everything in the garden is far from rosy; Sammy Lee would still have been manager today if Wanderers had been sitting safely in the Premiership comfort zone. But he has inherited some good players - better than he has ever worked with in his managerial career - and he has a blueprint to work from - the Sam Allardyce plan that put pride back in the name of Bolton Wanderers.
And if anyone suspected Megson was simply paying lip service to Big Sam's legacy, they could not have been more wrong.
Not only did his starting 11 include nine Allardyce men, but the performance itself had a distinctly familiar look to it.
Why shouldn't it? This was, after all, essentially the same side that finished seventh in the Premiership last season, give or take an addition or two, and if they are following the same pattern, then there's no reason why they should be struggling in the bottom three - problems they thought they'd left behind four years ago.
But you can never under-estimate a manager's influence - the Lee era proved that - and, however much he might play down his own importance, Megson is the man Wanderers are hoping can turn things round.
First impressions? Confident, pragmatic, even composed.
The game might have been just 10 minutes old when he came striding out of the dug-out to the touchline to issue his first set of orders, but this was not the highly-flammable Megson we have seen before. And, while he spent much of the game in the technical area, bellowing instructions, the neck veins didn't bulge and there was no sign of steam issuing from orifices.
"I was more calm," he said. "But there are still things that need organising, even with the players at our level. But, from my point of view, coming in three days ago, it wasn't bad."
There was not a lot to find fault with in the first half - apart from referee Martin Atkinson denying Wanderers a blatant penalty when Wilfred Bouma clearly handled the ball under pressure from Kevin Davies - and an uncharacteristic fumble by Jussi Jaaskelainen that almost gifted Villa an equaliser just before the break.
In between, Wanderers dominated. Solid at the back, and still with that five in midfield breaking to three that was the basis of their success in previous years, they proved that teams can be organised and resilient without sacrificing the attacking initiative.
El-Hadji Diouf tormented Bouma, Davies intimidated Zat Knight and Martin Laursen at every set-piece and then there was Anelka.
The subject of renewed speculation touting him as a January transfer window target for Manchester United, the Frenchman who is said by people who don't know any better to be on collision course with the new manager, showed once more why Wanderers fans are hoping he is here for the duration.
His seventh goal of the season was a delight - a sweetly-struck free-kick from 20 yards that Villa keeper Stuart Taylor did well just to get a hand to - the contribution football followers the world over have come to expect from the gifted Frenchman.
What isn't expected is the selfless hard work he put in before he came off 12 minutes from time as a precaution after feeling a hamstring problem flaring up.
Wanderers were looking ragged at that point. A game they were in complete control of at half time, turned on a bizarre incident in the 56th minute when Villa cashed in on confusion over a throw-in to nick an equaliser.
Referee Atkinson actually got the decision correct, when he awarded Villa the throw that led to Luke Moore deflecting Gabriel Agbonlahor's cross past a helpless Jaaskelainen. But his assistant had flagged the other way and Wanderers switched off.
"The ball did go out off my leg," Gavin McCann confirmed, backing the referee's verdict. "But the linesman signalled our way . . . and we automatically went with what he signalled. Most of our lads were going the other way when they took the quick throw.
"We were comfortable up to then. We did well in the first half and just needed to get another goal when we were on top."
The confidence drained and Wanderers, not surprisingly considering the predicament they are in, lost their composure. They stayed relatively solid at the back but they weren't the attacking force they'd been in the first 45 and, although only four days on the Reebok scene, Megson picked up the vibes.
"You saw in the last 20 minutes that there seemed to be an apprehension about the players," he said.
"The crowd got edgy and you got the feeling Here we go again!' It was 1-1 and if anything was going to happen now, we're going to get beat.
"But we rolled our sleeves up and kept going and we had a good chance at the end."
If Diouf had been more accurate from a tight angle when Taylor failed to hold Ricardo Gardner's shot, Megson would have kicked off his Reebok reign with a win and Wanderers would have been out of the bottom three.
They still have only that one league win, a meagre six points from 11 games and the jury is still out on the new manager.
But the signs are encouraging.
After all the controversy surrounding his appointment, there were no protests, no demonstrations, no dissenting voices. There were moans and groans when mistakes were made, opportunities missed and passes sent astray.
But there was also spontaneous applause, a standing ovation at half time and the boos at the end were largely directed towards the referee.
Not much unlike the old days except Wanderers are in the bottom three and not the top six - and that makes all the difference.
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