It's OK to feel sad, I feel sad too

Liam reflects on the play-off final

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That one stings, there's no point pretending it doesn't. A promotion that has been hard-fought and a year in the making has slipped through our fingers, and we are condemned to another year in League One.

After putting it off for quite a few hours, I bravely opened my messages and also looked on social media to see the reactions. Fans of our local giant clubs took a moment from checking their FPL live totals to take in some actual football. Despite their nasty jibes, hopefully, some good can come out of this, and if they enjoyed the game enough, they might even visit a ground next season as a result.

I don't blame them for their revelry, that's how football works, and after the decade we have had prior to this one, I'm a little more used to this feeling than I previously was.

The game itself was so hard to watch. Any Bolton fan who had attended games this year could have told you the importance for Bolton to start well. Unfortunately, from the off, we looked sluggish. It was difficult seeing a team that appeared frightened to play a brand of football which has been ingrained in the squad for four years now.

As the game drifted, you sensed from the 60th minute onwards that we simply were not going to lay a glove on Oxford. I sat there hoping for some kind of mad moment from our opponents to let us in, but they gave nothing.

Of course, congratulations to Oxford, and I really hope they can back it up by staying in the Championship next year. It will be tough, but if they show the resilience they have shown in both the play-off semi-finals and final, they will give themselves a fantastic chance.

For Bolton, things now become a little more complicated.

During Ian Evatt's post-match interview with TalkSport's Ian Abrahams, the Wanderers manager showed a reluctance to discuss next season, explaining that the club needed time to 'soul search' before doing anything. Now, I'm not suggesting that this comment is a precursor to a potential change of manager, but it was hardly a defiant pledge to go one better next season.

Not that I blame Evatt for that; this was a truly humbling experience, and for a man whose high self-belief can make him a target for criticism, it must have been hard to take.

On the sombre road back north last night, I pondered a big question that even now, 24 hours later, I am struggling to answer...

So, what now?

I have no doubt that the commercial side of Bolton staff have been preparing for the eventuality of another season in League One, but what about the football side of the operations? I think if you had asked them two months ago, they would have been happy to commit to an answer on that and firm in their belief that Bolton would go up at some point.

To come so close only to fail at the final hurdle is much more difficult to take, though, and I imagine quite a few around the place are considering whether they have it in them for another tilt at promotion from League One to the Championship.

I get it, the idea pains me: another year of North West coastal clubs that all seem to play in red and white and, of course, the introduction of the football circus show, Wrexham, into the mix. It all seems very nauseating.

The first thing we need to do is sit everyone down in the club, from top to bottom, and ask the very simple question: 'Do you want to be here?'

Once those who do are separated from those who don't, we can start to plan properly for next season. Whilst this hurts now, that feeling will dissipate, and as the new season approaches, we want to have a team in place to give this a go once more.

For now, it's OK to feel sad, I feel sad too, but that feeling will go away, and next season is a fresh start once more.

Come on you whites!