So how has the season gone in your eyes? Was it better or worse than you
expected last August?
I think I always knew it was going to be a difficult season and so being
down with the bottom group of clubs came as no surprise. I hoped we'd avoid
the drop and I would definitely have settled for 17th place.
It wasn't to be. We were badly let down by our manager who turned out to be
nothing other than a liar, and that will prove to be costly for Bolton in
the time to come, and we never really recovered after losing our entire
backroom staff and our January signings in one fell swoop.
From then it looked an impossible task to stay up and so it proved, but
incredibly we hit the bar at Wigan with a few minutes to go. Had that gone
in and we'd held on to a 1-0 win we would have stayed up with Wigan going
down. It was that close.
Who has been your best player over the season? Who has improved the most
during 2009/10?
Steven Fletcher gets my vote. He was our most costly signing at £3 million
from Hibs and after a less than exciting start he began to show us just why
we'd signed him when he was eventually moved into his best position as a
striker. Eight goals in the Premier League for a struggling club in his
first season in England was a good return.
Despite losing a few months because of injury I'd say Martin Paterson has
stepped up as a Premier League player. Since coming back from a serious knee
injury and playing on the right hand side he's looked very much a player who
could settle into that position.
What was the best moment of the season for your side?
I always thought it might be our first home game in the top flight in 33
years, and so it proved. That night we beat Manchester United 1-0 and also
scored our goal of the season with an amazing Robbie Blake volley. If only
all the games could have been like that.
What was the game of the season?
Other than the United game I have to say the home game against Arsenal that
ended 1-1. This was a game for the purist with both sides playing some
wonderful stuff. And had the assistant got his decisions right and not
wrongly disallowed a second half Fletcher goal we'd have gone on and won
that game.
If you were manager what would you be doing this summer?
Firstly I'd be doing my best to hang on to our best players even though
Premier League clubs might be trying to sign them. I'd want to start next
season with Fletcher and Wade Elliott, in particular, in the Burnley team.
Then I'd do my utmost to spend the money we have wisely and bring in a
couple of very good Championship players.
Where do you see the club going from here?
Hopefully Burnley will go straight back up to the Premier League. We aren't
going down in debt like Hull or in an incredible amount of debt like
Portsmouth. We're going into the Championship as a debt free club giving us
a chance to get back up there.