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John Smith’s PNE Fans’ Panel verdict: This time next year... I personally don’t think that our loss on Saturday was down to bad luck as we kicked off our 12th successive Championship season with a 2-1 defeat at the home of newly-promoted Bolton, a stadium in which we had won in on our last three visits. In my opinion, the reason for our defeat was more down to experienced players making individual errors at crucial stages in the game as well as a lack of hardly any attacking creativity in the opening 45 minutes, illustrated by some inept set-pieces producing their usual result of "diddly, squat". The first big mistake came inside the opening quarter of the game when goalkeeper Daniel Iversen could only manage to push out what seemed a harmless-looking shot when the home side tried their luck from the edge of the area. It certainly knocked the stuffing out of the large travelling army who up to that point had been very vocal in their terrific backing for the club during the opening stages of what felt like a high-intensity Lancashire derby. I must admit that the atmosphere inside the ground up until then had been magnificent. Before kick-off, many of our fans on the train to Horwich were in buoyant mood having been delighted by some positive news on the takeover in a highly transparent statement issued by chairman Ian Penrose the previous evening. It was one I found to be very refreshing which I thought was more cordial towards the fans, with a noticable change in its tone from some of the ones put out by the club in the past. I was very pleased that Mr Penrose also emphasised the true fact that the fans are the beating heart of the club. However mine was certainly having palpitations when the home side doubled their advantage just before the half-hour mark. We had made the tactical mistake of all pushing up for a rare corner, leaving Pol Valentin on his own at the back. The Spaniard had been spun around so much on the right side of the pitch by Bolton's winger Gale that he must have felt like he was at the fairground having a ride on the waltzer, but when he turned him again on the edge of the area before curling a Vinicius Junior-esque curler past Iversen, it really did take the wind out of my sails too. I spent the interval mulling over our dissappointing first half "no show" with an old school friend wishing we would've had as many shots hitting the target as the kids I was watching on the pitch in the half-time entertainment break. The second half was like watching a modern version of an old movie I had seen many times before which always has the same unhappy ending. We were the better side when we ditched the tippy-tappy playing out from the back to go on the front foot and began to get higher up the pitch. It looked like we had been granted a lifeline in the game’s final quarter when Milutin Osmajic was presented with a chance that I had expected him to gobble up for breakfast as he bore down on the gaping goal. It was like he already had the sausage, egg, bacon, mushrooms and beans on his plate but had decided he also needed the tomato sauce too so he inexplicably squared the ball across as if he was playing in a training exercise, and the golden chance went begging. We did pull a goal back five minutes from time with another fine header from substitute Josef Erabi who – along with my man of the match Alfie Devine and a debut for Leo Leroy – was a flickering bright spot on a bad day . PNE'S revival came much too late which meant that the Trotters took the spoils. It also kept Paul Heckingbottom's unwanted managerial record of never winning a competitive Lancashire derby during his tenure at PNE firmy intact. Exiting the ground, many of the seasoned PNE campaigners trotted out their familiar one liner of "it’s the hope what kills you". I’m of the opinion that my hope has started to wilt already on the season’s opening day. However, to use the phrase of the most famous Trotter, Del Boy, this time next year we could be billionaires.