Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going?

Where fellow sufferers gather to share the pain, longing and unrequited transfer requests that make being a Wanderer what it is...

Moderator: Zulus Thousand of em

User avatar
TANGODANCER
Immortal
Immortal
Posts: 43138
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2005 9:35 pm
Location: Between the Regency and the Rubaiyat and forever trying to light penny candles from stars.

Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going

Post by TANGODANCER » Wed Aug 06, 2014 11:35 am

Puskas wrote:Worse.

Far, far worse. But then everything's worse, isn't it? Not just football, but life - more misery. More pain. And the only escape being death - that gaping maw into oblivion, that we eventually tumble into gladly, our last thoughts before winking out into non-existence being "thank feck that's over".

Still, mustn't grumble.
:lol: Thanks for a good laugh to start the day....
Si Deus pro nobis, quis contra nos?

User avatar
TANGODANCER
Immortal
Immortal
Posts: 43138
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2005 9:35 pm
Location: Between the Regency and the Rubaiyat and forever trying to light penny candles from stars.

Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going

Post by TANGODANCER » Wed Aug 06, 2014 11:51 am

So many things have changed since I first watched Nat and co from a cold Boxing Day embankment. It's almost impossible to make comparisons that are anything but personal preference because each generation are seeing different things. Though I've seen many different Bolton teams, I will say that one player that always jumps to mind in these discussions that made my Wanderers world a whole lot better for a good spell was Ricky Gardener (amazing to think he's still only 35 years old,) who for fourteen years was Bolton's (and mine) ray of sunshine. We had great players back in the fifties, but we've had plenty since. I just hope we see some again other than on the wall graffiti under the stands.

Oh, add Ivan Campo to that. Teams need characters and entertainers and in those two thay had it in spades. Thinking back, losing wasn't quite so bad (or didn't seem it) when Campo was on the scene slicing one over our bar... :)
Si Deus pro nobis, quis contra nos?

User avatar
Dave Sutton's barnet
Immortal
Immortal
Posts: 28452
Joined: Sun May 14, 2006 4:00 pm
Location: Hanging on in quiet desperation
Contact:

Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Wed Aug 06, 2014 12:15 pm

1 Jan 85, Canon League Division Three vs Orient (not Leyton Orient, just Orient). Bolton had won one of the previous eight and only scored one in the previous three, so perhaps unsurprisingly only the usual four thousand or so bothered to turn out for our first home game since before Christmas. This was the Wanderers side of Tony Caldwell, Jeff Chandler, Warren Joyce, Wayne Foster, Simon Rudge, George Oghani, Graham Bell. The game was an awful 0-0 - as your 10-year-old reporter wrote in his first-ever match report, the biggest cheer was for the half-time announcement that United were losing - and turned out to be John McGovern's last in charge of a club very definitely on the slide: this would be the seventh of nine successive seasons in which we'd finish lower down the league, including three relegations. A year after McGovern's departure, Wanderers would be so close to closure that the club had to sell off half the Embankment to a grocer; within two and a half years of this game, Bolton would be in the Fourth Division; within five months of my "debut", football would be sickened by death at Bradford, Birmingham and Heysel.

Yeah, things got a lot better before they got a bit worse.

User avatar
Harry Genshaw
Legend
Legend
Posts: 9097
Joined: Sun Nov 13, 2005 10:47 pm
Location: Half dead in Panama

Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going

Post by Harry Genshaw » Wed Aug 06, 2014 12:40 pm

I think it was the 1974-75 season. We were a middling 2nd tier side much like we are now. The bogs over ran with pi55 so it wasn't safe to go after half time, we had a big lump up front by the name of Hugh Curran but as Bruce mentioned, the mercurial Peter Thompson on the wing. It cost about 50p to get in. Perhaps it was the novelty of it all, the undiscovered joys & pain of being a supporter but I much preferred it back then
"Get your feet off the furniture you Oxbridge tw*t. You're not on a feckin punt now you know"

TKIZ!
Legend
Legend
Posts: 7067
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 9:19 pm
Location: Simon Farnworth's glove bag

Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going

Post by TKIZ! » Wed Aug 06, 2014 6:39 pm

Dave Sutton's barnet wrote:1 Jan 85, Canon League Division Three vs Orient (not Leyton Orient, just Orient). Bolton had won one of the previous eight and only scored one in the previous three, so perhaps unsurprisingly only the usual four thousand or so bothered to turn out for our first home game since before Christmas. This was the Wanderers side of Tony Caldwell, Jeff Chandler, Warren Joyce, Wayne Foster, Simon Rudge, George Oghani, Graham Bell. The game was an awful 0-0 - as your 10-year-old reporter wrote in his first-ever match report, the biggest cheer was for the half-time announcement that United were losing - and turned out to be John McGovern's last in charge of a club very definitely on the slide: this would be the seventh of nine successive seasons in which we'd finish lower down the league, including three relegations. A year after McGovern's departure, Wanderers would be so close to closure that the club had to sell off half the Embankment to a grocer; within two and a half years of this game, Bolton would be in the Fourth Division; within five months of my "debut", football would be sickened by death at Bradford, Birmingham and Heysel.

Yeah, things got a lot better before they got a bit worse.
Oghani and Caldwell, the very names strike terror into the hearts of third division defences!
Pfffft.

StaffsTrotter
Reliable
Reliable
Posts: 839
Joined: Tue Jul 02, 2013 5:50 pm

Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going

Post by StaffsTrotter » Wed Aug 06, 2014 8:37 pm

my dad first started to take me regularly in the relegation season of 1970-1. I always wonder if it was some kind of initiation, or to head off an interest I'd started to take in the championship winning Everton (I was only a small kid). The whites began their never a dull season odyssey with 3rd div promotion a couple of seasons later - warwick rimmer holding the trophy aloft always stuck in my head. must admit can't remember my first game though

coffeymagic
Reliable
Reliable
Posts: 934
Joined: Sat Jan 07, 2006 11:18 pm
Location: east kilbride
Contact:

Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going

Post by coffeymagic » Thu Aug 07, 2014 4:42 pm

I started watching in the John McGovern era so clearly on paper this side is better than that.

And that of Phil Neal's.

However, apart from Phil Neal's final season it was NEVER boring watching Bolton. We either had a shit side fighting relegation or a good side pushing for promotion.

Even Owen Coyle gave us that.

Now we have a team that's exactly the same as Neal's final year.

Not good enough to go up, other teams worse to stop them going down.

We've come full circle.
I'm not asking you to 'think outside the box' I just wish you'd have a rummage around in it once in a while.

http://www.coffeymagic.blogspot.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
twitter @thetonycoffey

Toni_DelijeSever
Hopeful
Hopeful
Posts: 236
Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2010 5:49 pm
Location: Belgrade, Serbia

Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going

Post by Toni_DelijeSever » Thu Aug 07, 2014 4:57 pm

we really have 70-year-old fans here? Respect.

I started watching Bolton in 2004, ten years is really not a long period, but things have changed a lot, and this is by far worse situation.

Much worse for me personally, as I can't watch the games every weekend like in the Premiership, but we all share the same fate. I mean, all of us far away from Bolton. ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaVIQoyFue0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

danardif1
Reliable
Reliable
Posts: 579
Joined: Sat Oct 06, 2012 4:09 am
Location: Reading, Berks

Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going

Post by danardif1 » Fri Aug 08, 2014 7:56 am

Abdoulaye's Twin wrote:
danardif1 wrote:I started following Wanderers properly around the time Big Sam got us back into the Premier League via the play-off win vs Preston. That team was quite an exciting one in Division One, and I remember reading of Gardner, Ricketts, Frandsen, Hendry and co. in the BEN whenever I was in Bolton visiting my grandparents. I'd been given shirts as presents before then, but only started really getting into football at around 9-10 years old.

The FA Cup semi-final loss to Villa still hurts. Probably the first time I'd been able to support the Wanderers on telly and bloody Dean Holdsworth...

I think that side was much better than we've had for the last few years, even in our last Premier League season. It's nothing on what we had under Big Sam at our peak, which was incredible for someone of my age... being able to boast at school about how good Bolton bloody Wanderers are, and wearing the shirt in PE and when going to football training with pride. I really don't think we'll ever see us hit those heights again, so I'm glad I lived through it. I still remember being so gutted when our chances of a Champions League spot just slipped away at the end of the 2004-5 season, because we were right up there for so long...

So yeah, to me we were definitely a better side when I started watching them.
Bloody glory hunters :wink:

* just kidding
It takes a special kind of glory hunter to support this lot... Is there any glory in constant heartache and pain? :wink:

Norpig
Promising
Promising
Posts: 319
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2006 5:23 pm
Location: Bolton

Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going

Post by Norpig » Fri Aug 08, 2014 8:26 am

I started watching Bolton partway through the 70/71 season was invited by a friend, I was a young lad of 7 years, I don't know the crowd cannot remember who the players were I just know that day I was amazed by how much noise was created by the crowd. We lost I can't even remember the score, all I know is I wanted more of this football experience.

I came back for more and I remember we won a few near the end of that season but was relegated.

Funnily enough a couple of seasons later 1973/74 season our school got picked to be ball boys for the day and it was against Carlisle after nearly being hit by one two players running down the hill (which seemed very big to a small 10 year old) I decided I would stick to watching from the terraces.

To answer your question everything seems better when your a kid, as you grow up you see players come and go some are entertaining, some skillfull, some are triers, most never live up to their billing. At the end of the day I have enjoyed every enjoyable, ecstatic, and sometimes painful minute as a Bolton Fan!!

bobo the clown
Immortal
Immortal
Posts: 19597
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2005 8:49 am
Location: N Wales, but close enough to Chester I can pretend I'm in England
Contact:

Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going

Post by bobo the clown » Fri Aug 08, 2014 8:56 am

↑↑↑ Norpig, you should have stuck with it. You could have been a professional ball-boy by now. One of the finest.
Not advocating mass-murder as an entirely positive experience, of course, but it had its moments.
"I understand you are a very good footballer" ... "I try".

danardif1
Reliable
Reliable
Posts: 579
Joined: Sat Oct 06, 2012 4:09 am
Location: Reading, Berks

Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going

Post by danardif1 » Fri Aug 08, 2014 9:11 am

bobo the clown wrote:↑↑↑ Norpig, you should have stuck with it. You could have been a professional ball-boy by now. One of the finest.
Worthy of being kicked by Eden Hazard? Isn't that the Gold standard of ballboydom?

User avatar
Dave Sutton's barnet
Immortal
Immortal
Posts: 28452
Joined: Sun May 14, 2006 4:00 pm
Location: Hanging on in quiet desperation
Contact:

Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Fri Aug 08, 2014 11:33 am

coffeymagic wrote:I started watching in the John McGovern era so clearly on paper this side is better than that.

And that of Phil Neal's.

However, apart from Phil Neal's final season it was NEVER boring watching Bolton. We either had a shit side fighting relegation or a good side pushing for promotion.

Even Owen Coyle gave us that.

Now we have a team that's exactly the same as Neal's final year.

Not good enough to go up, other teams worse to stop them going down.

We've come full circle.
Well, depends whether you started in McGovern's second-tier season or the 18 months in Division Three. Either way, I don't think we've got quite the fire-sale going on now that we did then. McGovern's autobiography is chillingly straightforward about him getting a call from the chairman saying "we're selling a player or we're out of business by Monday". For all the endless Eddie/FFP/Coyle/Freedman arguments on here, and the widely-parped but little-understood debt, I don't expect to see a superstore on the away end any time soon.

User avatar
Gary the Enfield
Legend
Legend
Posts: 8597
Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2009 2:08 pm
Location: Enfield

Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going

Post by Gary the Enfield » Fri Aug 08, 2014 11:37 am

Dave Sutton's barnet wrote:
coffeymagic wrote:I started watching in the John McGovern era so clearly on paper this side is better than that.

And that of Phil Neal's.

However, apart from Phil Neal's final season it was NEVER boring watching Bolton. We either had a shit side fighting relegation or a good side pushing for promotion.

Even Owen Coyle gave us that.

Now we have a team that's exactly the same as Neal's final year.

Not good enough to go up, other teams worse to stop them going down.

We've come full circle.
Well, depends whether you started in McGovern's second-tier season or the 18 months in Division Three. Either way, I don't think we've got quite the fire-sale going on now that we did then. McGovern's autobiography is chillingly straightforward about him getting a call from the chairman saying "we're selling a player or we're out of business by Monday". For all the endless Eddie/FFP/Coyle/Freedman arguments on here, and the widely-parped but little-understood debt, I don't expect to see a superstore on the away end any time soon.

We've had a shoe shop.........

User avatar
Dave Sutton's barnet
Immortal
Immortal
Posts: 28452
Joined: Sun May 14, 2006 4:00 pm
Location: Hanging on in quiet desperation
Contact:

Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Fri Aug 08, 2014 11:39 am

Gary the Enfield wrote:
Dave Sutton's barnet wrote:
coffeymagic wrote:We've come full circle.
Well, depends whether you started in McGovern's second-tier season or the 18 months in Division Three. Either way, I don't think we've got quite the fire-sale going on now that we did then. McGovern's autobiography is chillingly straightforward about him getting a call from the chairman saying "we're selling a player or we're out of business by Monday". For all the endless Eddie/FFP/Coyle/Freedman arguments on here, and the widely-parped but little-understood debt, I don't expect to see a superstore on the away end any time soon.
We've had a shoe shop.........
With a brick wall fronting onto the pitch? :D

I can smiley about it now, but at the time it was terrible...

User avatar
Gary the Enfield
Legend
Legend
Posts: 8597
Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2009 2:08 pm
Location: Enfield

Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going

Post by Gary the Enfield » Fri Aug 08, 2014 11:44 am

Dave Sutton's barnet wrote:
Gary the Enfield wrote:
Dave Sutton's barnet wrote:
coffeymagic wrote:We've come full circle.
Well, depends whether you started in McGovern's second-tier season or the 18 months in Division Three. Either way, I don't think we've got quite the fire-sale going on now that we did then. McGovern's autobiography is chillingly straightforward about him getting a call from the chairman saying "we're selling a player or we're out of business by Monday". For all the endless Eddie/FFP/Coyle/Freedman arguments on here, and the widely-parped but little-understood debt, I don't expect to see a superstore on the away end any time soon.
We've had a shoe shop.........
With a brick wall fronting onto the pitch? :D

I can smiley about it now, but at the time it was terrible...

'twas awful. I don't think, personally, we'll ever go back to those days but can understand those who've only followed Bolton for the last 20 years. It must seem very dark indeed at the moment.

Still, we've got our health. :mrgreen:

bobo the clown
Immortal
Immortal
Posts: 19597
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2005 8:49 am
Location: N Wales, but close enough to Chester I can pretend I'm in England
Contact:

Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going

Post by bobo the clown » Fri Aug 08, 2014 11:56 am

Dave Sutton's barnet wrote:
Gary the Enfield wrote:
Dave Sutton's barnet wrote:
coffeymagic wrote:We've come full circle.
Well, depends whether you started in McGovern's second-tier season or the 18 months in Division Three. Either way, I don't think we've got quite the fire-sale going on now that we did then. McGovern's autobiography is chillingly straightforward about him getting a call from the chairman saying "we're selling a player or we're out of business by Monday". For all the endless Eddie/FFP/Coyle/Freedman arguments on here, and the widely-parped but little-understood debt, I don't expect to see a superstore on the away end any time soon.
We've had a shoe shop.........
With a brick wall fronting onto the pitch? :D

I can smiley about it now, but at the time it was terrible...
I turned up for a very early season match with no idea about it. None at all .... I'd not been reading the papers and was still playing so had other things to do and t'interweb wasn't available to keep us abreast of everything that occurred.

I think it was a LC game v Wigan I went, unusually, into the Manchester Road Paddock walked up the ramp and looked left and saw a fckg great wall, coving half the length of the pitch and, stunningly, about 4 feet from the cinder track wall. I couldn't believe my eyes.
Not advocating mass-murder as an entirely positive experience, of course, but it had its moments.
"I understand you are a very good footballer" ... "I try".

Vertigo
Reliable
Reliable
Posts: 866
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2011 7:52 am
Location: Australia

Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going

Post by Vertigo » Fri Aug 08, 2014 12:06 pm

Worse. Started following in 2005 or there abouts. Relegation for me has been far from a bad thing. Having to dig deeper to follow everything has only made my support for the club stronger.

User avatar
Dave Sutton's barnet
Immortal
Immortal
Posts: 28452
Joined: Sun May 14, 2006 4:00 pm
Location: Hanging on in quiet desperation
Contact:

Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Fri Aug 08, 2014 12:09 pm

bobo the clown wrote:I think it was a LC game v Wigan I went, unusually, into the Manchester Road Paddock walked up the ramp and looked left and saw a fckg great wall, coving half the length of the pitch and, stunningly, about 4 feet from the cinder track wall. I couldn't believe my eyes.
Quick internet search seems to point to 1986 as being when the Normid went up - probably over close season. http://bwfcstats.com/1980/page8.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; says the second home game of the 86/87 season (first was a Saturday, you may have been busy elsewhere) was League Cup vs Bury. We drew 0-0 to go out on aggregate, and the following Saturday there were fewer than 4,000 on vs Darlington...

bobo the clown
Immortal
Immortal
Posts: 19597
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2005 8:49 am
Location: N Wales, but close enough to Chester I can pretend I'm in England
Contact:

Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going

Post by bobo the clown » Fri Aug 08, 2014 12:20 pm

Dave Sutton's barnet wrote:
bobo the clown wrote:I think it was a LC game v Wigan I went, unusually, into the Manchester Road Paddock walked up the ramp and looked left and saw a fckg great wall, coving half the length of the pitch and, stunningly, about 4 feet from the cinder track wall. I couldn't believe my eyes.
Quick internet search seems to point to 1986 as being when the Normid went up - probably over close season. http://bwfcstats.com/1980/page8.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; says the second home game of the 86/87 season (first was a Saturday, you may have been busy elsewhere) was League Cup vs Bury. We drew 0-0 to go out on aggregate, and the following Saturday there were fewer than 4,000 on vs Darlington...
In my head it was a night-match but it being League-Cup against an annoying local rival and us losing the tie all rings bells.

I admit to being so stunned the match took very much a back seat.

There'd been talk of a supermarket. It was initially intended to run along the rear of the Embankment, reducing it's depth by maybe 30% and a roof coming off it to cover the spectator area. I also think it was linked to talk of an artificial pitch. That fell through and the Burnden Wall was built. The initial plan made a lot of sense and left us with a viable football ground. What happened was a complete travesty.
Not advocating mass-murder as an entirely positive experience, of course, but it had its moments.
"I understand you are a very good footballer" ... "I try".

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 44 guests