Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going?
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Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going
Thanks for a good laugh to start the day....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.
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Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going
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...
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...
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Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going
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.
Yeah, things got a lot better before they got a bit worse.
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Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going
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
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Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going
Oghani and Caldwell, the very names strike terror into the hearts of third division defences!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.
Pfffft.
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Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going
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
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Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going
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.
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.
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Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going
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.
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.
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Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going
It takes a special kind of glory hunter to support this lot... Is there any glory in constant heartache and pain?Abdoulaye's Twin wrote:Bloody glory huntersdanardif1 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.
* just kidding
Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going
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!!
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!!
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Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going
↑↑↑ 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.
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Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going
Worthy of being kicked by Eden Hazard? Isn't that the Gold standard of ballboydom?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.
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Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going
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.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.
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Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going
Dave Sutton's barnet wrote: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.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.
We've had a shoe shop.........
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Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going
With a brick wall fronting onto the pitch?Gary the Enfield wrote:We've had a shoe shop.........Dave Sutton's barnet wrote: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.coffeymagic wrote:We've come full circle.
I can smiley about it now, but at the time it was terrible...
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Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going
Dave Sutton's barnet wrote:With a brick wall fronting onto the pitch?Gary the Enfield wrote:We've had a shoe shop.........Dave Sutton's barnet wrote: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.coffeymagic wrote:We've come full circle.
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.
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Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going
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.Dave Sutton's barnet wrote:With a brick wall fronting onto the pitch?Gary the Enfield wrote:We've had a shoe shop.........Dave Sutton's barnet wrote: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.coffeymagic wrote:We've come full circle.
I can smiley about it now, but at the time it was terrible...
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".
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Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going
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.
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Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going
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 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.
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Re: Bolton - best or worse than when you first started going
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.Dave Sutton's barnet wrote: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 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.
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".
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