A bit of a perennial question really - it as cropped up for years - and I guess as the match day experience is getting more and more expensive and more and as more fans start to move away from the Bolton area, game attendance gets less and less (just above 14,000 for the weekend match).

So many ex or occassional attendees catch the games these days on Bolton Nuts or the few televised matches we some times feature on.

The question is, can you really judge a match without actually being there?

Obviously any opinion is valid - it is only an opinion anyway - it isn't a statement of fact - and just because some people go to the match doesn't necessarily mean they actual 'see' what is in front of their eyes - then how 'valid' are peoples comments - whether they attended or not?

I've been to loads of games over the years but age and distance from 'home' games (and the probably lack of desire to put myself out like I used to do as a younger man) means that I am far more 'armchair' than an 'actual' fan these days.

My own view is that it takes TWO elementss to have a meaningful opinion - being at the match - and actually 'understanding' and having a feel for the game of football.

Of couse TV replays and expert analysis is not there for people at the match - so 1-0 for the armchair fans (not intended as a derogatory remark from me btw) - but on the other hand the attending fan is not limited and restricted to just what the camera sees on your screen - they see the bigger picture, the running off the ball, the depth of play, the feel for what is happening and why - so 1-1 as a final result maybe?

I love to read opinions of people who've been to a game BUT it is quite clear that a number of those opininated souls (and I'm not talking about posters on this site) spoute absolute bollocks - whilst at the same time believing what they are saying.

It's laughable how they tell us what managers are thinking and why players are failing.

It's blindingly clear to anyone who as played the game of football, even at the lowest of low levels, that these people simply have no clue what they are talking about.

Contrary there are some posters who clearly know their football and even without attending a game can be knowledgeable and insightful of the match from just the few clips of the game they may have seen elsewhere.

I guess I've reasoned my way into some sort of a stalemate but given a choice I would rather be at a match and make my own mind of how the game went - and failing that would rather have some who understands football (No I'm not Phil Gartside) and tell me their views - even if they only followed the game on Radio Nuts - than some 'knows everything' (who actually knows nothing) who went.

What do you think?

Author: Sluffy

Today is the 69th anniversary of the Burnden Park Disaster.  The flags at the Macron Stadium will fly at half-mast to mark the occasion.

On the 9th March 1946, 33 lives were lost and over 400 fans were injured in the Burnden Park disaster.  The game being played was the 2nd leg of the FA Cup Quarter-Final which was being contested between Bolton Wanderers and Stoke City.  The FA Cup games that season were being played over 2 legs to make up for the lack of league football which had yet to start after the Second World War.

There was much more interest in the competition than just the locals, because this was the first post-war FA Cup competition which had been competed for.  People also wanted the chance to see top players who were returning from the forces back to their clubs, Stokes’ Stanley Matthews being one of them.

Bolton fan’s would have been quite confident of progressing to the next round after winning the first leg 2-0 thanks to Ray Westwood scoring both goals. 

An estimated crowd of over 85,000 people packed into the stadium.  This being 20,000 over the official capacity and dwarfing the previous highest attendance of 43,000 that Burnden Park had seen that season.  

The disaster happened at the Railway end of the ground, which was in a very poor state, like many other post-war grounds.  There was just a bank of dirt and a few slabs of flag stones acting as steps.

The overcrowding was enhanced further due to part of the Burnden Road Stand having yet to re-open after the Ministry of Supply requisitioned it for use as storage during the War.  In addition a set of turnstiles at the east end had been closed since 1940 meaning the crowd were all forced to enter the from one side of the embankment.

The turnstiles were closed 20 minutes prior to kick off, but by this point the stand was already overly full.  15,000 people were still outside many still managing to get in by climbing walls and entering a gate which had been left open by a father and son escaping the crush inside.

The game kicked off on schedule at 3PM, but minutes later it was halted as fans split onto the pitch.  The pitch was cleared but two barriers gave way which caused the fans to surge forward again, crushing those underneath.  Bill Cheeseman was at the game with his sister, who had wanted to see Stoke's Stanley Matthews. described how “All of a sudden those that were in front of us seemed to go – all falling down like a pack of cards.  We managed to get out and I was glad about that."

Nat Lofthouse was by the referee when the official, George Dutton, was informed of the horrendous news of what was happening behind one of the goals.  A police officer said “I Believe those people over there are dead” pointing to the bodies placed on the ground.  After the referee called the two captains, Bolton’s Harry Hubbick and Stoke’s Neil Franklin, both teams were taken off the pitch and the field began to look like a military hospital where the dead and injured were laid on it.

After half an hour the unpopular decision to continue with the game was made by the then Chief Constable of Bolton, W J Howard.  As the players were coming out with the bodies of the dead lying alongside the pitch covered with their coats, one of the spectators grabbed hold of a Stoke player and hurled abuse at him for continuing with the game. 

A new sawdust lined touchline separated the players from the bodies.  There was no half time interval, the sides simply changed ends presumably to get the game finished.  The game finished 0-0.

"It was a sad day," Lofthouse remembers. "But I think the referee did the right thing restarting the game. You couldn't think about kicking a football, your mind was on those poor people. They had died in the stand where I had used to climb in and if I'd not been a player it might have been me."

Stanley Matthews described the events, “As we trotted on to the pitch I noticed the crowd was tightly packed, but this was nothing unusual at a big cup-tie. Our boys began well, and after ten minutes we had reason to feel confident as we were having the best of the game. It then happened! There was a terrific roar from the crowd, and I glanced over my shoulder to see thousands of fans coming from the terracing behind the far goal on to the pitch.”  

A Home Office inquiry, chaired by Moelwyn Hughes, was launched to examine the events surrounding the disaster, but before the inquiry began the police, club officials and journalists were quick to pay the blame solely with the fans, stating holes had been torn in the fencing at the top of the embankment.  Rowley stated, “Holes have been torn in the fencing at the top of the embankment in almost every conceivable place.”  The Chief Constable alleged “There was no disorder … among those who gained entry in a legitimate manner.  The trouble began when hundreds of people broke down the fences on the railway embankment.” He also said the police were “overwhelmed by the thousands of people rushing to the fence”.

The disaster brought about the Moelwyn Hughes report which recommended more rigorous control of crowd sizes.  It also advised local authorities should inspect grounds with a capacity of 10,000 and safety limits should be in place for grounds holding 25,000 or more.  Turnstiles should mechanically record spectator numbers and grounds should have their own internal telephone systems.

Immediately after the tragedy a Disaster Fund was set up by the Mayor of Bolton to help the families of the dead and injured.  This raised £52,000 (about £2 million in today’s money), and was boosted by the proceeds from an international friendly between England and Scotland, playing out a 2-2 draw, at Maine Road on 24th August 1946, which sold out.

Bolton left Burnden Park in 1997 and Nat Lofthouse unveiled a memorial plaque in 2000 on the site of the old ground, which was now a supermarket. A plaque.

The thirty-three who lost their lives on that day:

WILFRED ADDISON Moss Side, Manchester
WILFRED ALLISON (19)  Leigh
FRED BATTERSBY (31)  Atherton
JAMES BATTERSBY (33)  Atherton
ROBERT BENTHAM (33)  Atherton
HENRY BIMSON (59)  Leigh
HENRY RATCLIFFE BIRTWISTLE (14)  Blackburn
JOHN T. BLACKSHAW  Rochdale
W. BRAIDWOOD (40)  Hindley
FRED CAMPBELL (33) Bolton
FRED PRICE DEARDEN (67)  Bolton
WILLIAM EVANS (33)  Leigh
WINSTON FINCH  Hazel Grove, Stockport
JOHN FLINDERS (32)  Littleborough
ALBERT EDWARD HANRAHAN  Winton, Eccles
EMILY HOSKINSON (40)  Bolton
WILLIAM HUGHES (56)  Poolstock, Wigan
FRANK JUBB  Rochdale
JOHN LIVESEY (37) Bamber Bridge, Preston
JOHN THOMAS LUCAS (35) Leigh
HAROLD MCANDREW  Wigan
WILLIAM MCKENZIE  Bury
MORGAN MOONEY (32) Bolton
HARRY NEEDHAM (30)  Bolton
DAVID PEARSON Rochdale
JOSEPH PLATT (43) Bolton
SIDNEY POTTER (36) Tyldesley
GRENVILLE ROBERTS  Ashton-in-Makerfield
RICHARD ROBEY (35) Barnoldswick
THOMAS ROBEY (65)  Billinge, Wigan
T. SMITH (65)  Rochdale
WALTER WILMOT (31) Bolton
JAMES WILSON Higher Openshaw, Manchester.

Author: BoltonTillIDie

Last Saturday (28th February 2015) was Neil Lennon’s 26th match in all competitions as Bolton Wanderers manager. We won a rather scrappy encounter one nil thanks to a goal from Clough that, thanks to other results gave us a welcome breathing space between ourselves and the bottom three in the Championship. Now, while relegation is not yet impossible I do think it’s become exceedingly unlikely and as a result I thought this would be a good time to post my thoughts on how our manger is doing.

The results have been something of a mixed bag. In fact Neil’s record to date is :

Played 26 Won 11 Drawn 6 Lost 9 to give him a win percentage of 42.31%

During Neil’s tenure since he joined us in October 2014 we have moved away from the relegation zone to 14th, dropped back to 19th and at one point today could have been 20th but now sit 17th in the Championship where we appear to be likely to hold steady. Given where we were and how we were performing prior to his arrival it could be argued that this constitutes a success for the Northern Irishman and that he will now have a foundation to build on in the summer to try and push up the league towards the play offs or even automatic promotion in the 2015/16 season. 

It could also be argued that he hasn’t shown the improvement we all hoped for and many expected by the fact we’re not in the top half of the table now much less pushing for a play off place. Some fans on this very forum, myself included did in fact believe that to be a genuine possibility until as late as mid-January. 

So is Neil succeeding or failing? Is a win ratio of 42% a sign that things are going to get better or has the recent woeful run simply shown us that he’s peaked already? Personally I think it’s more likely to be the former than the latter but some people would disagree.

However there’s more to be said for a manager’s impact than a simple look at bare statistics will ever tell us. Football, like so many sports and other forms of entertainment is often a subjective rather than objective experience where the mood is at least as important as the results. A classic case would be a comparison of Owen Coyle and Gary Megson. Both men finished 14th in the prem in their first full season in charge and the points total was very similar but look at the whole picture and you’ll see a huge difference in how the results were perceived.

Under Megson the mood was foul, darker than at any time I can remember in almost 40 years of following the trotters. The football was dire, the manager had branded us ‘pathetic’ and we’d spent all season nervously eyeing the drop zone until the 36th game. Megson spent more money than any previous BWFC manager had ever been given and while he did buy some very good players he immediately proved he had no idea how to use them or motivate them. He constantly bigged himself up with the mantra ‘We were below Derby when I came in’ when he wasn’t busy telling us that ‘Football People know what a good job I’m doing’ which suggested he believed the fans knew nothing and weren’t entitled to an opinion anyway. By the end of that horror show season I took the painful step of refusing to renew my season ticket for the first time in 21 years and I didn’t set foot in the Macron (Reebok) Stadium again while Megson was the manager. When he finally went on ‘gardening leave’ there was mass delight amongst BWFC fans almost everywhere after a dark period that seemed to threaten a permanent split between them and the club itself. 

Contrast that to Owen Coyle. Under Coyle we all still felt very optimistic and were for the most part enjoying the football. The black spot was the FA Cup semi-final against Stoke but generally we agreed it had been an excellent and entertaining season where European qualification had been a real possibility until about March when tired legs and a thin squad caught up with us. Sure Owen had been a bit naïve tactically sometimes but he’d gone out to play attacking and exciting football and at least we’d never needed to look over our shoulders at the relegation zone. Of course we all know what followed but even at the end when the axe fell no one really wished Owen ill. We felt sorry it hadn’t worked out because he was a decent guy who’d done his best by us. It turned out not to be good enough but no one threw parties because he was sacked.  

We then got Dougie Freedman, a man who I knew very little about as a manager when he came onboard. He started out well, so well we thought we were going to get into the play offs at his first attempt but then the match against Blackpool killed that dream and made many of us begin to question Dougie’s abilities. His team selection and tactics for that day still baffle me now. The following season he played a Megson-esque brand of football that led to our worst start in over a century, saw us hammered 7-1 by Reading and spend most of the season looking at the possibility of League One football. It became clear to all of us over that season that Dougie only knew one approach and that he seemed incapable of motivating players over a long term. Loanees came to our rescue and performed superbly for the second season on the trot but the writing was already there on the wall for all to see. It wasn’t quite as bad as the rift between club and fans that happened in Megson’s time but it was definitely heading that way and when he started this season just as badly if not worse than last it really was only a matter of time before he had to go.

This brings us to Neil Lennon. He isn’t performing miracles but neither is he dragging us all down into a mire of depression either. What he’s done so far is bring back some spark and entertainment wherever possible but he’s also handicapped by a wafer thin squad and zero budget that means even the greatest manager would have a hard time making us promotion contenders. The injury list is horrific, the squad has no strength in depth and there’s no real expectation that we will be buying big in the summer. And yet I and many others feel cautiously optimistic because for all the barriers he faces Neil is getting the results we need when we need them. Take Saturday's game, it was essential that we got that win especially after the last few games on the road had left us teetering on the brink of being dragged back into the dogfight. We got it, maybe not prettily but we got the three points that allow us all to breathe a little easier today.

For my money Neil is the best manager we’ve had since Sam Allardyce and like the big man himself he knows how to adapt his game plan to suit out strengths and exploit the opposition’s weaknesses. When we’ve lost under him it’s not been the system at fault, it’s just we don’t have much in the way of quality available right now. If I was a Headmaster giving him a progess report I’d give Neil a solid B+ for his work so far. It’s improving the club but there’s plenty more work to be done. However I do feel that if anyone can do it then that man is Neil Lennon. He’s got the mix of brains, nerve, skill and luck that any manager needs to be successful. Come the summer we’ll get back most if not all of those currently on the sick list and with that nucleus to build around and promising youngsters like Clough finally getting a real chance to shine I think we’ll see a very different start to the term than the last two. I have genuine faith that Neil can do it and more importantly will do it.

Author: luckypeterpiper