For those of you who haven't been on the Bolton Nuts website or forum before (in which case where have you been because you're missing an awesome site) I am a 47 year old Trotter who has been following BWFC for forty years, thirty of them as a season ticket holder in my own right. This is my first attempt at a BWFC blog and I plan to make it a weekly event. There'll also be 'mini-blogs' if we have a mid-week game or if something of immediate and genuine impact (good or bad) happens between the 'main' Friday missives. It's my hope you'll enjoy them and that some other fans will want to add a blog or two of their own. Right now it's my intent to have one of these ready for you to read and comment on every Friday and I'd like to briefly thank sluffy for letting me do them. I'd also like to thank (in advance) karlypants and BoltonTillIDie who I understand will be judiciously editing these and adding appropriate images or video as needed. Anyway let's get down to business.

On first glance it would seem to be a very gloomy time to be a Trotter. The club has just suffered relegation to League One, the new owners don't appear to be on the best of terms, there doesn't appear to be any money in the kitty for transfers in and a new manager sits at the helm of a club that has just released a lot of players and is on the verge of selling one of our best young prospects. We've barely avoided administration of not outright liquidation and the new season is just a few weeks away. However what strikes me isn't all the bad or negative things that have happened in the last few months, it's the remarkable, almost uncanny parallels between the 2016/17 season and events that took place thirty years ago before many of our current fans were even born.

If anything that situation was even worse, we'd barely escaped extinction, we'd been relegated to Division 4 (League 2 to those not old enough to remember life before the Premier League), our ground was a wreck and we'd sold a chunk of the Embankment to the now defunct and then infamous Normid store chain to keep some money, any money in the kitty. Crowds were falling, the players were whomever we could get and we seemed to be going nowhere fast. By the end of the 1980's the immediate threat of extinction had faded largely thanks to Lifeline and the continued support of both Gordon Hargreaves and the Warburton Family but even though we felt a little bit more optimistic about things and we had got out of the bottom flight we didn't seem to be doing much else which was by and large fine by many fans, myself included. For the most part we were just happy we still had a club to support. There might not have been many of us but those of us who were still there were fiercely loyal to the club but not even we really believed we were 'big' in the sense that someone like Leeds United could claim. None of us really expected to be brushing shoulders with the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal (the two most successful clubs of the time) on a regular basis any time soon. It was far more likely to be Carlisle United we'd face next season rather than Manchester.

What none of us knew, not even the most cock-eyed optimistic Trotter alive could even have dared to dream was just how radically things were about to change for the better. When the 1990's began you could be forgiven for thinking Bolton Wanderers were just one more small, skint Northern club who bumped along in the bottom two divisions and that would always be the case. Yes we'd made it back up to Division Three (League One) but after two miserable failures in the play off's we'd sunk to mid-table obscurity and (as more than one sports writer opined at the time) we'd seemed to have found our level. No one really liked or disliked us, we weren't at all important in the football world and what glories we had enjoyed were all in the very distant past. Or so it seemed.

On the 29th of May 1992 Bolton Wanderers officially announced the appointment of a new manager by the name of Bruce Rioch. He was a former professional footballer who had been well respected in his time on the field most notably with Derby County with whom he had won the football league in 1974-75 under the late great Brian Clough but despite a solid playing career which included 24 caps for Scotland he hadn't really shaken the earth as a manager. In fact he'd started his managerial career as a player manager at Torquay United in the early 1980's before a short stint in the USA as manager of Seattle Sounders in the now defunct NASL (North American Soccer League) before returning to England to manage Middlesbrough and later Milwall, jobs he'd performed in solidly albeit unspectacularly. By and large his appointment went unremarked and barely noticed by anyone except the Bolton Evening News and BBC North West. Most of the football world, most especially the media were focussed on the creation of the new Premier League and whether or not the fledgling Sky Sports channel (which back then was just one channel) could actually make it work commercially. No one could have guessed that it was the start of a totally incredible period in the history of Bolton Wanderers that would later come to be known as 'The White Hot Years', a period in which clubs like Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United would actually dread seeing our name come up against theirs in any cup competition, a period that would see us jump from the third tier to the Premier League in just three seasons and along the way play brilliant football with players who are now rightfully lauded as 'Legends' among the Trotters faithful.

I'll cover Bruce Rioch's time in charge in the next blog. All I will say now is that younger fans need not think the fact we're in the third tier means things will be boring or the football will be dire. As this is the first blog in what I hope will become a series I simply think it's appropriate to say we've been here before and far from being the disaster it appeared to be it was actually the springboard for some of the most exciting times to be a Trotter that I can remember. So chin up boys and girls because if we perform half as well under Phil Parkinson as we did under Bruce Rioch then good times are right around the corner.

In the meantime, if you'd like me to write a blog about something specific such as a particular player or perhaps a specific season then why not drop me a line via BoltonNuts.co.uk and I'll do my very best to accommodate any requests I get either as part of the 'main' blog which will come out once a week or if it's a particularly interesting topic I'll write it up as a separate 'Special'. Either way why not check out the rest of the Bolton Nuts forum and site, it's well worth the time. Until next week take care and I hope you've enjoyed (or at least stayed awake till the end) the first 'Piper's Piece'.

Author: luckyPeterpiper

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Burnden Park Disaster.
 
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. 

Club chaplain Phil Mason said: "The Burnden Park disaster is often seen as the forgotten disaster within the football world. So it is very important that on the 70th anniversary we mark it in a significant way."

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.

Hello all, big grin on my face right now and even the fact Rammywhite has cost me money won't remove it. (Seriously man, paying Connor to post! What were you thinking you .... I won't say it now because Connor might show it to Wendy) Very Happy

Alright, here's how I saw it.

The ref had a complete shocker but thankfully he was equally woeful for both teams. We were both denied a stonewall penalty in the second half and he flashed so many cards I thought I was watching a Poker Tournament. However for the first time all season it didn't kill us and it didn't take the starch out of the lads spines. I'll come to the players in a minute but I want to touch briefly on Neil Lennon. I thought he got the selection just about right today, of course there wasn't a lot of choice but the team was probably the best 11 we could start with under the circumstances. And it was an absolute joy to see his reaction when we scored and at the final whistle. He hasn't looked that happy and that animated since he first got here and I'm hoping this game has reignited the passion for the game we all know he has.

Now onto the match. It was dire in large parts, really poor and scrappy as befitted two teams in the bottom half of the table playing a local derby. There was lots of passion, plenty of commitment and no one gave an inch but there was very little skill on show especially in the first half. On our side Clough looked like our only real threat, Madine looked a bit lost and flustered when he was in front of goal and his off the ball running was more of a headless chicken impression than any kind of space creator. Rhodes was (imo) unusually poor, I've seen him play a few times and this was the worst performance I've seen from the Rovers man. He seems to be having confidence issues much like those Elmander had under Megson. The defences were mostly solid when called on but nothing really exciting happened in the first 45 minutes.

The 2nd half was much the same for the most part but with two subtle and (imo) very important differences. I understand Wheater was given MOTM by Sky, I agree, the man was a rock and Rhodes basically bounced off him as did the rest of the Blackburn front line and midfield. Amos was also solid apart from when he booted a clearance into our own man (slight palpitations there) and deserved the luck when the ball came back off the post into his arms in stoppage time (Very near heart failure and despair when that span past him followed by me thinking God has decided it's our day after all). In fact the Trotters defence was the best I've seen so far this season. It got a bit scrambled in our box when Rovers were chucking the kitchen sink at us but in all honesty other than the handball (which the ref missed thankfully) and the deflection off the post Blackburn never really looked like scoring. Whenever there was danger a white shirt was throwing itself into the fray with more fight and commitment than I've seen in a while. All our players threw their hearts and bodies into today's game, I can't pick out a man who wasn't giving maximum effort for every second he was on the pitch.

Madine's goal was a beauty imo. Sure it broke kindly but the shot itself was neatly placed and on balance we just about deserved to be in the lead. I felt a bit sorry for Clough who scuffed one into the side netting because his endeavour probably deserved a goal but thankfully it didn't matter in the end. We should have had a penalty ourselves but I'm not going to complain about it now because it really only balanced things out and in truth, since it was 0-0 when they were denied I think we benefitted more from the ref's failures.

This wasn't a match to tell your grandkids about but it didn't matter. What really matters is we got the win, we finally broke the awful streak that's gone on for far too long and we finally had some luck ON the field that might help us all deal with the off field stuff a little better.

In conclusion I'm not claiming we've turned a corner or are about to become invincible but this IS a big day for BWFC and it could turn out to be pivotal. If we do somehow survive relegation then come May I would fully expect people to look back to this match and say "That's where it changed for Bolton, that was where the turnaround in their fortunes began."

Sometimes it's not so much HOW you get the result that matters, just getting it is the catalyst we need to kick on and do better. I hope this is such a moment but as I'm sure others will point out it's too early to say. We'll only really know how important today is when the season is over but right now it's like seeing the first crack of dawn at the end of a much too long, far too dark night.

Author: luckyPeterpiper

With rumours at full throttle with regards to the future of just who will land footballs wooden spoon prize of owning Bolton Wanderers, lets look at the two candidates careers and see why their "passion" for Bolton is driving them to remortgage their kids dolls house to purchase Titanic Wanderers FC.

Deano signed to Bolton Wanderers in October 1997 for £3.5million, which was a record signing for Bolton at that time.

He scored just three goals in 17 Premier League starts in 1997–98, as Colin Todd's side slipped out of the top-flight after finishing 18,
behind 17th place Everton on goal difference. He rediscovered his scoring touch in the First Division, hitting 12 goals in 26 starts in 1998–99. He then hit 14 goals from 24 league starts in 1999–2000, as Sam Allardyce led Bolton to the semi-finals of the play-offs, the FA Cup and the League Cup. He scored 15 goals from 29 starts in 2000–01, including a hat-trick past Scunthorpe United in a 5–1 win at the Reebok Stadium. The "Trotters" reached the play-off final, and beat Preston North End 3–0 at the Millennium Stadium to regain their top-flight status. He was restricted to nine league starts and 22 substitute appearances in 2001–02, scoring once each against Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur. He made ten goalless appearances in 2002–03, though was briefly joined in Lancashire by his brother David for the first time since leaving Watford.

He joined Coventry City on loan in December 2002, making six goalless appearances, before he signed permanently for the club the following month.

Stelios "not the easy jet guy" Giannakopoulous

On 28 May 2003, after ten years of professional football in Greece he was snapped up by English Premier League side Bolton Wanderers. The manager at the time Sam Allardyce described Stelios as "...an attacking midfielder who knows how to score goals. His main attribute remains his ability to make late runs into the penalty area and his flair to shoot accurately from range." It was at this point that the popular name 'Stelios' came about as the player unconventionally chose for his first name to be printed on his shirt instead of his very long (and difficult for the English journalists) surname. He made his Bolton début against Manchester United and helped Bolton reach the 2004 Football League Cup Final and their highest ever Premier League finish in his first season. Stelios' first two seasons with the club were successful, demonstrated by the fact that both Manchester City and Liverpool openly attempted to sign him before he signed a new contract with Bolton in August 2005.

His fine form continued into the 2005–06 season which was Stelios' most successful as he was top scorer for Bolton with 12 goals, an impressive tally for a midfielder. One of the highlights of that season was the winning goal he scored against Arsenal in an FA Cup Fourth round match played at the Reebok Stadium on 28 January 2006. His form dipped slightly in the 2006–07 season where he missed several games through injury and failed to score any goals although he was still a regular player for the club with 28 games.

On 17 March 2006 he was chosen to play in a 50th aνniversary game for the pact of Rome and for the participation of Manchester Unitedin UEFA competitions, in a match that took place in Old Trafford. Giannakopoulos played in the second half alongside players such asSteven Gerrard, Robbie Fowler, Andrea Pirlo,Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrik Larsson, Gennaro Gattuso and others against Manchester United in a 4-3 loss.

With Sam Allardyce leaving the club at the start of the 2007–08 season and only a year left on his contract, there were rumours of Stelios moving to another Premier League club or returning to Greece. However Stelios stayed at Bolton and although he was not as regular a player as previous seasons (due to injury and managerial changes) he was able to help Bolton with a string of late goals. The first one during injury time in the League Cup3rd round tie against Fulham at Craven Cottage, the second one in the UEFA Cup, when Stelios scored in the 3rd minute of injury time to salvage a 1–1 draw against Aris Salonica and the third one in a Premier League game versus Derby when Stelios again scored in injury time to earn Bolton a much needed 3 points in what was a poor season for the team. His last ever goal for Bolton was a crucial one and came on 26 April 2008 when he scored in the 1–1 draw against Tottenham Hotspur helping Bolton avoid relegation.

At the end of the season Stelios was not offered a new contract and was released by the club fuelling speculation that he would be returning to his native Greece and finishing off his career at Olympiacos. However the player confirmed that he would prefer to stay in the Premier League, and was subsequently linked with a move to newly promoted Premier League club Hull City, after interest from their new manager Phil Brown who worked with Stelios at Bolton.

So that is their bolton careers, courtesy of a popular online encyclopedia, but what about thw rumours of who they are teaming up with to buy Eddie out?

Deano and his business partner in sports shield are buying us between them. No one else involved. Apart from Amir Khan who has pledged to fight 4 nights a week in front of a packed crowd to boost funds. (Ok, maybe not that often!)

Stelios on the other hand is heading a consortium of investors from North America (red bull?) And somewhere else.

So who do you think has FC Red Bull of Bolton's best interest at heart? Do you think either of them will happen? What if the joint partnership of Richard Branson and Bill Gates bid got stuck in their outbox or in Bolton's spam filter?

Leave a comment below and let us know what you think and don't forget to join us in the Chatbox today for what may well be Eddies last game at the helm.

Author: y2johnny

Bolton Wanderers Football Club is up for sale. Rumours of death or ill health of Eddie Davies have been rife and the latest twist in the tail is that former Bolton striker Dean Holdsworth is about to take over as part of a consortium. Everything further  hotted up when it was reported that Holdsworth quit his managerial role at Brentford town today!

For the latest gossip and discussion on the subject click here!

Meanwhile we asked Big Sam if he is going to be part of the deal and he had this to say..

Wanderers are £150m in debt and there has been talk of job losses and potentially going into administration - which the club have denied - and thins on the pitch are just as bad. Bolton have won only 1 game in their last 21 if you include the end of last season. Although for a team at the bottom of the league, or near enough, its a curious fact that Bolton have kept 5 clean sheets so far this season. That's 1 in 3 - as good as anybody in the league.

Bolton seem to have acquired the services of a Wolves winger who should be straight into the team after the International break. We did miss out on loaning a striker from Everton, however, when he chose to join Fleetwood Town instead.

Rumour alert - one story doing the rounds today is that if this consortium comes in they are going to get some pretty favourable terms including most of the debt written off and a cash injection for boosting the squad! Watch this space!