There's only 2 days to go until our new Championship campaign gets underway against newly relegated West Bromich Albion.  This summer we have released 14 players and loaned Ben Amos out for the remainder of his contract.  We have recruited, to date,  9 replacements.  The majority of Bolton fans see these players as improvements over the squad we had for our last campaign.  So how do you expect us to perform this season?  Most pundits have us as one of the teams likely to be relegated.  Lets hope we can prove them wrong!

Bolton Nuts again will be running a few season long competitions so why not get involved.  The following competitions will be run again this season:

The Prediction League - Simply predict the score and first Bolton scorer and get points based on your predictions.  League table updated after every game.
The Betting Shop - Put your virtual money where you mouth is.  You start with a balance of £1000 and can place a maximum of 3 bets on what you think will happen using the bets posted up before each game.
Fantasy Leagues - We have created our own leagues on fantasy.premierleague.com and the Telegraph's Championship fantasy League.  We have also created out own Super 6 League where you can win £1million!
What's the point - Predict how many points the Wanderers will achieve in this coming season in the Championship.  The winner will get £25 donation to any charity of his choice.
£4million Drop - Based on the once popular £1million drop hosted by Davina Mccall.  You put bet your £4million on what you think the outcome of our local derbies will be.  You can split the bets or bet the full amount.

To take part in these competitions you must register in the forum and place your entries here.

Don't forget we will usually have a audio stream of the all the Bolton games throughout the season, which we like to call Radio Nuts.  As well as lively debate on the forum.

Hope to see you on the forum soon.

​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.

1) What made you decide to get involved with the Supporters Trust?
I have been a supporter for 40 years.  I had become increasingly frustrated that the club was becoming more remote from the fans in the Gartside era. The events of winter 2015/16 convinced me that the ownership of the club should be broader with greater fan involvement and look to integrate the club further into the Bolton community.

2) What role is the Trust currently playing?
To support the club, support the specific aim of promoting young talent, improve the matchday experience, keep the views of the fans in the mind of the club, hold the owners to account in respect of major decisions

3) How much is the Trust working with the club?
We are working closely with the club on several issues – a working relationship is essential. We remain independent and on other issues we are keeping the owners to account.

4) What do you make of the club’s current position on and off the pitch?
Delighted at the promotion as the increased revenue of the Championship and the expiry of Premier League legacy contracts mean that the club is closer to stability and sustainability. We are under no illusion that investment and lifting the EFL embargo are huge priorities. After managing the difficult period to date, there needs to be a vision as to how the club is to move forward.

5) What are the Trust’s aims for the future?
As a community benefit society, we aim to promote the voice of the fan at the highest level within the club. Our aspiration is to help achieve greater success for the club

6) What are your predictions for this season?
The season must be about consolidation and stabilising the club. The removal of the embargo is a priority as without a broader squad, the club will find it difficult to compete. Being realistic and assuming we keep the restricted squad fit, I would hope for mid table.

Many thanks to Dan for his time.

https://wanderers-station.com/2017/08/17/interview-with-daniel-izza-chairman-of-the-supporters-trust/

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the appointment of Bruce Rioch as manager of Bolton Wanderers Football Club. At the time the appointment was completely unremarkable, in fact with the Trotters in Division 3 (League One) and the man himself not having set the world alight as a manager (yet) about the only people who noticed at all were the fans of BWFC and the Bolton Evening News. Even the Lancashire Evening Telegraph barely mentioned it and the BBC gave it all of thirty seconds on “Look NorthWest”, the regional news programme of the time.

What followed over the next three seasons was a remarkable journey that would see a rise from the third tier to the Premier League, a string of massive cup shocks in which “little Bolton” put the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, Everton and Spurs to the sword in cup competitions and along the way begin what to this day is still referred to as the “White Hot Years” by fans and pundits alike.

My original intention was to post a single blog to mark the anniversary but there have been so many requests to cover so many individual moments in that three year ride from both my fellow “Nutters” and other fans that I know personally that I had no choice but to split it into a series. Over the next few weeks I'll be posting a blog every Monday, each one dedicated to a specific moment as requested by the people I've already mentioned. Next week I'll be covering in depth the night that many still believe was the Genesis of the “White Hot Era”, the FA Cup replay in 1993 at Anfield, the first but by no means the last “Giant Killing” Rioch's men would inflict on Premier League opposition.

Later in the series I'll cover the single most popular request, the now infamous “McGinlay Moon” in which Super John “uncovered” rather more than the FA would approve in front of Wolves fans.

By the way, just in case you haven't sent a request but would like to I still haven't completed the whole series of blogs nor have I set a precise limit to how many I'll do. If you'd like me to include something then feel free to drop me a line on the awesome “Bolton Nuts” forum. You'll find it here:

forum.boltonnuts.co.uk/

Why not check it out if you haven't already? It's free to join and the place to be to discuss all things BWFC related plus there's the awesome “Wandering Minds” section where you can talk about anything at all that piques your interest from politics to (if you really, really must) Bruce Forsyth. (sorry bonce, just couldn't resist Very Happy). Anyway, that's it for today, have a great Bank Holiday and I hope you'll enjoy reading this series as much as I've enjoyed writing it.

Author: luckypeterpiper

The 1994/95 season was a remarkable one for Bolton Wanderers in many ways. It began in a very unpromising fashion with a 3-3 draw against Grimsby Town followed by two defeats (a 2-0 loss at home to Bristol City followed by a 1-0 defeat away to Middlesborough) and after three games we had just one point and a goal difference of minus 3. In truth at that point you could have been forgiven for thinking we were in for another season with a mid to lower table finish in the league (just as we'd had the season before) and that what excitement we would have would be from the cups. However this season was going to see all sorts of unexpected things happening on and off the field and it would end with a bombshell that no one could have seen coming. Because so much happened I have decided to split this look back at that remarkable season into two separate blogs if only so you can read them without dying of old age before getting to the end.

Our first victory (and what a relief it was when it arrived) was a 1-0 win at home to Millwall with a goal from the ever reliable Patterson. It was actually a close match as the scoreline suggests but in the end we just about edged it, much to the chagrin of the Millwall fans who felt they had deserved at least a point. Honesty compels me to say they were probably right but in truth every team needs a touch of luck occasionally and this was ours. We had four points, finally a win under our belts and while it would be wrong to say we knew it would kick start our season then in hindsight that is precisely what it did. We saw the first signs of that in the very next league match in which Stoke City came to Burnden Park for what they must have felt was a genuine opportunity to pick up an away win.

In fact they were dismantled, swept aside almost contemptuously by a Bolton display that frankly would have had the pundits swooning and journalists scrambling for a thesaurus to find new ways to describe that brilliant performance. The final score was 4-0 to the Trotters and it could easily have been double that. Goals from McGinlay (as if you hadn't known), two from McAteer and one from Patalainen simply emphasised our all round superiority on the day. It was almost as if the previous matches in the league had been a warm up and things had finally 'clicked' as we played the sort of football every Wanderers fan knew we were capable of but hadn't seen as yet this term. It was a joy to watch and the eleven and a half thousand watching fans (minus those from the Potteries) were treated to a wonderful spectacle. In some ways that win was even better than the ones we'd enjoyed in the FA Cup against Arsenal and Liverpool in the two preceding seasons simply because it came on the back of what had seemed to be a mediocre start.


The next match saw us bump down to earth in a 3-1 defeat away to Sheffield United but this BWFC team was made of stern stuff, perhaps even sterner than we realised at the time because they responded immediately by hammering Luton Town at Kenilworth Road 3-0. Super John bagged a brace and the third was scored by Sneekes, a player who may not be as well known as other members of the 'White Hot' team but who was a valuable part of it nonetheless. In point of fact Sneekes popped up with goals and assists on a regular basis all through that season but for reasons that should be obvious he never quite got the same attention that McGinlay, McAteer, Paataleinen and the likes of David Lee got which in all honesty was a bit unfair to him because he was a good, solid player who never (as far as I can remember) failed to give his best and do everything that was asked of him.

Anyway, by December of 1994 we were rolling along quite nicely, in touch with the leaders and through to the semi-finals of the League Cup having despatched Ipswich, Sheffield United, West Ham and Norwich along the way. As Christmas came and went the Trotters fans were feeling pretty good about things and why not? There was a genuine chance of a trip to Wembley, we were in the top half of the table and the club itself looked to be on a solid financial footing (probably the most important thing of all given how close we had come to extinction just a few years earlier). Not only that but the FA Cup was about to start for us (something we'd genuinely rocked the football world in in each of the two previous seasons by dumping out the holders and beating other top-flight opposition). It was definitely a pretty good time to be a BWFC fan and while we weren't going to say we'd conquer the world we definitely felt this season could be special, that we had a real shot at winning a major trophy and getting ourselves into the Premier League for the first time since its formation. Of course we all knew that it might not go that way, that being a Bolton Wanderers fan involves at least as much disappointment as it does delight but speaking personally I greeted 1995 with a great deal of optimism at least as far as football was concerned.

I'm going to close today's blog here. In the next part I'll cover the League Cup, the run in to what many still believe to be the greatest play off final comeback ever and the earth-shaking shock that rocked our club to its foundations just a month after this remarkable season ended.

Author: luckyPeterpiper