For those of you who missed or didn't see Piper's Piece Number 2 a brief re-cap. I covered the first half of the 1992/93 season, Bruce Rioch's first at the helm of BWFC and left it where we dumped the then FA Cup holders Liverpool out of the competition, beating them 2-0 in a third round replay at Anfield, still for my money one of the all time greatest performances I've ever seen from the Trotters.

In the fourth round we faced Wolverhapton Wanderers who were in the First Division (now known as the Championship) and we rather unceremoniously dumped them out by two goals to nothing at Molyneux at the first time of asking with goals from Green and yep, you guessed it, Super John McGinlay. In the fifth round we faced off against Derby County and on February 13th, exactly one month after the triumph against Liverpool tired legs and a hectic schedule caught up with us. The 1st Division outfit beat us 3-1 and while we performed well and the scoreline did flatter the Rams the truth is they were the better side on the night. The Rams would play an epic quarter final against Sheffield Wednesday, drawing 3-3 at Pride Park before finally succumbing to the Yorkshiremen by a single goal to nil at Hillsborough. However, while all of that is interesting in its own right and the performance against Wolves was genuinely great it isn't nearly as important as what happened in the league.

Our run in to automatic promotion truly began on January 16th 1993, three days after beating Liverpool and you could have forgiven the players if they'd felt a little tired or perhaps even a bit deflated going back to the hum-drum business of third tier football so quickly. We lined up at Burnden Park to face Plymouth Argyle, a decent side who might even have felt they were in with a chance because we might be worn out after our Anfield exertions. If they did believe it they were deeply mistaken.

Seagraves, Walker and John “unable to miss” McGinlay smacked in three goals and Plymouth were basically steamrollered despite their own consolation strike. To be honest we looked like the lads had come back from a fortnight resting on a quiet beach somewhere and whatever Bruce and his backroom staff were putting in the pre-match drinks or half time tea is something I would just love to get my hands on. Our next victims (using the word advisedly) were Reading and we travelled there on 27th January, coming away with a 2-1 win thanks to the ever dependable David Lee and Andy Walker.
I'm not going to bore everyone to death by going through every game in that incredible run in. What I will do is touch on just a few of the highest points starting with the basic facts. After the Liverpool replay we had 22 league games left and here's how we handled them.

P W D L GF GA Pts
22 17 3 2 40 16 54

No, that is NOT a typo, we lost only TWICE in twenty two games and scored FORTY goals. What wouldn't any of us give for a run like that today? During that run in we played what I still think of as the most exhilarating, entertaining football I've ever seen in my days as a Trotter. There may have been individual matches where we played better later on but for sheer consistency of quality, for the way I woke up on every match day with a grin and positively looking forward to the game I still think there's been nothing quite like it since. What makes it even better in my eyes is this was just the start although we didn't know it then.

Along the way on that incredible rollercoaster ride to automatic promotion we didn't just beat teams, we slaughtered them, most notably a 4-1 spanking handed out to Exeter City on 20th March (goals from Kelly, McAteer, Walker and McGinlay) and a 5-0 hammering handed out to Chester City ( Brown, Seagraves, McGinlay, Patterson and Winstanley) on 24th April. In fact one thing that really stands out for me in looking back at the Rioch era is we had goals from everywhere, they seemed to come from all over the pitch in a way that doesn't happen today. The final day of that season saw us confirm second place and automatic promotion with a 1-0 win against Preston North End with a goal from (who else) Super John himself and boy we loved that!

I wish I had more room to write about this incredible season, to do it justice would take a hundred blogs and the better part of a year at least but it's now time (albeit reluctantly) for me to move on and simply close with this.

The 1992/93 season was the start of a resurgence that would see Bolton Wanderers charge into the Premier League and all the way to European qualification. Along the way we'd see a World Cup winner in our shirt, we'd see football magic so good it was named twice and we'd see players from every corner of the globe gracing the turf of the Reebok (now Macron) Stadium with their skills and we'd never fear anyone who faced us no matter how big they were supposed to be. Of course there was a downside and as it turned out a big one but speaking for myself I can only say it was one hell of a great ride while it lasted and that we shouldn't assume it cannot or will not happen again.

For me 1992/93 was the season it all began and I for one will never cease to be grateful for the fact I was lucky enough to be there to see it as it happened. I'm hoping that our younger fans might just be in for their own 'White Hot Era' soon, that Phil will be able to lead us on a journey similar to the one we enjoyed under Bruce Rioch's leadership.

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed reading this and if you haven't done it yet why not head over to the Forum at http:www.boltonnuts.co.uk/forum? It's simple and free to join and you can talk about all things BWFC related in our BWFC banter, news and development sections or you can literally talk about anything that piques your interest in Wandering Minds. Come along and get involved in the conversation. In the meantime this wraps it up until next week for “Piper's Piece” and I hope you'll join me again then when I'll be talking about the summer of 1995 and Bruce's shock departure to Arsenal.
Author: luckyPeterpiper

To those who've read the first blog welcome back. If you haven't seen it then don't worry, you can find it here:
www.boltonnuts.co.uk/news--views/luckypeterpipers-weekly-blog

Anyway, this blog is about Bruce Rioch's first season in charge of BWFC and boy wasn't it a corker? In fact the first hint that this season was going to be incredible and very different from what had happened over the previous eight or nine years came in the very first match of the season. Our opponents were Huddersfield Town, a side that was well respected in the Division (now known as Division Two rather than Three thanks to the newly formed Premier League) and were seen as genuine promotion contenders and play off certainties. While the game was at home (Burnden Park) it was expected to be quite a tough start for us and I for one would probably have been happy with a point.

However we didn't just win, we dismantled Huddersfield. The end score was 2-0 but honestly it could have been 4 or even 5. The goalscorers were Julian Darby and the now legendary John McGinlay. While it wouldn't be true to say it sent shockwaves through the division it did surprise me, not just the win itself but the manner of it. We'd played fast, attacking football and done it not just well but with real style and flair, something we hadn't seen since the heady days of Ian Greaves and Frank Worthington. We quite literally brushed Huddersfield aside and made them look positively ordinary in doing it. The crowd had been around the 8,000 mark but in the second half especially you could have been forgiven for thinking it was three or even four times that thanks to the sheer volume of our delighted singing. Even so we didn't get carried away, we'd seen false dawns before and so when we went home we were delighted but we still didn't really think we were going to keep up that level of display for the whole season. And the next match, a defeat at Brighton by 2 goals to 1 (our goal came from Walker) quickly brought us back down to earth with a bump. But even there we'd played pretty well and been unfortunate to leave with nothing. However it's impossible to be a Trotter without having a certain amount of pessimism and so there were plenty of us who felt the Brighton result was a more realistic indicator of where we actually were than the Huddersfield result. As it turned out the doomsayers weren't just wrong, they were miles off the mark.

Back to back wins against Reading and Blackpool at home (2-1 and 3-0 respectively) followed by a goalless draw away at Stoke City showed Rioch had not just used the summer well but had actually brought the team far further forward than any of us had dared to think was possible. We continued to perform well in the league despite the occasional losses but the first indicator that things had really changed came in the FA Cup. In the first round we faced Sutton Coldfield Town and won 2-1 with goals from Super John and Andy Walker. In truth while the scoreline looked close we never really got out of second gear and never looked in serious danger despite a valiant (and well applauded by both sets of fans) effort from the part timers. However in the second round we really took the brakes off. We faced Rochdale and the Bolton Evening News, the fans and even Bruce Rioch himself expected it to be a tough encounter. We had home advantage but Rochdale, another North West side had some pretty good players and we expected a rugged, blood and thunder game against our neighbours.

It wasn't. We annihilated Rochdale 4-0 and I can still remember my jaw dropping when I watched that game. The way we passed the ball around on a pitch that was already half mud half sand and basically breezed past Rochdale players as if they weren't there was a joy to behold. Jason McAteer, Andy Walker and John McGinlay (twice) found the back of the net and by the end of that one sided massacre even the most pessimistic Trotter realised this season was something special. I honestly think that until that day we'd hoped we'd be there or thereabouts at the end of the season but now we knew it. And when the third round draw was announced and we heard we were facing the mighty Liverpool (still a major force to be reckoned with despite it being four years since they'd won the league) we actually believed we had a chance, we weren't at all afraid of the 'Big Team'.

The first match was at Burnden Park and the result was 2-2. Bolton and Liverpool had fought hard but the Premier League outfit had basically underestimated us and the goals from Seagraves and McGinlay had very nearly been enough to put us through to the fourth round at the first attempt. However a replay at Anfield now lay ahead and I think it would be dishonest to say we thought we'd win there. In fact most sports writers and most neutrals were of the firm and perfectly understandable opinion that we'd blown our chance and Liverpool would put us out handily. Honesty compels me to admit that I privately agreed with them. Ten days later I (and Des Lynam among others) were proven to know nothing about football.

The date was January 13th 1993 and it should live forever in the memory of any Trotter who was there. Liverpool fielded a full strength side and the Kop was full, a sea of red, white and yellow with thousands upon thousands of the Liverpool faithful singing “You'll Never Walk Alone” loud enough to be heard from Lime Street Train Station (where I and a few friends got off the train). I'd never actually been to Anfield before and as we approached the ground I could hardly hear myself think let alone anything my friends said. The atmosphere inside the ground was electric. There was a small pocket of White and Blue banners (about 2,500 of us travelled which in those days was a lot but still dwarfed by the better than 30,000 Liverpudlians) and when the players took the field it looked like the Christians (BWFC) vs the Lions in the colliseum. It sounded like it too although we sang ourselves hoarse in a futile (initially) bid to be heard. It took exactly three minutes for that to change and you win no prizes for guessing who changed it.

Super John McGinlay powered in a header that left thirty thousand Liverpudlians silent and two and a half thousand trotters were suddenly the loudest thing in Liverpool. Graeme Souness was so angry that we could clearly lip read his reaction (I won't repeat it here since children may read this) while Bruce Rioch looked almost as if he was saying 'I told you so' to anyone who'd doubted exactly what his players could do. In fact on a smug scale of one to ten Bruce rated a twelve right there and it was only going to get higher. For the next 76 minutes Liverpool attempted to get back into the game but they ran into a White shirted brick wall all night. Not only that but we had just about as much possession as they did and we used it better, in fact if you'd just arrived from Mars you could have been forgiven for thinking the team in white were the Premier League outfit while the guys in red were the third tier nobodies being brushed imperiously aside. Our superiority was simply confirmed in the seventy ninth minute when Andy Walker headed in the second goal.

However the true man of the match (if you could pick one) had to be David 'shining like a, like a light' Lee. He totally dominated the Liverpool defence, he single handedly wreaked carnage and sowed confusion every time he had the ball and despite fielding seven full internationals the Reds had absolutely no answer to him. It was almost a crime that he didn't get on the score sheet at least once but he set up both goals and generally put on a display that would today have eight figure bids for his services flying into the chairman's office. The end result was that Bolton Wanderers went onto the fourth round against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Liverpool went home with their tails between their legs and an apoplectic Graeme Souness decrying them as lacking passion and fight. The video below really doesn't do justice to those amazing ninety minutes but I've included it for those who might have forgotten the goals or those too young to have witnessed this remarkable event as it happened.

I think it's only appropriate to end this blog here because to do otherwise would either make this blog into a novel or be a grave injustice to the rest of the 1992/93 season in which we lost just once in nineteen league games, winning fifteen of them and charging up the table into second place and automatic promotion. I'll cover that amazing two and a half month ride in the next instalment.

Until then why not check out the Bolton Nuts forum. It's the place to be for all BWFC related chat and opinion and also features awesome sections like 'Wandering Minds' where you can talk about literally anything, football related or not. To join the conversation and make your voice heard click the link below and follow the simple steps to become a member.

http://forum.boltonnuts.co.uk/

I hope to see you there. Until next week this was Piper's Piece. All the best to everyone.

Author: luckyPeterpiper

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