Bert Tyldesley followed the fortunes of Bolton Wanderers through eight decades and kept a diary of his time in the terraces. With the kind permission of his family, we bring you his reflections on that journal, entitled: 75 Years a Wandering.

The Bolton News:

FIVE days after the Wanderers had returned home from their trip to snow-bound Darlington and Wolves from sun-drenched Lanzarote, the two met in the FA Cup at the emerging new Molineux.

Many of those who were unable to get one of 2,000 away tickets for the game were glued to the big screen at Burnden Park, with as many as 5,000 willing their team on from a hundred miles away.

I have to concede that I did not fancy watching the game that way, so went with Michael to watch Swinton play a rugby league match against Bramley at Gigg Lane, Bury.

The Wanderers match started some 45 minutes before that of Swinton, so we had just cleared Walkden and listening to the match on the radio when Scott Green slotted the ball past Dave Beasant in the 11th minute.

The two of us gave a collective groan and an embarrassed laugh as neither especially wanted Bolton to progress any further in the cup. We didn’t want them to lose, especially to Wolves, but the league was where the focus should lie. Oh, it is a devil’s job being a supporter sometimes.

Worse was to follow as we skilfully negotiated 20 or 30 car parked behind the Main Stand at Gigg Lane, an excited voice screamed the news of yet another goal for the Wanderers, this time from the head of John McGinlay after a Scott Green chip-shot had bounced off a defender into our hero’s path. It was strange that Scott should be involved in both goals as he hailed from the West Midlands and his family were all there to see him.

Hardly knowing whether to laugh or cry (although I am sure we were nearer to the former) we were joined by a fellow Bolton/Swinton fan in the stand who had thoughtfully equipped himself with a radio. So for the next hour or so we were able to watch Swinton comprehensively dismantle Bramley and ambivalently listen to the Wanderers fulfil the prophecy of The Guardian’s Pass Notes and ‘stuff the Wolves’.

Mind you, the radio report made it quite clear that we were under a lot of Wolves pressure and only a perfect performance from Keith Branagan kept them in the game. As Keith would say, though, ‘it’s what I am there for!’ The cup saga in 1992/93 was nearing an end and in the next round we decided to take up one of the 5,000 tickets to watch the game at Derby County on the big screen perched on the Railway Embankment at Burnden. All our gang was there, prepared to sample the delights of this form of watching football, and whilst it was nothing compared to the real thing one had to agree with a fellow watcher who had proclaimed to all and sundry that it was at least better than having to go to Old Trafford every week.

The Bolton News:

So far as the actual match was concerned, an understrength Bolton team – Tony Kelly and Mark Seagraves were suspended and Mark Winstanley and Scott Green through injury – were not overwhelmed. After conceding an early goal to Craig Short (later transferred for £2.7million to Everton) Andy Walker put them back on level terms with one of his close-range specials.

Luck ran out midway through the second half when Derby – not looking anything like the £10million team they were – scored twice within five minutes through Short and Paul Williams.

The Rams then sat on their 3-1 lead despite a McGinlay shot being cleared off the line, a header of his hitting the upright and a Walker shot going just the wrong side of the post.

But viewing it on the big screen the late flurry seems rather remote, disembodied even, and despite the taste of defeat in one’s mouth, the knowledge that we could concentrate all our efforts into achieving promotion gave some cause for satisfaction.

Indeed, by the time of the Derby game there was come cause for concern on the league front. After moving into fourth spot – their highest of the season – with a win at Reading, they failed to build on a stirring comeback victory by going down 1-0 to Brighton at home in front of their largest non-derby gate of the year.

This was followed by four consecutive away games – five including the Derby cup tie – none of which were won.

What a difference a few weeks had made. That disastrous and over-worked February had seen the Wanderers drop to seventh, some 17 points behind the leaders Stoke City and 10 behind Port Vale in second place.

Bruce Rioch’s side needed to find an answer. Little did they know, they had one in their midst all the time.