10 YEARS AGO

IT was RMI’s finest hour – even though they lost.

The non-league minnows who started life in Horwich but were now based in Leigh banked £100,000 but won much more in terms of reputation and recognition after taking Kevin Keegan’s Fulham to a replay in the first round of the FA Cup.

Class told in the end as the Cottagers won 2-0 at Hilton Park to shatter the Railwaymen’s dreams. But for sheer guts, bravery and heroism, the part-timers were the real winners.

Fulham’s Canadian striker Paul Peschisolido secured the widely-predicted win with a first-half penalty and a terrific second-half strike. But Keegan, who had seen his expensively-assembled side trail 1-0 before drawing 1-1 at Craven Cottage 10 days earlier, was a relieved manager.

“Leigh are a credit to their town and their league,” he said. “They’ve played both games in the right spirit and been thoroughly professional in everything they’ve done.”

Targeting a place in the Conference within two seasons, RMI chairman Chris Healy said: “If nothing else we’ve put a bit of passion in the town.”

Higher up the league pyramid, Colin Todd appeared to have found the answer to Wanderers defensive problems in a couple of impressive loan signings.

Flushed with the success of seasoned centre-back Jon Newsome, borrowed from Sheffield Wednesday, Todd ended a two-year pursuit of the versatile Paul Warhurst when he agreed a loan deal with Crystal Palace.

Newsome plugged the gaps left by the suspended Mark Fish and injured duo Andy Todd and Gudni Bergsson to help Wanderers to successive 1-0 wins at Ipswich and Stockport – Bob Taylor getting the winner on both occasions.

Blackburn Rovers were on collision course with Manchester United after setting their sights on Brian Kidd, Sir Alex Ferguson’s number two.

Rovers had sacked Roy Hodgson and Kidd was favourite to step in, but United chairman Martin Edwards said: “Brian Kidd has committed himself to Manchester United for four years. We are certainly not going to release him from any contract and I would hope that he would not want us to – I can tell you that it would be over my dead body.”

15 YEARS AGO

BRUCE Rioch’s upwardly mobile Wanderers provoked talk of a second successive promotion after climbing from 22nd to 14th in the First Division in the space of just four days.

John McGinlay was banging the goals in but the big improvement was at the back where Rioch’s experiment with a three centre-back formation in the Anglo-Italian Cup game in Pisa appeared to have come up trumps.

Mark Seagraves, Mark Winstanley and Alan Stubbs shored up the centre giving full-backs Phil Brown and Jimmy Phillips more licence to get forward and, hey presto, back-to-back wins against Middlesbrough and Crystal Palace suggested they could soon be challenging for a top 10 place.

A 1-1 draw at Barnsley proved one of the less convincing performances of what became an eight-match unbeaten run but it showed Owen Coyle still had a major role to play at Burnden, despite Kilmarnock’s attempts to coax him back to Scotland.

The Glasgow-born striker laughed off suggestions that he might be unsettled by the transfer speculation with a terrific performance, netting his ninth goal of the season to put Wanderers in front on 27 minutes. An equaliser from 17-year-old Chris Jackson nine minutes later denied the Whites a first Oakwell win in 85 years but the fact they were miffed after only taking a point from such a traditionally tough fixture underlined the new mood of optimism.

Ex-Wanderer Mike Walsh – then manager at Bury – was looking for a bully boy to emerge from the ranks of his talented but somewhat inexperienced squad.

Five defeats in six games was an unfair reflection on the performances of the likes of Ian Hughes (19), Michael Jackson (19), Chris Lucketti (22) and Nick Daws (23). But for all their skills, the young Shakers lacked leadership at the back.

“I’m looking for one to come through and take over the back line and bully the others around,” Walsh said.

It was the end of an era at Maine Road where Manchester City’s long-serving chairman Peter Swales bowed to pressures on and off the field and quit.

40 YEARS AGO

BY common consent, John Hulme was consistantly one of Wanderers’ best players away from home, but at Burnden Park it was a different story.

The centre-half became the target of the boo-boys who had seen too many home points dropped for their liking. Such was the treatment that Nat Lofthouse, who was himself on trial as manager, felt the need not only to give Hulme his persional vote of confidence but also to appeal to the Bolton supporters to help the defender through his crisis of confidence.

And it appeared to work as Hulme turned in a solid performance in a scoreless draw with Birmingham City and Lofthouse gave credit where it was due – to the player and to the Burnden fans.

“Although there was only a small crowd at the game, probably because of the weather, the fans were very fair to John,” he said.

Nevertheless, Wanderers had taken only 18 points from their first 19 games and were desperately in need of a pick-me-up.

Lofthouse’s response was to switch powerful wing-half Gareth Williams to the forward line and recall Warwick Rimmer into the half-back line.

Bury boss Les Shannon had even bigger problems.

He was in hospital with a neck injury sustained in a training session in which he suffered a blow from behind. Nobody identified the player who made the challenge but there were suspects: 24 hours earlier, Shannon had dropped five men after the Shakers’ 6-0 hammering at Blackpool that left them desperately close to the Second Division relegation zone.

At Manchester City manager Joe Mercer and his celebrated assistant Malcolm Allison were building on the previous season’s title victory.

Under Big Mal’s coaching, City were playing some of the most entertaining football in the country, so their upcoming trip to West Ham – who were renowned for quality football – was a mouthwatering prospect.

Off the field, players from all 92 professional clubs gathered in Manchester for one of the most important meetings in the 61-year history of the Professional Footballers’ Association.

The Football League’s management committee had drawn up new proposals suggesting the return of the maximum wage – an issue the PFA believed had already been consigned to the history books.

Union secretary Cliff Lloyd argued against the £50 a week plan, saying: “England has won the World Cup, Manchester United the European Cup and Leeds and West Ham other major international tournaments. I don’t think this would have happened if the maximum wage had stayed.”