20 YEARS AGO

LATEST signing Paul Comstive was paraded in front of the Burnden Park crowd after completing his £37,500 transfer from Burnley, but Wanderers did not look like they needed any help as they beat Second Division Watford 2-1 in the first leg of their Littlewoods Cup second round tie.

Tony Philliskirk, who was forging a formidable attacking partnership with David Reeves, scored both goals to give Phil Neal’s side an advantage to take to Vicarage Road in the second leg.

Wanderers — mid-table in Division Three — were worthy winners against Steve Harrison’s high-flying Hornets, prompting the Watford boss to admit: “There is no way we will underestimate Bolton at Vicarage Road.

“We’ve got a game on our hands, there’s no doubt about that.”

The sports pages were still dominated by Michael Knighton’s sensational bid to buy Manchester United, although the tone of the coverage suggested the controversial Isle of Man tax exile was struggling to raise the cash to complete the deal.

A month after the revelation that he had agreed to buy Martin Edwards’s controlling interest in the Old Trafford club for £10million, Knighton, who previously made a failed attempt to buy Bolton Wanderers, had parted company with his original backers and time was running out to beat the deadline set for the completion of the takeover.

The presence of three current major champions — Curtis Strange, Mark Calcavecchia and Payne Stewart — in their team made the United States favourites to regain golf’s Ryder Cup from the Europeans at The Belfry.

But Europe’s top man Seve Ballesteros reckoned the bookies had it all wrong in making the Americans 8-13 favourites. “What do bookmakers know about golf?” the Spaniard asked pointedly.

Leigh RL club strengthened their pack with a pair of Kiwis — prop Peter Brown and hooker Peter Ropati.

Snooker’s most notorious rebel, Alex Higgins, was again the centre of attention at the £200,000 BCE International in Stoke.

Hammered 5-1 by West Country youngster Mark Johnston Allen, the 40-year-old Higgins then got an earful from his mild-mannered opponent who accused him of “showboating”.

When the Hurricane subsequently refused to attend the mandatory press conference, he was warned that he faced a heavy fine.

30 YEARS AGO

A MONTH into their second season back in top-flight football, Ian Greaves’s Wanderers were in need of inspiration.

They followed up a 3-1 league defeat at Coventry with a 4-2 defeat at St Mirren in the Anglo-Scottish Cup, where they were 4-0 down and reduced to 10 men inside half-an-hour.

Record buy Len Cantello — a £350,000 summer signing from West Brom — was sent off as the near full-strength Wanderers took a battering at the hands of the Scottish Premier League side.

If only Peter Reid could speed up his recovery from the serious knee injury that had kept him on the sidelines for nine months.

The previous night Reid, who made his recovery under the supervision of Wanderers respected physio Jimmy Headrige, made his comeback in the reserve team’s 5-1 defeat by Manchester United at Burnden. But he still had a long way to go before being considered for first-team action.

Time seemed to stand still 10 minutes into the game when Reid went into a crunching tackle with United’s Steve Paterson. But the silence was broken by sighs of relief as he picked himself up and trotted away, none the worse for having tested his knee.

“I saw the tackle coming,” Reid said later, “and I knew it was now or never so I went into it with everything I had. It shook me up for about 10 minutes but my knee was all right.”

The local cricket season ended with Farnworth Social Circle crowned champions of the Bolton Association.

45 YEARS AGO

NINE days after suffering a 5-2 thrashing at Ayresome Park, Bill Ridding’s Wanderers — inspired by Wyn Davies and Francis Lee — gained the sweetest of revenge over Middlesbrough under the Burnden Park floodlights.

There was no hint of what was to come when the teams were level at 1-1 at half time, Boro having looked the more skilful side while Wanderers showed a determination to make up for their Teesside nightmare.

But once Davies and Lee got the bit between their teeth after the interval, there was no stopping the free-scoring Wanderers who became the Second Division’s top scorers in recording their fourth win in five games — an encouraging start in their bid to bounce back into the First Division at the first attempt.

Brian Bromley restored their lead on the hour and five minutes later, Lee, who had opened the scoring in the first half, scored his second from the penalty spot to make it 3-1. Boro pulled one back but Freddie Hill secured the win 18 minutes from the end of a stirring contest which ended with a celebratory pitch invasion by jubilant Wanderers supporters.

Elsewhere, English football was rocked by the news that Wolves had sacked their legendary manager Stan Cullis, just after he had returned from a seaside holiday following an illness that forced him to miss five of his team’s first seven games.

Such was Cullis’s standing in the game that 24 hours later he was offered the job of managing Italian giants Juventus.

Burnley chairman Bob Lord — no stranger to controversy — told Sunderland directors they were not welcome in the Turf Moor directors box after accusing them of launching rumours linking Clarets manager Harry Potts with the vacant managership at Roker Park.

“I do not think there has been a row,” Lord explained. “I just indicated to the Sunderland directors my disgust in allowing the story to circulate without them doing anything about it.”

There was controversy too in athletics after the British Amateur Athletic Board’s shock announcement that they would not be entering a team in the men’s 4x100 metres relay at the Tokyo Olympics.