15 Years Ago

BOLTON was in the grip of Wembley fever after Bruce Rioch’s Wanderers — still a second tier club — secured a place in the League Cup final.

The dream became reality as the club booked its first appearance in a major final for 37 years.

And they did it the hard way. Trailing 2-1 from the first leg of their semi-final against Swindon Town, they went further behind when Jan Aage Fjortoft stunned the Burnden Park crowd 12 minutes into the second half.

Nevertheless, on a night of passion, commitment, nerves and tension, the spirit Rioch had instilled and which he treasured as much as any other ingredient in his recipe for success, swept Wanderers to a sensational 3-1 win on the night — 4-3 on aggregate.

There were stars aplenty — Jason McAteer reviving the Wembley dream with the night’s equaliser then Mixu Paatelainen overcoming the disappointment of losing out to Owen Coyle in the starting 11, coming off the subs’ bench to blast a spectacular left-footer past Fraser Digby to put them level on aggregate.

But it was John McGinlay — cult hero of the Bolton fans — who delivered the final blow two minutes from time.

And it was a jubilant McGinlay who then fired a warning at Wanderers illustrious rivals Liverpool who they were to meet in the final: “It’s a big day out for us but we’re not just going to Wembley to make up the numbers.

“This could mean European football for Bolton.”

Rioch, who had transformed Wanderers since his arrival in the summer of 1992 and whose quest it was to lead the club into the Premier League, described it as “a great night for the club and a great night for the town.”

Rioch certainly wasn’t a man to let the grass grow under his feet. In addition to working hard to unravel the red tape that was holding up the signing of Tottenham’s Iceland international defender Gudni Bergsson, he stunned the football world when he brought in cover for goalkeepers Keith Branagan and Aidan Davison in the shape of former England legend Peter Shilton — at the grand old age of 45.

Meanwhile, Michael Atherton’s future as England captain was hanging in the balance following Ray Illingworth’s rise to a position of awesome power.

Atherton and Illingworth had not seen eye to eye on a number of issues and speculation was rife that a major shake-up was on the cards after the Yorkshireman was appointed manager as well as chairman of selectors.

10 Years Ago

SAM Allardyce’s Wanderers already had a Wembley date in their diaries and had their sights on another as they plotted a course for the Division One play-offs.

Bolton fans were planning their day out in the capital for the FA Cup semi-final against Premier League Aston Villa, but there was still important business to be done on the league front and things were looking up on that score after a 3-1 home win against Fulham.

Dean Holdsworth broke the deadlock from the penalty spot on the stroke of half time and got the benefit of a goalkeeping fumble to double the lead five minutes after the break.

A Lee Clark shot deflected off Mark Fish to wrong-foot Jussi Jaaskelainen and put Fulham back in contention, but Eidur Gudjohnsen made the game safe in the last minute, set up by the impressive Michael Johansen.

Something was clearly niggling Allardyce, though, and it turned out to be a lack of enthusiasm among some fans for the semi-final.

It looked as though Wanderers would not sell their full allocation of 30,000 tickets and that Villa would have the lion’s share of the support at Wembley.

“It scares me when I think there will be 34,000 Villa fans there and we’ll have less than 30,000,” the manager said.

“I’ve heard a lot of negative stuff about Wembley since we qualified for the semi-final. Do the fans really want us to get to the FA Cup final?

“If they do they’ve got to understand that we cannot do it without their help. We need them.”

Up at the top end of the Premier League, big-spending Leeds United were so determined to keep Harry Kewell at Elland Road that they were prepared to make him one of the highest paid players in British football.

Ambitious Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale left no one in any doubt as to the lengths he was prepared to go to fend off rival bids for the 21-year-old Aussie forward, when he said: “In Harry we have a player with the potential to be one of the greats.”

Over at Hilton Park, Leigh Centurions looked set to lose their highly-rated coach Ian Millward.

The highly-rated Aussie was strongly tipped for a move to St Helens, where speculation was rife that the Super League champions were about to dump their head coach Elleray Hanley.

40 years Ago

BOLTON Wanderers reported just one injury following their 4-0 thrashing of Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road . . . manager Nat Lofthouse.

A women’s hockey international at White City caused a traffic jam in the Shepherd’s Bush area, stranding the Wanderers team bus a mile from the ground.

So while chief coach Jim Conway and director Bill Isherwood raced to the ground to hand in the team-sheet to avoid a £100 penalty, Nat ordered his players to change into their kit on the bus. But as he and trainer Bert Sproston lifted the skip out of the boot of the coach, he pulled a stomach muscle.

The story ended happily with a convincing performance with two goals from Roger Hunt and one each from Roy Greaves and John Byrom that left the wounded manager to reflect: “The win took a lot of the pain away. Every player worked hard and it was a great team effort.

“They all had a go for Bolton and the spirit was there.”

Wembley were preparing to spend £50,000 on their heavily-criticised pitch after the League Cup final between Manchester City and West Brom was played on a morass of clinging, brown mud.

The winter weather hadn’t helped but the Wembley authorities were clearly still paying the price for the damage done to the drainage system by the controversial staging of the International Horse Show two years earlier.

Leigh had their hopes of a top-four finish dented by a shock 17-8 defeat at Whitehaven.