ALL eyes will be on Burnden Park on Friday when the curtain comes down on 102 years of sheer footballing passion.

It will be a night of pure theatre as Wanderers bid an emotional farewell to the famous old stadium.

And it couldn't have been stage-managed any better.

The Championship already assured, the scene is set for a carnival - a night of sentiment and celebration.

It was always going to be a special night but once Wanderers had secured the Division One title with their 2-1 victory at Maine Road it was all-systems go for a full-scale party.

Chairman Gordon Hargreaves insisted all along that, if Colin Todd's team needed a single point from the Charlton game the celebrations would be kept to the bare minimum.

Nothing had been allowed to distract Wanderers in their determination to get back into the Premiership at the first attempt and that wasn't going to change for anything - whatever the occasion.

But with perfect timing, which has been the hallmark of this historic season, the loose ends are already tied up.

The band will play, former players will parade and celebrities and supporters alike will toast the Champions as they play the last competitive game on the ground they have called home since 1895.

As Todd put it: "I couldn't have written the script any better if I'd tried."

No-one could. This time last year they were down and out in the Premiership. Destined to finish bottom of the table with a few pats on the back to console them. They'd played some good football and, under Todd's sole charge in the second half of the season, they had made a brave fight of it.

They were determined to bounce back but no-one in his wildest dreams could imagine they would do it so convincingly and with such style in this memorable final season at Burnden.

Things could not have come together better - both on and off the field.

As Todd built the foundations for a full-scale assault on the Premiership, contractors have constructed the magnificent new stadium we can now call the Reebok Stadium and the directors have fashioned a financial structure that will support their ambitions to compete with the best in the top flight. The chairman, so cautious in his comments so as not to tempt the promotion fates, proudly proclaimed yesterday: "We could not have wished for a better end to our time at Burnden Park and it is fitting that we should leave as Division One Champions. We have a Premiership class team, a world class stadium and a magnificent set of supporters, both individual and corporate, to help drive us on to major honours."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.