10 years ago

IT was a reluctant farewell and, for many of his Bolton fans, the end of a glorious era, but John McGinlay finally called time on his pursuit of a footballing job in England by announcing he was heading for the United States.

The legendary ex-Wanderer, pictured below, agreed a three-year contract to become coach and marketing director of the Cincinnati River Hawks.

The striker, whose incredible goalscoring and inspirational qualities made him a hero of more than five headline-hitting seasons with the Whites, was packing his bags and preparing to fly out with his young family.

“If I had an option it would be a difficult decision to make,” McGinlay admitted, “but I don’t.

“There doesn’t appear to be anything for me here.”

McGinlay’s beloved Wanderers were in the grip of a financial crisis.

But any asset-strippers thinking of raiding the Reebok for cheap deals were told to think again.

Sam Allardyce had to balance the books after the club’s failure to win promotion back to the Premiership, but in the face of mounting speculation over the futures of star players Eidur Gudjohnsen, Claus Jensen and Mark Fish, he wasn’t for letting any of his better players go for knock-down prices.

In fact, he expressed a desire to keep South African defender Fish for the remaining year of his contract rather than cash in on him over the summer. “Mark Fish will be much more valuable to me in the last year of his contract trying to get Bolton Wanderers back in the Premiership rather than us taking a small fee for him now and losing a good centre half,” Allardyce said.

“There will be no cheap deals here. Any players who are sold will go for realistic fees. Anybody who can’t come up with the bucks shouldn’t even bother wasting their time.”

England’s preparations for Euro 2000 suffered a setback when Kevin Keegan’s side struggled to beat Malta’s second team 2-1 in a friendly in Valetta.

At least Keegan was honest enough to admit that if they performed as badly against Portugal in their opening group game, they would be soundly beaten and booking their flight tickets home.”

Greenmount blasted their way into the local cricket record books when they became the first Bolton club ever to score more than 400 runs in an innings.

Their total of 409-4 in their Hamer Cup clash with Farnworth eclipsed the previous best of 325. The first-wicket partnership of 305 between Pakistan professional Saeed Anwar and Aussie Mike O’Rourke bettered the previous record partnership of 272.

15 years ago

AFTER days of worrying speculation Bruce Rioch looked set to stay at Burnden Park The most successful Wanderers manager for years had been strongly linked with the vacant manager’s job at Arsenal.

But, with the Gunners’ sights apparently focused on former England manager Bobby Robson, anxious Bolton fans were starting to believe the man who steered the club into the Premiership would still be in charge at the start of the new season.

For Rioch, who had been offered a new contract by the Wanderers board, it was business as usual.

A week after Wanderers had beaten Reading in a dramatic play-off final at Wembley, he was at his desk planning the club’s pre-season tour of Scotland and, although refusing to comment on media speculation, he promised an early decision on his future.

He said: “It is in everybody’s interest, the directors and myself, to make the decision soon and I wil be thinking about that when I go home to my family for the weekend.”

One man destined to leave Burnden was central defender Mark Seagraves who was in talks with Swindon Town.

England manager Terry Venables left himself open to accusations of favouritism when he recalled a barely-fit Paul Gascoigne to his squad for a friendly against Japan.

Snubbing an in-form Matthew Le Tissier for the umpteenth time sparked outrage among critics who claimed Venables had only included Gazza because of their Tottenham links.

But Gascoigne sprang to the coach’s defence, insisting: “The recall is down to me.

“I’d like to think it’s not because we have known each other for a while but because I’ve worked very hard.”

40 years ago

BRAZIL made a scintillating start to their World Cup campaign with a 4-1 hammering of Czechoslovakia, but Alf Ramsey’s England were not in the least bit daunted by the prospect of being next up for Pele and partners.

They were, after all, the reigning world champions and had opened their Mexico account with a 1-0 victory over an ultra-physical Romania on a Guadalajara ground Ramsey summed up as “grass poor – pitch very bumpy”.

The Mexican media labelled him “Arrogant Alf”, pointing out: “What is good enough for Romania, Czechoslovakia and Brazil clearly is not good enough for cocky England.”

Ramsey hardly endeared himself to the English press either. When asked about Brazil’s display, he snapped: “It’s my day off.”

Defender Keith Newton was more accommodating, however, saying confidently: “I have no doubt we are going to beat Brazil – no doubt at all. None of us saw anything to frighten us unduly.

“I must admit Pele looked good. He seemed fitter than for a long time and we’ll certainly have to keep a tight check on him, but I thought their defence was pretty poor.

“Imagine what damage we might have done, with forceful strikers like Franny Lee and Geoff Hurst?”