ENGLISH football was abuzz with talk of the impending ‘Super League’ as Wanderers travelled to Shrewsbury Town’s former Gay Meadow home in November 1991.

PFA chief Gordon Taylor had warned that a strike could be on the cards if the Football Association did not address the concerns of the union members, who had not been consulted on plans to revolutionise the top level of the game.

At Burnden Park, things were slightly more sedate. There was legitimate worry in the boardroom that clubs like Bolton could be cut adrift if the changes created a “closed shop” of top clubs, as many feared.

“The fact is, as an association, a strike may be the last viable alternative if we feel this game of ours – which we love and gives us a living – is going to be destroyed,” Taylor warned.

Phil Neal believed that his team were primed to move up to the upper echelons after a couple of near misses, and prepared to take two Shrewsbury old boys back to Shropshire.

Michael Brown and Tony Kelly has joined the club in a joint £200,000 deal in the summer of 1991 and were looking forward to the trip.

“It is going to be really strange going into the away dressing room,” said winger, Brown, who had signed with the Shrews straight from school.

Kelly, who was about to make his 300th career appearance, was banking on Bolton’s away support making a difference.

“The fans could be the deciding factor because the Shrewsbury supporters generate very little atmosphere,” he suggested. “We were always encouraged to play football at Shrewsbury and it has been the same here, we have both enjoyed it.”

Both players were given a fine reception on the day – and Kelly would cap it off with his first league goal for the club, inspiring the words he had been longing to hear from the away end: “There’s only one Tony Kelly!”

Wanderers were forced to work hard for a 3-1 win. Tony Philliskirk opened the scoring with one of his trademark penalties, albeit the softest of awards for a push by Mark Blake.

Nine minutes later, Mark Smith got the better of Phil Brown and managed to slot the ball under Andy Dibble, who was playing his last game on loan before returning to Manchester City.

Dibble made a few smart saves on the day to make sure the home side never got a foothold, and once Kelly had put his side ahead, pouncing on a spilled ball after David Reeves’ shot had been parried by Steve Perks, there was only one winner.

Shrewsbury had to abandon their sweeper system, which had former Wanderer Tony Henry playing as the spare defender and go on the attack.

That left gaps to exploit. And Philliskirk should have made it 3-1 with five minutes left, somehow shot wide from four yards out.

“I’ve never missed an easier chance,” he admitted after the game. “I’m just glad it didn’t make a difference to the result.”

Phil Neal concurred: “I don’t think I have ever seen Philly miss a chance like that,” he said. “I really don’t know how he managed it.

“We have won away from home again at a nice stage of the season. But we had to work hard for it and only started to play once we had got our noses in front.”

David Reeves was on hand to spare his strike partner’s blushes, adding the third goal with a couple of minutes to go, his fifth in four games.

Dibble threw his gloves into the away end before walking off the field in acknowledgement to the support he got from the Bolton faithful. His City career would never again get off the ground, though, as Tony Coton held down the number one spot, and he spent time out on loan at West Brom and Sheffield United before eventually signing for Glasgow Rangers in 1997.

Wanderers moved into seventh but inconsistency would continue to dog them, with defeats against Exeter City and Peterborough United in the weeks that followed.

Neal was sacked at the end of the season and eventually replaced by Bruce Rioch. The rest, as they say, is history.