Gillingham 2-3 Bolton Wanderers - April 20, 1985 - retro match from the archives

It was April 1985 - a grim old time at Burnden Park, where emergency safety work was being carried out to secure a 60ft wall in the main Manchester Road stand which was in danger of collapsing.

The club would have to shell out £20,000 for the work, on top of £80,000 for urgent jobs elsewhere in the ageing ground and another £50,000 for new turnstiles at the Embankment End.

Things had not been too clever for the team, either, with Wright doing just enough to keep Bolton out of the relegation zone, having taken the job from John McGovern in January.

Wanderers had earned three wins from their previous five games to put themselves on 47 points – which, as it happened, would have been just enough to keep them ahead of Burnley, Orient, Preston and Cambridge, who would eventually drop into the Fourth Division, not that Wright knew that with four games remaining.

“It has been suggested we are home and dry already,” he stressed, before leaving for Gillingham. “But I don’t believe we are.

“I am not going to set targets but first and foremost it is important to get to the half-century mark.

“The way I am treating tomorrow is that it is the most important game in the history of Bolton Wanderers. After that, the next game becomes the most important and so on…”

Wanderers still had something to play for at that stage, having beaten Darlington in the quarter final of the Freight Rover Trophy to book a semi-final against Mansfield Town.

Full-back Brian Borrows had missed that game with an ankle injury but was now back in contention, as was Graham Bell, who had suffered a broken nose.

Wanderers had three players nudging 20 goals by that stage in the season, and George Oghani had returned to the team in midweek to add two to his tally in the cup.

Tony Caldwell and Jeff Chandler were on 19 apiece, and Wright decision to play all three, leaving Wayne Foster on the bench, resulted in one of the best performances of the season.

Three goals, all described as “classic, First Division quality” by a delighted Wright, obliterated any lingering relegation fears.

Even former Burnden favourite Jim McDonagh, who was on loan with Gillingham from Notts County, could only hold up his hands after the final whistle.

“They played really well, in fact they hammered us. No complaints!”

All five goals in the game came in a second-half scoring blitz started by Caldwell in the 54th minute when he beat the offside trap to slip a shot through McDonagh’s legs, sparking a furious protest from the home defenders.

Simon Farnworth had kept Bolton in it to that point, making instinctive saves from Derek Hales and Tony Cascarino, but he was finally beaten by his own man when the unlucky Steve Thompson miscued a header from Terry Cochrane’s cross.

Wanderers got themselves back in front when Borrows lofted a ball down the right for Oghani to chase, and his deep cross was controlled, then struck on the half-volley by Jeff Chandler for his 20th of the campaign.

Gillingham, who had not given up on promotion, fired back again in the 75th minute when Joe Hinnigan powered a diving header past Farnworth to level the scores again.

Cascarino shook the bar with another header less than 60 seconds later but Bolton dug deep and found a stunning winner with five minutes to go.

Oghani picked up the ball 50 yards out after swapping passes with Caldwell in the centre circle and powered into the penalty box with blistering pace, drilling a low shot into the bottom corner.

It was picture book stuff, and though Wright refused to loosen his view that more points would be needed to confirm safety, he reluctantly admitted that a big psychological weight had been lifted.

“You learn in this game never to count your chickens,” he said. “Football has a nasty habit of kicking you in the teeth when you least expect it.

“But that was a very pleasing and important win for us. We played with style and impressed a lot of people.”