paulhanley

I can only just remember the Embankment segregation when it was just the one fence right down the middle. I've not really got proper memories of 76/7 but very clear ones of 77/8. Then from 78/9 I've got very strong memories. By then there were two fences and three sections with the middle one being used as no-man's land more often than not. Every now and again there was a following big enough to open the middle section. I clearly recall the mass of excitable Leeds fans pouring in there about 30 mins before kick off when we played them that year. Then I recall the "limbs" (to use modern day parlance) when they took the lead in the first half. Against expectations Bolton then ran the show in the second half and won 3-1. Bolton fans of that vintage will recall the Beirut style scenes as the away fans on the Embankment and home mob on the Burnden Paddock went to war as the game drew to a close.

Aye that's the one. David Gower and Tim Robinson! The final two or three years of having the upper hand over the Aussies before it all went wrong for the best part of two decades!!

Yeah there were five that summer, only three played in this game: Dave Sutton, David Cross and Asa Hartford. Sam Allardyce and Derek Scott were either injured or suspended from the season before. I remember being very excited that we'd made five new signings that summer. Unheard of in those days. Shame about that late equaliser. Shame it was another shit season including a horrific home thrashing off Bury about nine days after this. The other thing I remember about that day was that England were playing in an Ashes test at Edgbaston. Set off for the match about 1pm with England one wicket down. Got back in the car with my Dad at 5pm for Sports Report (presented by Renton Laidlaw, christ knows how I remember that). England hadn't lost another wicket and had tonked the Aussies everywhere.

It is still shut. But the Lamb and Flag over the road is back open and has its own Tolkein connections.

Both those Wigan away games were early kick offs, reasonably uncommon in those days. I think Wigan missed a pen in our 0-1 win. The 1-0 home win v Oxford was a great performance. Oxford were top of the league and would be champions by May. A great Burnden atmosphere that day. I think the last time we played games on consecutive days was in 93/4, a decade later. Two 0-0 draws at home to Sunderland and then away at Pompey. I was at both - the trip to Pompey the day got off to a tricky start with snow in Cheshire making the M6 very treacherous. Miraculously cleared and on we want. It was one of Gary Parkinson's few appearances for us that day at Fratton Park. Anyway - a proper tangent is that!

There's a very small Zero Emission Zone in the very middle. It's going to be expanded but hasn't been just yet.

It's on a big retail park like Middlebrook. Beyond that it's a bit hopeless. Surrounded by the big and not altogether friendly Blackbird Leys estate. You could park in the city centre and get the bus out but they charge an utter fortune for parking in Oxford.

He's got some distance to go before he's up to Nolan standard but the speed of development is the same. Leaps and bounds this season!

Watching Thomason's game grow month by month is a pleasure. Even compared to August he's a better performer. I was thinking of similar scenarios in the past. McAteer sprang to mind, but actually a better comparison is Kevin Nolan.

I know Exeter are in a right state but days like today need savouring. I think I am right in saying its only the fourth time in my 45 years of watching us that we've scored more than six in a game (Walsall 83/4, Plymouth 84/5 and Swindon 96/7). Quite apart from that we've hit the top of the league, a six game league winning streak and lots of consecutive clean sheets. Obviously there's a big two league games upcoming but you could not wish for a better situation to be in when entering games like that.

We've had a big purple patch, strung together wins and clean sheets and looked decent doing it. Then there was an international break with players scattered hither and thither. Can we come back and pick up the threads of it all again? If we can then the team has a great culture and good habits and they're powerful things when you're targeting the top two in a 24 team league.

I can't pretend to understand all this share issues stuff much. I just hope it's not all smoke and mirrors and that money is real and debt low. I've been intrigued for some time now about the Swiss group.

Just dwell on the pleasure of having beaten them cunts last Saturday.

My first Roy Greaves team would be: 1. McDonagh, 2 Nicholson 3 Dunne 4 Greaves 5 Jones P 6 Allardyce or Walsh 7 Morgan 8 Whatmore 9 Worthington 10 Gowling 11 Reid First memory of him was the winner he got on the first day of 77/8 at Burnley. Also remember his winner v Spurs that same season, was sat level with it in the Manny Road North. Great that its on You Tube

There was a phase of Mark Patterson getting a load of stick as well - pretty local from Darwen. Some keepers who had rough spells made worse by abuse: Dennis Peacock, Simon Farnworth, Mike Salmon.

When I first started watching Bolton it was Neil Whatmore who was getting the unwarranted stick. I don't know whether its just Bolton fans who seem to always have to have a scapegoat or two, but it is certainly something that's run right the way through our history. The worst example was Ian Moores in the early 80s - he had a really bad time at Bolton but the stick he copped made things ten times worse. If it's constructive it's not as bad Folk on here saying there's something needs addressing with Nlundulu as he seems shot-shy, that's just an observation backed up by what we all see. It's not personal or nasty. That's the difference.

Anybody any idea when the draw is?

I'd forgotten the chant of "We want a ref". How sedate and polite compared to now. .... although thinking back to some other things that happened on the terraces in the 70s it definitely wasn't sedate or polite!!

It never sat particularly easy with them that Jimmy Armfield also became a Bolton hero. Same happening now with Evatt. Let's hope we can have another little gloat in Feb. That win at Bloomfield Road is a bucket list item for any Bolton fan who started watching after 1977/8.

Got a big smile on my face tonight and suspect most Bolton fans above about 45 feel something extra to the normal joy of a home win. Loads has been said about the game and the performance, the momentum we're building and the league table. Agree with it all. There's also been a fair bit said about a win in front of a big crowd in a home match at last. All that stuff is significant but to me, recording our first win over a traditional Lancs rival (don't count Fleetwood, Morecambe, Salford, Accy) feels like yet another milestone moment in the comeback from the Anderson debacle. It also feels like the club have partially made up for that fiasco v Wigan in August. Worth saying we keep up this incredible 37 year/15 league and cup match unbeaten home record v Blackpool. Now for trying to end our 46 years without a win at Bloomfield later in the season. Onwards and upwards. Chuffed.

Come on you whites, time for a stirring performance in one of our traditional derby games. Time for a derby win. Victory here would go some way to making up the for Wigan fiasco. For me it would on its own inject as much confidence as those recent three away wins did.

It was the "dead rubber" scenario that was making me think of ways to bring a few young uns in to give some of the seniors a complete rest.

I wonder if our young loanees to non-league clubs are on those dual registration arrangements that allow them to come back and play in a game like this?

Counts for nowt but funny how little trends tend to perpetuate. From the 80s onwards the most common result this fixture by far has been a draw.

Is that the Yank woman who played tennis in the 70s and 80s?