paulhanley
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Posts posted by paulhanley
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We've not beaten Arsenal away since the late 50s or early 60s in the league. (we had the FA Cup win under Rioch).
We've not beaten Bury away since 1929 in the league. In one way I'd love us to sort that one but in another I'd be happy if we never had to play at Gigg Lane again.
I also don't recall us winning at Notts County in my time of watching Bolton.
The one that irritates me is that we've not beaten Blackpool at Bloomfield Road since 77/78 season in a Boxing Day match when we had at least half the 25000 gate there. Neil Whatmore (who it was a pleasure to see on the pitch doing the half time draw yesterday) scored. We've had six attempts in the league since then (three draws, three defeats and other cup defeats). We did go there and draw after extra time in the Sherpa Van Northern Final in 89 to get to Wembley. At least that one felt like a win!
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Theyll have to be proper shit in last weeks
Villa have a difficult run of fixtures before we play them on April 24 including Liverpool (A), United (A) and Sunderland (H) - the return of Martin O'Neill. Their manager is not well liked and it should be remembered that he's the guy who oversaw Birmingham dropping like a stone in to the bottom three late last season.
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I'd say if we get 38 we'll stay up.
Wigan's have a really tough April, Blackburn's run in slightly easier than Wigan's, QPR's awful.
Significant that QPR and Blackburn have very tough last day fixtures (City and Chelsea), whereas Wigan play Wolves at home. Second last day of the season is Blackburn v Wigan which will be a real shitfest. God knows what result we'll be wanting from that one!
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Much of the current bile stems from the fact that that in Lancashire we're either considered the main rival of other teams (Bury, Wigan) or the second most hated rival (Blackburn, Blackpool ... even Burnley these days after OC came to the Reebok).
I think there's only Preston who could not be categorised this way.
Tells me we're the biggest club or at the very least one of the biggest clubs in the North West outside of the Manchester and Merseyside sides.
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I obviously wasn't there so I don't know the extent of the barging through the gates and the drunkenness. There are also obviously questions for the Police who ought to have been directing the fans to the pens that were not yet full to capacity. Were the police partially culpable, my guess -yes. Were they absolutely culpable and the only underlying factor in the tragedy, my opinion - no.
What has most frustrated me about news reporting and opinions offered during the week is the way people (even those who remember the 70s and 80s) persist on viewing the events of Hillsborough through the eyes of 2012 football fans. The norms and standards of today are irrelevant and a world away from what went on in 1989. Given that drunkenness and unruly behaviour were rife at football grounds in the 80s it is hard to imagine that absolutely none of the above was going on that day. My guess is it is the extent to which it is going on that is what should be debated, not whether it was going on at all.
In any case its surely time to move beyond the blame game now.
Worth remembering that the flags at the Reebok were at half mast last weekend. Its not like Bolton people can't equate with having to deal with a tragedy of this ilk (albeit many years before).
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I did the predictor a few days ago. Reckon 33 could keep a team up this season .... certainly 34 or 35.
QPR and Blackburn are obviously huge games but difficult because the opposition will be keyed up for the same reasons we are. Plus we always struggle in the home match against the Dingles.
I have a feeling the home games against Swansea, Fulham and WBA are the ones we should really target. Mid table teams with nothing to play for often roll over for relegation haunted teams in late season.
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Yep, def Bolton 0 Darlington 3 Bonfire Night 85.
Bolton 1 Mansfield 2 in the Sherpa Van in 85. We'd all convinced ourselves we were going to Wembley and Ian Greaves team from a division below beat us even though we'd gone one up.
Any amount of demoralising home defeats against Bury - they beat us all scores at Burnden in the 80s: 1-4, 2-3, 2-4, 1-3. They also did us 2-1 at Gigg Lane at the end of 98/9. Massively depressing.
Two 2-1 defeats at Blackpool in 89/90, first in the Cup, two late goals and Match of the Day turning up and going on endlessly about 1953. Same happened again late season in the league. No more depressing sight than Blackpool w*nkers running on the pitch celebrating at Bloomfield.
Bolton 1 Forest 1 in the Burnden Premiership year when Colin Cooper equalised for them in the 112th minute of injury time.
Two recent Christmas games, both 0-1 home defeats. Boxing Day 04 to Blackburn, Paul Dickov scored early for them, and Wigan in 08, Zaki pen after O'Brien decided to turn it in to a wrestling match to gift them the pen.
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All of the above, plus:
The last game of 91/2, Stoke came to Burnden needing to win to have a chance of going up. We'd gone a ridiculous amount of games without a win to sink in to mid-table obscurity. Against the odds we won 3-1. 10,000 gate, 6,000 from Stoke. Phil Neal's last game in charge.
As stated, quite a few times at Wigan. Definitely Boxing Day 1983. A 10,000 gate and must have been 6,000 from Bolton at least.
Rochdale away in the Fourth Division season. 4300 gate, at least 2500 from Bolton.
Blackburn away in 77/8 is an obvious one from that season. However Boxing Day of that season saw an absolutely huge turnout of Wanderers fans at Bloomfield Road in a 25000 gate. Possibly even a majority. I'd say Blackpool away in the Semi of the Sherpa Van in 88/89 was 50/50 split of a 9000 gate.
I was scared to death for most of that Sheff Utd game at Burnden in 84, the Police had no control at all and the Blades fans were mental.
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I would agree with those who say Eddie's aim will be to make sure the "debt" gets no higher. As has now been said a million times, and as even the national media is beginning to understand and report with some accuracy, the "debt" is to the owner, not the banks, which is the critical point.
The whole thing is very much a holding operation. Real investment from somebody new will be hard to find. It will be even harder to find if the aim is to get it from someone with Bolton Wandererers at heart and avoid a Venky/Blackburn or Portsmouth scenario.
The Warburtons have been mentioned in this context for as long as I have been supporting Bolton. In purely financial terms, that prospect is more realistic than ever before given that their business has grown exponentially and they are far wealthier than Eddie Davies. However Davies has (I believe) sold his business and realised that wealth. Much of the Warby wealth is the asset that is their family business.
If ever you hear the Warburtons have sold the bakery, hope they have Bolton Wanderers in mind.
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We were 2-0 up at the time and Seamus had already had a few close misses with long goal kicks caught on the wind. The first few of those were just misjudged kicks but with the game in the bag the crowd began to egg him on. The one that went in was undoubtedly intentional and Billy O'Rourke probably ought to have adjusted and been closer to his line. Tim Howard might have been shy about celebrating - McDonagh was not!
I might be wrong but I think there were several phases of the game in which it was pissing with rain and the Burnley fans were on the Embankment getting soaked.
December and January were good months in what otherwise was a very poor 82/3 season - leading to relegation. A few weeks before we'd beaten Blackburn 1-0 at home with a great Tony Henry free kick and there was a win at Oldham thrown in as well (our only away win that year).
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1985/86: Wigan 1 Bolton 3 with Mark Gavin scoring his first goal for Bolton.
2006/07: Wigan 1 Bolton 3 with Andranik scoring his first and only goals for Bolton.
2011/12: Wigan 1 Bolton 3 with Reo-Coker (if he gets credited with it) and Ngog scoring their first for Bolton. Eagles scoring his first league goal.
We've won there 5 times, drawn 5 and lost 6 in the league - not all that bad really!
Overall record in league and cup games - we're now one win ahead of them having won 15, drawn 10 and lost 14 (including Freight Rover adventures back in the day).
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Positive Thoughts
in Terrace Talk
I think if we get 38 points we will stay up. It might even be that we get six of those in the frenzy of the last two games of the season.
That's the best slant I can put on this.
At the moment I'm pretty dispirted and fearing the worst.