paulhanley

I think it was the rags, Bolton, Bury, Wigan that season.

I think Gethin leaves on a free as well. After that Sheehan could be sold, we need to sell Vic and will probably do so at a loss. SS clearly does not particularly like Lolos. And of course there are loanees in that squad who will return to their parent clubs (Murphy, Etete, Matete).

I am completely torn between knowing this club has to be in the Championship and the knowledge that we are in no fit shape and even with a pre-season full of signings and a good manager we would be starting from a low base at the higher level following any play off success. This is a lop-sided squad, ill constructed by a footballing idealogue. Lots of quality but all of a similar variety. I am really looking forward to seeing what SS has in mind this summer to rectify the situation. The pragmatist in me wants it to be a full summer minus the delay of play offs leading to us hitting the ground running in August and having a serious tilt at the automatics in 25/6. I am sure I am not the only one with these mixed feelings looking ahead to the next four months.

Aside from the frustration of the actual match this is our seventh home defeat of the season. It isn't feeling like promotion tackle to me. A lot needs doing to this squad. SS is the man for the job with help from Fergal Sharkey

Ian Greaves was the first I remember and remains one of the best. It was great that Big Sam them came along from the Greaves era and the latter speaks very warmly about the former in his book. Bruce Rioch is the other great in my time. I fell out with Colin Todd in the same way I ended up falling out with Evatt. It seemed all to be about the aesthetics rather than the results. Weird given his 96/7 team could fight as well as play. Stan Anderson and George Mulhall in the 80s were mistakes. John McGovern and Phil Neal tried very, very hard for BWFC but you wonder what the fascination with employing player managers was by the boards at the time. Coyle got off to a great start but proved one-dimensional and Freedman/Lennon were fighting against the odds with the financial plight of the club. Sammy Lee was a total disaster and the wrong appointment. Mention must be made of Phil Parkinson in later days. It was not pretty but he got us a promotion and acted with dignity through those dog-days of financial ruin.

I was reminded earlier by a relative what I said after I saw the result of the first Rugby League Super League game of the season back in Feb: Wigan 0 Leigh 1 with a drop goal in added time. "I bet Bolton do not do that in the football in March".

The only ref who ever seemed to be a lucky charm for us. He was never biased but we always seemed to win when he was officiating.

I get what you mean but I think we should always put in the necessary passion and focus to this game without them having to be our "arch" rival to make it happen. It should never have been any different. To be honest it's long been a fault at this club and it was evident in the 80s too. Wigan and Bury haunted us plenty - and largely because we didn't match their intensity on the day. That's just about being slack and unaware. It took Phil Parkinson and his insider knowledge at Bury to get us a win at Gigg Lane after no victory there since Henry VIII was swapping wives every year!

"The derby" "Your cup final" It's all Wigan aspiring to be in an arch-rivalry with us a la Pompey/Southampton, Blackburn/Burnley, PNE/Blackpool, Cardiff/Swansea. They ought to be satisfied that after 40 years in the football league they have dragged themselves in to similar territory to the other Lancashire town sides including the mob we played on Saturday. They won't stand out from the Blackburn/PNE/Burnley group in the fullness of time. Wild celebrations last night because these behaved in a very classless way towards us when we nearly went out of business and have lorded it over us results wise for 10 years to the point of it getting ridiculous. When we go up (whenever that may be) and they are eeking out an existence in League 1 at best (as per their true status), much of pointed nature of recent events will fade on our side. How many of us think about Tranmere when we aren't in the same division? For an arch rivalry you need permanent feeling on both sides. Local rivals worthy of celebrating heavily when we beat them, especially after a long drought. Yes Very local rivals geographically. Yes. Arch-rivals. Not for me. I'd have been pretty much as chuffed with a win at the seaside shithole on Saturday.

Good morning all. A bright and cheery Wednesday to you all. Wigan Athletic 0 Bolton Wanderers 1 It did not happen again.

Savour it everyone. All done with a cruel late twist of the knife. It doesn't make up for the disgraces in this fixture over the last decade (and many other derby fixtures) but just for now who cares. Back where we started with the first ever fixture against them on Boxing Day 83. I wish it were James Alexander Gordon reading the scoreline. Magic.

We lack physique, we lack pace, we lack leadership on the pitch and we can't concentrate defensively. We also lack two other things that SS has been increasingly referencing. We are not clinical and we are not streetwise. Pretty fundamental stuff and an indictment of what Evatt spent four years building at great expense and backed by crowd averages of 20000 in the third tier.

We weren't even this bad in derbies in the 80s. It has to be worst spell in our history in these games. It's grim for us fans. I obviously hope Schumacher gets the issue by the scruff of the neck but the damage is done now. There's enough happened to keep your Wigan/Stockport/Blackpool fans happily fed and watered for years to come.

Yep. Last two seasons we've W2 D0 L7 v Stockport/Blackpool/Wigan. The earlier poster who said we are like a big old dog being poked with sticks by gleeful little kids is spot on. The problems pre-date the last couple of seasons. It was massively irritating two years ago it is now beyond parody and we are in a groundhog day paralysis with it. Six games out of 46 is 13 per cent of our fixtures in a season. It is not just abysmal, embarrassing and a permanent stain on our records against these smaller clubs, it is harmful to our prospects of escaping this league. And let's face it, if we can't deal with this triumphant trio creating treasured memories at our expense, PNE, Burnley and Blackburn would find us easy pickings in the division above.

Beyond sick and tired of it. Over history at Blackpool and recently in derbies. It's happened again. Gutless bastards.

When was the last time these cunts had a man sent off against us and when was the last pen we had v them? Feels like a long, long time ago. Due on both and the score needs evening for reffing errors at Gloomfield last year.

Looks like no Toal or Santos but Forrester/Forino/Johnston would be OK in central defence hopefully. Come on Bolton, let's finally chalk up a win at this dump.

From memory we were supposed to play away at Bury in between the Blackpool and Wigan games but it was called off with bad weather. My main memory of that Wigan home game was Steve Thompson getting sent off for no reason. Years later the ref admitted he'd got muddled having booked Wigan's number 8 and then sent Tomo off as our number 8 thinking he was giving him a second yellow. This ref was one Kenny Walmsley - a bloke who went to school with my dad and had been a BWFC nut in his youth. You couldn't make it up. Anyway - this should be on the pie-shaggers thread. Let's stick to the seaside shit.

Got very clear memories of Boxing Day 85. It was our first game there since the win in 77 (other than pre-season). Huge away following, far more than the police must have expected. They hadn't opened the Kop, just the side terrace. I remember watching hundreds of ours flooding in and filling half the Kop in minutes. I also have a memory of the Blackpool walking across the pitch to approach BWFC in the Kop but the police being well on top of it. Loads of us were in the home ends including one bloke who was in their main terrace behind the goal and ended up jumping out on to the pitch and all the way to the Bolton end. ....we were 0-1 up (David Cross header) with a minute to go and conceded in the last minute. The "jinx" could have been killed at birth if we'd held on that Boxing Day!

There are a few teams I dislike and enjoy watching lose but a Jock footballing calamity is always a sweet one.

We'd love to win this and Wigan. However I suspect most fans care far more about the fixture v the pie men than our trip to Gloomfield Road. To bring some context: The last time we won at Blackpool (27 Dec 1977), Wigan were not even a football league side. Thus for the older Bolton fan this is almost as important if not with parity. Am I optimistic? No. This is based more on history and consistently nasty experiences in away games v the orange cunts than this season's events. They just always play well above themselves v us on their home patch. We have to match it. I'll have a go at clutching at straws: Most of Blackpool's form this season has been in away games. They are third in the away table with a record of 9-4-7 and three wins in their last five. At home it's a different matter. They've won only 4, drawn 11 and lost 3. They don't score or concede too many. Based on the above I'd be going for a rather predictable 1-1, a scoreline we've experienced there a good few times since we last won there. Not the sweet jinx ending result we all want I know. If you want omens: The last time before this season that we beat Blackpool 2-1 at home in the league was that 77/8 season when we won 0-2 over there at Christmas. That day though we had half the attendees in a 25000 gate with BWFC all over home ends in intimidatory mood. Blackpool fans of a certain generation shudder at the memory. Was anybody on here there that day?

Johnston might be back for our next game though.

Yes and the Wigan home record is 6-4-8. You are right in your analysis. If you look at both fixtures and at our away record we ought to be on for something in both games. But what such analysis cannot account for is the way both clubs historically play out of their skins against us, way above their normal levels.

Right here's the full list of misery since we last won at Bloomfield Road on 27 December 1977. What's remarkable about this (and the fixtures at Bolton) is how close away wins have been only to be derailed very late in games or in odd/unusual circumstances. League 1985/6 Blackpool 1 Bolton 1 (last minute equaliser conceded) 1986/7 Blackpool 1 Bolton 1 (conceded an equaliser inside a minute of going ahead) 1988/89 Blackpool 2 Bolton 0 1989/90 Blackpool 2 Bolton 1 (conceded twice in the last few minutes - see FA Cup game in the same bloody season) 1992/3 Blackpool 1 Bolton 1 (conceded a late penalty equaliser 2010/11 Blackpool 4 Bolton 3 (late season Premier League, had to be 4-3! At least it didn't save them from relegation) 2012/13 Blackpool 2 Bolton 2 (twice ahead, twice conceded equalisers) 2013/14 Blackpool 0 Bolton 0 2014/15 Blackpool 1 Bolton 1 (late Chungy equaliser) 2019/20 Blackpool 2 Bolton 1 (got a very late equaliser, conceded an even later winner - a matter of weeks before COVID struck) 2023/4 Blackpool 4 Bolton 1 Cups 1988/89 Blackpool 1 Bolton 1 (Sherpa Van Northern Final, Bolton win on aggregate and invade the pitch, felt like a win but wasn't one) 1989/90 Blackpool 2 Bolton 1 (went ahead, conceded two late goals in front of the MOTD cameras with lots of wittering about 1953) 1990/91 Blackpool 3 Bolton 0 (Preliminary group game) 2016/17 Blackpool 4 Bolton 2 (League Cup) 2023/24 Blackpool 0 Bolton 0 (Pizza Cup - Counts as a draw but Blackpool won the pens) I make that Won 0 Drawn 8 Lost 8 altogether and Won 0 Drawn 6 Lost 5 in the league. The only saving grace is they've got an equally dismal record at Burnden/Horwich over the same period (since their last win in 1986 we've W 10 D 5 L 0 in all competitions) Surely this has to end soon? Saturday 29 March would be a great time for it to happen.