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Wanderers Ways. Neil Thompson 1961-2021

25 Years since the last game at Burnden


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I’ve only just realised that I watched games at Burnden for only 9 years.

Been going to the Reebok for 25.

And yet, Burnden still feels like it was there my entire life. I crammed at least 1,000 games in at Burnden, or so it feels like.

I’ve nothing against the Unibol, but there’s just no comparison. It’s the standing that sets it all apart.

For a really big game, there would be around 25/30 of us all congregating in the same place - Burnden paddock, near the lever end, small white wall that run bottom to top parallel to the end of the paddock roof. Even for a shitty league cup Tuesday night game, you knew at least half a dozen of the mob would be there.

No need to pre-arrange, no need to exchange 50 text messages, we just just knew we would never ever watch a game without a familiar face to stand with. Most of us knew which pub before and after the game too - The Alma.

But the big games - Wolves play offs, Black Sunday, Swindon cup - we would all be there. As would all of Bolton from the noise rising up to the skies above the ground.

20+ of us all drunkenly chanting, cheering, getting angry, sharing every fucking kick of the ball.

The buzz will never be replicated.

It was a shithole, but by god it was our shithole and we adored it.

 

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I loved Burnden but the ground I loved was the one before Normid with that giant Embankment intact. I had slightly more than 20 years supporting us there and watched matches from all parts of the ground other than that mammoth terrace behind the goal with its big blue manual scoreboard, two segregating fences breaking in to three zones and adverts for "Co-op Greater Lancastria" and the like.  

If we hadn't had to sell half of it for the supermarket I wonder if we'd ever have left. We could have bit by bit constructed a 30-35000 stadium there. The only real restriction would have been Croft Lane. 

The Unibol feels far more like home now we've been through all four divisions and had nose-bleeding heights and despairing lows. But there's nothing quite like that intoxicating Burnden scent of pies, bovril, tobacco, boozy fumes and stale piss. Not to mention the combined smell of frying onions and horse shit on the Manny Road and car park/forecourt. Oh for a few pints in the King Bill and a trip to Rice n Easy

I'd absolutely love to go back in a tardis with Neil Hart CEO and plonk him in the Manny Road North for about 20 minutes somewhere between 1981 and 1986.

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2 hours ago, Spider said:

I’ve only just realised that I watched games at Burnden for only 9 years.

Been going to the Reebok for 25.

And yet, Burnden still feels like it was there my entire life. I crammed at least 1,000 games in at Burnden, or so it feels like.

I’ve nothing against the Unibol, but there’s just no comparison. It’s the standing that sets it all apart.

For a really big game, there would be around 25/30 of us all congregating in the same place - Burnden paddock, near the lever end, small white wall that run bottom to top parallel to the end of the paddock roof. Even for a shitty league cup Tuesday night game, you knew at least half a dozen of the mob would be there.

No need to pre-arrange, no need to exchange 50 text messages, we just just knew we would never ever watch a game without a familiar face to stand with. Most of us knew which pub before and after the game too - The Alma.

But the big games - Wolves play offs, Black Sunday, Swindon cup - we would all be there. As would all of Bolton from the noise rising up to the skies above the ground.

20+ of us all drunkenly chanting, cheering, getting angry, sharing every fucking kick of the ball.

The buzz will never be replicated.

It was a shithole, but by god it was our shithole and we adored it.

 

That was the beauty of the standing terrace, you knew the people by sight if not name, "see you next time" and stuff like that. If some stranger or whoever was getting mouthy or leery you could just shuffle away rather than being trapped in a plastic seat. We stood more towards the centre line by the way, we would have used the same gate and bogs in the corner.

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2 hours ago, paulhanley said:

I loved Burnden but the ground I loved was the one before Normid with that giant Embankment intact. I had slightly more than 20 years supporting us there and watched matches from all parts of the ground other than that mammoth terrace behind the goal with its big blue manual scoreboard, two segregating fences breaking in to three zones and adverts for "Co-op Greater Lancastria" and the like.  

If we hadn't had to sell half of it for the supermarket I wonder if we'd ever have left. We could have bit by bit constructed a 30-35000 stadium there. The only real restriction would have been Croft Lane. 

The Unibol feels far more like home now we've been through all four divisions and had nose-bleeding heights and despairing lows. But there's nothing quite like that intoxicating Burnden scent of pies, bovril, tobacco, boozy fumes and stale piss. Not to mention the combined smell of frying onions and horse shit on the Manny Road and car park/forecourt. Oh for a few pints in the King Bill and a trip to Rice n Easy

I'd absolutely love to go back in a tardis with Neil Hart CEO and plonk him in the Manny Road North for about 20 minutes somewhere between 1981 and 1986.

Sounds like exactly the same timescale as me - and same opinions.

Some time late 80s I was living in London and was talking about the atmosphere and history of the ground to someone. I reckoned an atmosphere due to that history was always there, even if crowds weren't. They called out bollocks, so next time I was up, at a night match, I tried to test it out. To be totally objective and just honestly judge. No idea what game it was, we were on the up a bit and so the crowd won't have been one of the really desultory ones, but still maybe only 6-7k tops. But I remember being on the Paddock and trying just to forget all previous times there and just judge - was there an "extra" that the history brought? Some strange contribution to the atmosphere that came from all the previous souls who'd been there over the previous 90+ years, not to mention the disaster, and seen such highs and lows. And the genuine answer was "yes".

Whether new development would have unwittingly exorcised them, I don't know...

 

 

 

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When you actually stand back and think that we sold half an end to build a supermarket on it its fucking mental :D

Imagine it now.

Whose idea was it and how the fuck did it get passed?!

Surely there was a bit of land they could build on somewhere else.

I've never heard or seen of Normid outside of Bolton either.

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40 minutes ago, Dimron said:

That was the beauty of the standing terrace, you knew the people by sight if not name, "see you next time" and stuff like that. If some stranger or whoever was getting mouthy or leery you could just shuffle away rather than being trapped in a plastic seat. We stood more towards the centre line by the way, we would have used the same gate and bogs in the corner.

To be fair we don't have a completely dissimilar experience at the UniBolt as all of the seats around us are season ticket holders.

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5 minutes ago, gonzo said:

When you actually stand back and think that we sold half an end to build a supermarket on it its fucking mental :D

Imagine it now.

Whose idea was it and how the fuck did it get passed?!

Surely there was a bit of land they could build on somewhere else.

I've never heard or seen of Normid outside of Bolton either.

The original plan was to make the ground a community facility, with a plastic pitch. Building a supermarket along the length of the Embankment maybe halving its depth but build a roof from it making it a covered end.

Then plastic pitches got banned.

Emergency discussions ensued and that farcical solution was proposed.

The first time I saw it I was fckg speechless. 

When we were promoted to the top division under Rioch I got to a reception in the Town Hall straight after the open-top bus parade. After the criwd waving etc. there was a dinner laid on. I found myself sat opposite a woman from Bolton Planning Department. My brother said "she's the one who gave planning permission for the Normid supermarket ... she's very sensitive about it, so don't mention it".

Don't fckg mention it ??

It got mentioned.

She fckd mid-dinner.

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2 hours ago, Traf said:

Would we have stayed afloat without Normid?

and I think that is a very salient point. 
 

I don’t think that the decision made at the time wouldn’t have been made without considering other less intrusive options passionately discussed. 
 

For me though, it is what is was and we are where we are now. 

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37 minutes ago, SatanGreavsie said:

Sounds like exactly the same timescale as me - and same opinions.

Some time late 80s I was living in London and was talking about the atmosphere and history of the ground to someone. I reckoned an atmosphere due to that history was always there, even if crowds weren't. They called out bollocks, so next time I was up, at a night match, I tried to test it out. To be totally objective and just honestly judge. No idea what game it was, we were on the up a bit and so the crowd won't have been one of the really desultory ones, but still maybe only 6-7k tops. But I remember being on the Paddock and trying just to forget all previous times there and just judge - was there an "extra" that the history brought? Some strange contribution to the atmosphere that came from all the previous souls who'd been there over the previous 90+ years, not to mention the disaster, and seen such highs and lows. And the genuine answer was "yes".

Whether new development would have unwittingly exorcised them, I don't know...

 

 

 

Interesting thoughts. Maybe development would have killed a lot of that Burnden feeling. Probably not too much at first as it would have been the same folk rather than later generations. As time passed I think it would have washed away to a large degree. What wouldn't have changed is "walking down the Manny Road" and the tightly packed terraced houses around the ground. That's all still there to this day. That footbridge over the railway line, Orlando Bridge, Manny Road itself, Weston St etc. With the football trade there's half a chance the three Manny Road boozers would still be extant.

I guess what we are saying is would a "new Burnden" have become sanitised and soulless". I think the answer is yes to a fair degree but by now the Unibol feels less that way so our mindspace would probably be roughly where we are here in 2022. 

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49 minutes ago, gonzo said:

When you actually stand back and think that we sold half an end to build a supermarket on it its fucking mental :D

Imagine it now.

Whose idea was it and how the fuck did it get passed?!

Surely there was a bit of land they could build on somewhere else.

I've never heard or seen of Normid outside of Bolton either.

And who the fuck at Normid said “yeh we accept your proposal” 

bonkers 

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1 minute ago, Whitestar said:

That must be a mirror image.

If that is the Lever end, from that side it must be reversed to see the true picture.

So it is, is that the dodgy little shed stand they built in front of Normid you can just about see? That should be the other side!

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9 minutes ago, Marc505 said:

So it is, is that the dodgy little shed stand they built in front of Normid you can just about see? That should be the other side!

Yep. Thought I could make out "normid" but wrong side.

Many road stand too. I always thought Burnden had a higher terrace whereas Many road had a deeper stand. Was this just an illusion?

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37 minutes ago, Marc505 said:

So it is, is that the dodgy little shed stand they built in front of Normid you can just about see? That should be the other side!

Bit of a head fuck isn’t it! Manny Road Stand should be on your left from that position 

25 minutes ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

Yep. Thought I could make out "normid" but wrong side.

Many road stand too. I always thought Burnden had a higher terrace whereas Many road had a deeper stand. Was this just an illusion?

You can just about making it out behind the temporary stand 

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