Accrington Web - 2019/20 Prediction League; Game 19 v Bolton Wanderers (home)

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2019/20 Prediction League; Game 19 v Bolton Wanderers (home)

Accrington Stanley

Bolton Wanderers

2019/20 Prediction League; Game 19 v Bolton Wanderers (home)

Well I’ll go to the foot of our stairs! Bolton Wanderers ….. The Trotters …. Nat Lofthouse, the Lion of Vienna (me Grandad had a mate called Nat Vienna, who played Lancashire League cricket and who was known as The Lion of Lofthouse…); Eddie Hopkinson, the Custodian; Roy Hartle and Tommy Banks, the full backs who’d put you over the wall just for fun ….. Burnden Park……………… Ray Parry ……….. fog …………… flat caps and dog-ends …………dubbin …….. leather footballs wi’ laces …………. Christmas Day games where you played them again on Boxing Day ………….. cinder tracks on the pitch-side of the wall over which the FBs has just kicked you …..I agree with the late and wonderful Victoria Wood - you just go ………………..

“Tripe, clogs, going to the dogs,
Wigan and Blackpool tram,
Brass bands, butties in your hands,
Whippets and next door's mam……….”

The club was founded in 1874 by the Reverend Joseph Farrall Wright, Perpetual Curate of Christ Church Bolton, and Thomas Ogden, the schoolmaster at the adjacent church school, as Christ Church F.C. It was initially run from the church; following a dispute with the vicar they left there, and in 1877 changed their name to Bolton Wanderers - the name being chosen by the club to reflect that they’d had a lot of difficulty finding a permanent ground to play at, using three venues in its first four years of existence. They were one of the founder members of the Football League, formed in 1888, and one of 6 sides of the 12 founder clubs to come from Lancashire. Having remained in the Football League since its formation, Bolton has spent more time in the top flight (Premier League and old First Division) than out of it.

They lost the FA Cup Finals of 1894 and 1904 (4-1 to Notts County and 1-0 to Manchester City respectively) but won The White Horse Final (a reference to the record consumption of whisky by the crowd of 127,000) …………………. And speaking of Notts County, Saturday last produced two results I never thought to see – namely Notts County 0 Barrow 3, and TwistySpires United (Chesterfield) 2 Chorley 3 ………………….. They’ve never won the League (third in 1892 and again (twice) in the early 1920s), but they won the FA Cup three times more, including in 1958, beating the post-Munich Man U 2-0 in a game of “Barge the Goalie Into the Net” ……………. And in 1928, in some financial difficulty, they sold David Jack to Arsenal for a then world-record fee of £10,890 (now worth about £660,000), which more than doubled the previous record

They’ve spent 73 seasons in Division 1/Premiership, 34 in Division 2/Championship, 12 in Division 2/League 1 and one – 1987/88 – in Division 4 (now League 2) ……….. they went back up in 1988 in 3rd place (78 points), behind Wolves (90) and Cardiff (85) – and Swansea won the playoffs! They’d gone down at the end of 1986/87 via the Playoffs, which consisted of the 4th, 5th and 6th sides in Division 4 (Wolves, Colchester and Aldershot), and the 4th-bottom side in Division 3 (Bolton) …………… they played the Shots over two legs (and on two legs as well), managed a Desmond at home but lost 1-0 away, and GreasyPoled for (so far) the only time in their lives into the Bargain Basement ……………. They’ve been in financial troubles for a few seasons (during which their ground has changed names a few times – Reebok to Macron to the University of Bolton, although why they called it after the French President I have no idea) ……… they dropped out of the Prawn Sandwich Division in 2012, played in le Championnat from 2012 to 2016 and 2017 to 2019, and Slid Ignominiously into League One last summer with 8 wins, 8 draws and 30 defeats, scoring 29 goals and conceding 78 (GD of -49) and 32 points, one more than Ipswich ……………..and the rest you know ……….. now managed by Keith Hill, they’re currently one of the form sides in the League, having won their last 3 (2-0 at Brizzle, 2-1 v Fleetwood, and 1-0 against the PhoneyWombles courtesy of a 93rd minute winner by the man who missed the 90th minute penalty – Daryl Murphy ……………………..

I just go ………………

“Rag man, eating out the pan,
Tanners and threepenny bits,
Prawn wheels, good old Gracie Fields,
Braces bugs and nits".

Everyman and his dog b*ggered off in the summer and shortly after – 24 players left the club; so did Phil Parkinson, the manager………….. and with good reason, if the stories were right; one player retired, four were made Free Agents, Polish RB Pawel Miroslaw Olkowski signed for Turkish Super Lig side Gaziantep FutbolKulübü, (formerly known as Gaziantep BüyükşehirBelediyespor), one went to the Bananarama (FC Halifax), one went to Australia, we got Joe Pritchard, and the rest got picked up by various league sides; Chorley-born Phil Parkinson got the Sunderland job, and ex manager Michael Jolley wasn’t (jolly) after getting the heave-ho from Grimsby following seven games without a win ……………… Eight came in, but only one of them (CM James Weir from Hull) in August ……….LB Joe Bunney arrived from the Cobblers, Ali Crawford, another CM, crossed the Pennines from Donnie, Ipswich provided RB Josh Emmanuel, Daryl Murphy (see “missed penalty” above) arrived from RobinHoodLand (Notts Forest), well-travelled striker Chris O’Grady came from Oldham (saves moving house), LB Adam Chicksen (who’s a Zimbabwean) joined up from Bratfud and Ghanaian born Joe Dodoo (striker) arrived from Rangers

From their first 11 games they managed four points – all from home draws; Coventry, Oxford and Blackpool (all goalless Desmonds) and Sunderland (a half-Desmond); in addition, Rochdale beat them 3-1 at Burnden (or whatever), and Ipswich plundered them 5-0 there too …………… as did Tranmere and Gillingham when Bolton came a-calling, while Rotherham did them 6-1 ………. They also lost 2-0 at Wycombe and 1-0 at Pompey ………. And then …. Three wins on the spin, five scored, one conceded ………….. if you take it back to the arrival of Keith Hill on 31st August, it’s 3 wins, 3 draws and 3 losses – 12 points from 9 games …………. At home, W2 D4 L2 GF 5 GA 10; away, W1 D0 L5 GF3 GA19; overall, P14 W3 D4 L7 GF8 GA 29 for 13 points (less the 12 deducted before they got them), so plus 1 – and 24th place, 4 points behind Southend. (who’ve played three more games and have a -10 worse GD) …………… they’re out of the EFL Cup (5-2 at Rochdale), and they matched our success in the FA Cup, losing 1-0 at home to a League Two side – in their case, Plymouth, but – also like us – they’ve qualified for Round Two of the Troffy after two losing draws and a 3-1 win over Man City u11s; in Round Two they play …………. Us. Chez nous!

As mentioned on another thread, we’ve only ever met once in a competitive fixture – 9th January 1926 (when they were a bit of a powerhouse side), when they put us out of the FA Cup ……….. we’d beaten Wrexham 4-0 at home in Round One (Chilton Colliery Recreation beat Carlisle 2-0 away!) and then beat The Blyth Spartans 5-0 in Round Two and The Gay Gordons in the next Round (ok, I made that bit up) before going to Burnden Park and losing by the odd goal in one …………… and in our defence, Bolton did win the Cup that season, and their goal that dispatched Man City was scored by David Jack (see “world’s most expensive player” above)……….. And they finished 8th in Division One, whereas we finished 18th in Div3North…………… so 1-0 was a not bad result!

They’ve got nine former players who hit 500 games (Lofthouse made 503); to make up for that, he was their record goal scorer with 285. Most appearances record is held by Eddie Hopkinson (578), and GK Jussi Jaaskelainen is also on the list (530) ……….. but they had another fairly famous GK who played for them very late in his 31-year, 1005 game career; this week’s starter for ten, then; who was the Famous GK, how many games did he play for the Wanderers, and how old was he when he made his debut for them? Record home League win was 8-0 against Barnsley; record away League win was 7-1 at Villa; biggest home defeat, surprisingly, is only 5-0 (although it’s happened against seven different clubs); biggest FA Cup away defeat was 9-1 by PNE ……………… They bought Nicholas Anelka for £8million from Fenerbahce in 2006 and sold him two years later for £15 million to Chelsea (they also sold Gary Cahill and Eidur Gudjohnson to them as well for £7 million and £4 million) ………. Leading goal scorers in the League this season are – you guessed it – Daryl Hannah, sorry - Daryl Murphy - with 3, and Thibaud Verlinden, a Belgian winger on loan from Stoke, who has two …………..

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 23rd November, and it’s all to play for. They’ve yet to Face the Music (and Dance) over the no-show against Donnie back in August, so they’re still, to quote Keith Hill, “in the mire”, but how deep and how niffy it is remains to be seen …………….. “Three Wins on the Run” plays “Not Scored in Five” (“Couldn’t Score in a Brothel”); they don’t travel well; we can’t hit the floor with us hats, and both managers have managed Rochdale …………. And the Fairly Famous GK was Peter Shilton, who made his one and only appearance for Bolton on 15th May 1995 aged 45 years 239 days against Wolves

"Fish, chips, cycle clips,
Gaslight and games in t' street,
Nutty slack, privy out the back,
Gradely aye and reet.”

Good luck to everyone! …………….. Keep the Faith!................. And thanks for playing!

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