SkySports
Bolton Meet Up With an Old Friend at West Ham
Friday, August 20th, 2010 | BWFC Goals, BWFC News, BWFC People | No Comments
Can we play you every week Rob?…
Bolton visit West Ham at the weekend, where they’ll encounter a generous acquaintance.
At the recent World Cup, goalkeeper Rob Green deprived England of a much needed victory, with a comical gaffe. This was no surprise to White’s fans. They’ve enjoyed Green’s attention deficit disorder immensely over the past few years. He’s good for at least three points a season – to Bolton that is.
Oops...
Ultimately, Green was rescued by his colleagues in the national side. They were even more dismal than he was, including Matthew Upson, another who shouldn’t have been in South Africa, unless it was to have a gander at Table Top Mountain.
Making up the trio of undesirables is Tal Ben Haim, formerly a competent centre-half for the Wanderers. Since leaving the Reebok, Ben Haim has failed at Chelsea, Manchester City, Sunderland and Portsmouth. He put the blame for his mis-adventures at Stamford Bridge on someone else.
‘If I knew Avram Grant was going to be the coach I would have signed for another club. I knew nothing good would come for me with Grant as Chelsea coach,’ he moaned.
It must have been an unpleasant surprise when Ben-Haim joined Portsmouth, only to be followed by Grant a few weeks later. Yet now he’s signed on loan for West Ham. Guess who the manager is? Maybe the Israeli has lost his mind as well as his ability.
Bolton go into this one, with six straight wins over the Hammers. They’ve lost only once in twelve league games against Saturday’s opposition, a Carlos Tevez inspired affair, at the start of Sammy Lee’s ill fated tenure.
‘Who’s the midget in the suit?’ sang the home support.
The Wanderers were lacklustre against Fulham, West Ham had a disaster at Aston Villa. Both sides need a win. Which is probably why a draw is the likely result.
Enjoy. Contains a few naughty (but very funny) words at the end.
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Bolton’s Greatest Ever Manager …
Thursday, May 13th, 2010 | BWFC Goals, BWFC News, BWFC People, Bruce Rioch, Premier League | 3 Comments
In reality, we do not have an outstanding list of candidates for our greatest ever manager. We’ve only had 23 full-time managers. Of these, you can pretty much discount dismiss Tom Mather, who was manager throughout WWI, and the short spells of Jimmy Meadows and Sammy Lee and even shorter (in duration) reign of Jimmy McIlroy.
I'll blow all my rivals out the water......!
We can also discount the fledgling tenure of current manager Owen Coyle, and Roy McFarland’s strange half-season spell as co-manager.
This leaves seventeen full-time managers who held the position for a season or more, but includes short-ish unsuccessful spells for Nat Lofthouse, Stan Anderson, George Mulhall, and Charlie Wright, all of less than two years.
Taking these out, we are now down to thirteen contenders.
Of these thirteen, I would immediately dismiss six as candidates.
John Somerville and Will Settle managed us in the early part of the twentieth century, and during their tenures we were the 17th best and 14th best team in England respectively. Given that there were only two divisions and forty league clubs by the end of Settle’s tenure, the fact that we were in the top half of the Football League does little to enhance either manager’s claim to greatness. Additionally, Somerville managed to get us relegated four times between 1899 and 1910. › Continue reading
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Bolton v Birmingham – Closer than you might think …Part One
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010 | Alan Gowling, BWFC Goals, BWFC News, BWFC People, Football Association, Gary Megson, Premier League | 2 Comments
Another instalment from bwfc forum’s resident Stat man – Wakey – who over the next 3 days leading up to our final premier league game this season, gives us a very interesting insight into previous encounters and shows the history and rivalry of the two clubs are closer than you would think….
On face value, Bolton and Birmingham don’t have a great deal in common. Bolton have always struggled to compete against local big-city clubs, whereas Birmingham are based in England’s second city. Birmingham have enjoyed several high-profile- and sometimes controversial – owners, whilst Bolton have been quietly run by the local bakers for much
Wakey in manny road stand watching Wanderers v Birmingham 1922
of their history.
Scratch the surface (and clutch a few straws) and you can find the odd similarity. Both were formed within a year or so of each other, initially as church sides. Both have lived largely in the shadow of more successful local rivals. Both would see their rightful place as mid-table (ish) in the Premier League, although there are probably at least twenty other clubs with similar aspirations.
Scratch even deeper, and there’s a much closer similarity between the two.
Bolton fans would probably claim that the Trotters are the more successful of the two clubs. Founder members of the Football League, they have four FA Cup wins plus three losing final appearances to Birmingham’s two losing finals. They have completed – or will have by Sunday evening – 71 seasons in the top flight to Birmingham’s 56. Of the 107 seasons both teams have been league clubs, including this season, Bolton have finished higher than Birmingham 69 times. Bolton even edge the meetings between the two, with 46 wins to Birmingham’s 39. › Continue reading
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Every Day’s a cup final for Mark Halsey….!
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 | BWFC Goals, BWFC News, BWFC People, Football Association, Ivan Campo, Jay-Jay Okocha, Nicolas Anelka, Owen Coyle, Phil Gartside, Premier League, Premiership referees, Sam Allardyce, Youri Djorkaeff | 11 Comments
The support from football fans and ordinary people in the street has been inspirational
Click the link to listen to Mark Halsey’s Exclusive interview.
http://www.zshare.net/audio/751463426e948768/
Despite hailing from Hertfordshire, Mark Halsey has firmly established himself as one of Bolton’s favourite adopted sons. After spending 12 years playing non-league football for Cambridge City and Hertford Town he began his refereeing career in 1989 and a decade later refereed the famous 1999 Football League One Play-off Final between Gillingham and Manchester City at Wembley. The same year he was promoted to Premier League status and shortly after the FIFA List of referees. He quickly established himself as one of the most popular referees in the League.
Mark was kind enough to take time out of his schedule to speak Exclusively to Manny Road & bwfcforum’s Andi Walton. He started by asking him about his current health:
MH: Yeah I’m feeling very good, I seem to be getting stronger with every game I do and it’s a bonus for me because I never thought I’d be back refereeing again, so every day is a cup final and it’s really great to be back and the reception I’ve received from the two games I’ve done at Rotherham and Port Vale and Oldham and Bristol Rovers, the fans have been absolutely fantastic and it’s been very emotional and overwhelming for me.
AW: It must have been the furthest thing from your mind getting out on the football pitch when you were in the midst of your treatment but now you’ve got to that stage, it must be a real thrill.
MH: For me to come back and, you know, I suppose…for what I’ve gone through with all my chemotherapy and my radiotherapy…I mean if you saw me at Christmas, I was nowhere near the Mark Halsey of old, you know, but I’ve worked hard and a lot of people have helped me and it’s been great. The support I’ve received from people around the country – just ordinary football fans and ordinary people in the street. They’ve been inspirational to me and they’ve got to really pat themselves on the back for the way they’ve helped me and it’s down to them that I’m back where I am now.
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Your views on BWFC welcome… as long as they’re completely stupid
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 | BWFC News, BWFC People, Gary Megson | 1 Comment
How to interview a Bolton Wanderers fan, courtesy of striatic
Just in case anyone cares what we think…
Following on from my post the other day about the use of silly analogies, I stumbled across another – albeit over a week old – article that shows how generalisations and misrepresentations are being used to bash Bolton Wanderers fans and their dislike of Gary Megson.
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Sky targets Bolton Wanderers fans with new version of ad campaign
Saturday, September 12th, 2009 | BWFC News | 3 Comments
How Sky’s Premier League marketing campaign would look in the real world
We know how you feel about supporting Bolton Wanderers, because we feel the same (Image courtesy of ElPablo)
Sky’s subtle and understated-as-ever marketing campaign for their Premier League coverage this season is a series of TV adverts and posters featuring the line ‘we know how you feel about football, because we feel the same.’
Leaving aside the rather patronising assumption that all football fans are replica-shirt wearing, 606-calling halfwits (OK, a lot are), the other problem with these ads is that they’re too general, aimed at fans of every club without thought for the fundamental differences in the emotional make-up of fans of clubs as diverse as, let’s say, Bolton and Manchester United.
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Memo to the national press: Sam Allardyce does not manage Bolton Wanderers
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 | BWFC News, BWFC People, Gary Megson, Sam Allardyce | 1 Comment
Another season, and yet more lazy journalists getting the basics wrong
Image from 101 Great Goals
I lost count of the number of times the press made reference to Sam Allardyce being manager of Bolton Wandererers last season.
After Big Sam returned to management in the north-west with Blackburn midway through last season, a succession of newspaper articles and – if memory serves – over-excitable Sky Sports pundits, lazily got Bolton mixed up with their Lancashire rivals.
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Wanderers window shopping dispatch #4: Five questions that need answering
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 | Ariza Makukula, BWFC News, BWFC People, Gary Megson, Heidar Helguson, Kevin Davies, Kevin Nolan, Mark Davies, Phil Gartside, Sebastien Puygrenier | 1 Comment
Image via Wikipedia
The final round of ins, outs and shaking it all abouts at Bolton Wanderers this January
Ins
With the three ins this year – Davies, Sebastien Puygrenier and Ariza Makukula – already in the bag, Bolton barely got a mention on Sky Sports News’ overly-dramatic transfer deadline day coverage (was the countdown of the last 10 seconds, accompanied by pictures from Big Ben, really necessary, especially as the Premier League had extended the deadline due to the bad weather?).
Gary Megson confirmed after the Spurs game that he was targetting two more signings before the window shut at 5pm yesterday, so the Wanderers failure to bring in any more new players has to be seen as leaving Megson short of what he feels he needs to keep us in the Premier League.
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The Burning Question: Does Nicolas Anelka deserve a good reception from Bolton fans?
Friday, December 5th, 2008 | Chris Evans, Gary Megson | 3 Comments
Wanderers’ assistant manager has called for calm ahead of Chelsea’s visit, but was it really necessary?
What started out as a question buried away at the end of a long interview with Chris Evans, Gary Megson’s assistant, on bwfc.co.uk, has ended up becoming the defining narrative in the build-up to Chelsea’s visit this weekend.
Will Bolton Wanderers fans boo Nicolas Anelka?
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Recommended reading (3.12.08): Kevin Nolan… literally the most confusing interviews ever
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 | BWFC People, Gary Megson, Johan Elmander, Kevin Nolan, Nicky Hunt, Phil Gartside | No Comments
What Manny Road has been reading (and thinking) about Bolton Wanderers today…
- Kevin Nolan has ‘quite literally been taking a leaf out of Roy Keane’s book,’ according to The Bolton News. Apparently he’s been reading up on the Sunderland manager (but if he really was ‘quite literally taking a leaf out of Keane’s book’, wouldn’t there be some kind of leaf extraction involved in the process? Or am I taking the phrase ‘quite literally’ a little too literally?).
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