Bolton Get Battered Everywhere They Go
Bolton 0, Beautiful South 4:
Part 2 – Seasons 2000-2012
Make yourself a brew, sit back and be prepared for more depressing reminiscing about the times when our beloved football team got royally spanked.
One of the chief perpetrators during this next 11-12 years happened to be one of our greatest foes from down the road during our incredible stint in the top flight. After they had mauled us 6-0 in 1996, they continued to regularly smash us on many more occasions and quite often at the Reebok Stadium. Not pretty. However, it was Chelsea who were our real bogey-team with six full-on bashings including two in four days in October 2009.
The men from Stamford Bridge were also one of the teams along with Spurs and Stoke who inflicted some heavy cup defeats on the Whites.
In the period since the Premier League Bolton have been cleaned out well and truly by the likes of Hull City, Bristol City, Accrington Stanley, Reading, Rotherham United and even bloody Gillingham! Oh, and frigging Tranmere Rovers and Ipswich Town – but that sad slice of our history can wait until next time. For now, it’s top flight hammerings-a-plenty!
2000/01 Season
A great season under Big Sam that ended in play-off final victory in Cardiff. It didn’t start off with any great spark in the season’s opener at home to Burnley, but soon his style of play and his methodology behind the scenes kicked-in, we tightened up at the back, won games with regularity and suffered no batterings of four goals or more. Promotion chasing Blackburn Rovers did visit the Reebok and inflict our heaviest defeat of the season with David Dunn inspiring a 4-1 triumph for the Lancashire rivals. A tremendous 2-legged semi-final in the play-offs with West Brom followed by an even better 3-0 final victory over Preston would see Bolton leave the lower tiers and settle into a new-life as a Premier League regular for the next decade.
2001/02 Season
13th October 2001 • Bolton 0-4 Newcastle United
It was April 1998 when Derby had tonked Bolton 4-0 in our relegation season. Now back in the top flight, and over three years without feeling the back hand of any one team, up cropped Newcastle at the Reebok. Not even a team that would have sparked any fear amongst the home support. The Whites had kicked off their campaign with a 5-0 thrashing at Leicester and followed it up with two more wins which saw them sit pretty on top of “the greatest league in the world”. What times! However, fortunes soon changed and three draws and two defeats preceded the visit of the Geordie army.
It was a game that courted controversy. Norberto Solano opening the scoring for the visitors on 41 minutes when clearly offside. With an hour on the clock, Bolton keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen foolishly handled just outside the box. Mike Riley took great pleasure in waving his red card high into the autumnal Bolton sky and the game changed quite considerably for the worse. With Steve Banks injured, Bolton had taken the risk of having no keepers’ on the bench, so Danish winger Bo Hansen popped on the gloves. Reminiscent of when John McGinlay did the same against Reading some five years earlier – we’d not chosen the tallest of back-ups. Alas, Bo wasn’t able to recreate that same McGinlay folklore and conceded three times.
Bolton had finally been breached and our first top flight battering was under our belt with many more to come. However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom as seven days later, when all would have expected the very, very worst, a Michael Ricketts second half corker brought three points back from the fortress that was Old Trafford.
11th December 2001 • Tottenham 6-0 Bolton
After disposing of Walsall, Notts Forest and Southampton in the previous rounds, a League Cup quarter-final at White Hart Lane had Bolton fans dreaming of silverware. More so that only eight days before, the Whites had narrowly lost 3-2 at the same ground and had a feel for their opponents. But not for the first or last time, Big Sam decided priorities lay elsewhere and made eight changes to the Bolton side, fielding what many sports writers felt was an ‘under strength’ side. For the supporters it was a tough one to take. Why even bother entering a competition and progressing only to hand the tie to the opposition before a ball is kicked?
For the record it was Les Ferdinand that did the main damage with a first-half ten-minute hat-trick. He along with other star names like Steffen Freund, Darren Anderton, Teddy Sheringham, Gus Poyet and Sergei Rebrov were allowed a stroll in the park.
Oh well, we can now concentrate on the league and F.A. Cup for this season..
23rd December 2001 • Chelsea 5-1 Bolton
A quick deep breath after the Spurs mauling, a 0-0 home draw with Charlton at the Reebok and then back down to the capital for humping number two in less than a fortnight. This was Chelsea’s first treasure heist over the Wanderers that would continue during the next 10 seasons.
Chelsea were awash with more star names, Gallas, Melchiot, Zenden, Haaselbaink, Petit, Zola, etc, etc. They even had a familiar striker up top by the name of Eidur Gudjohnsen, whom they had secured with a paltry £4m transfer from the Whites – a steal many thought.
However, for all their star names, it was our very own super-hero Kevin Nolan who fired Bolton into a third minute lead. Take that! The ‘as it stands’ table would actually have shown Bolton to be just three points behind West London’s finest, not bad, not bad at all.
Cue Eidur to have his say on matters with an equaliser just before the break. 1-1 and all to play for. Not quite, Chelsea had time for one more as the cups of tea were still brewing in the changing rooms as Jimmy Floyd thumped a left-footer into the roof of the net.
45 minutes later and three more crushing goals in our ‘against’ column and it was good night Josephine for the Whites.
Just over two weeks later the reverse fixture at the Reebok witness Bolton get some respect back with a creditable 2-2 draw, coming from behind late on with another Nolan goal.
29th January 2002 • Bolton 0-4 Manchester United
Please, please, please don’t let there be a repeat of Black Sunday, February 1996. Hmmmmm. That wish was granted, but only just.
It was a midweek match that brought 27,000+ out of their centrally heated homes on a cold January evening for a local derby with Bolton’s bitter rivals. United boss Alex Ferguson decided to recall David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Ruud van Nistelrooy to his start XI. Oh goody goody! The league leaders didn’t hang about to start the mauling when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer rattled in his first on the quarter of an hour mark with a tap-in from a Giggs cross. Bolton, winless at home since August and now into double figures of matches since their last Premier League win couldn’t contain United or their Norwegian striker and it was he that chalked up goals number two and three of the night to complete his hat-trick just after the hour mark. RVN completed the rout five minutes from time and no repeat of Bolton’s historic victory at Old Trafford some three months earlier could be repeated.
Let’s just leave this one there.
5th February 2002 • Tottenham 4-0 Bolton
With our league position now looking quite ominous (bottom three) Big Sam decided to repeat our elimination from the domestic cup competitions at the very same stadium as our League Cup demise. So the blue and white ribbons of BWFC would not be adorning the F.A. Cup this season. At the time I was quite vocal about these decisions by our boss. For me the cup has such a magical feel to it and every kid dreams of playing in a final and representing their team. I’m quite sure that dream extends to the players also and 100% to the supporters. I didn’t travel to WHL. I hope those that did got well-oiled as there appeared to be no other point to the trip. Worse still, the original fixture had to be postponed due to a freak downpour and a waterlogged pitch. So the reorganised fixture was now midweek. Proper hardcore if you went!
Bolton whimpered out of the cup and even played the last half an hour with no strikers, as Big Sam opted to bring Michael Ricketts off and save his legs for the league.
Thankfully our next league game saw us finally pick up three points at home to West Ham, so there was some kind of justification for resting players and ‘concentrating on the league’. It’s was one of four wins, three draws in our final 13 matches that somehow saw Bolton survive. Ironically, a home draw with Spurs took the Whites to the Holy Grail of the ‘40 point mark’. Safety secured, Big Sam justified in some quarters.
2002/03 Season
Season number two in the top flight yielded no true batterings. Fulham beat the Wanderers 4-1 on the opening day of season at Craven Cottage whilst Leeds gained revenge by beating the Whites 3-0 at Reebok only four weeks after they had been turned over in a spectacular late show 4-2 at Elland Road with goals from Henrik Pedersen (2), Youri Djorkaeff and Michael Ricketts (pen).
2003/04 Season
16th August 2003 • Manchester United 4-0 Bolton
Bolton started the new season in search of a third consecutive league victory at the Theatre of Dreams. Pah! No such luck. The Whites campaign began with a very pedestrian looking forward line of Henrik Pedersen and Kevin Davies whilst United were able to introduce to English football the raw talent of the unknown Cristiano Ronaldo (as a second half sub). Bolton did hold their own for a full 35 minutes before the floodgates opened. Giggs (2), Scholes and Van Nistelrooy got the goals – but most folk were foaming at the mouth after seeing the trickery of Ronaldo for the first time ever. Shame Banks or Hartle weren’t playing for the Whites, dishing out some gravel rash to the young winger.
26th August 2003 • Portsmouth 4-0 Bolton
Ten days later and Big Sam had addressed the lack of firepower up front by bringing in one of Europe’s most prolific strikers. How Bolton had captured the signing of Mario Jardel ahead of any other top side on the continent baffled belief. Or not so, when he waddled down the touch line at Fratton Park, warming up as a sub. He looked dreadful. The Bolton support (myself included) looked on in disbelief whilst the Pompey fans had a right old giggle and took the piss… rightly so.
As for the match, well, it was a strange one. Half time came and went with the match locked in a goalless stalemate. With Djorkaeff back in the starting XI alongside the likes of Campo, Okocha and N’Gotty, Bolton appeared to have the strength to see out the game against a team they’d feel superior to. By the 63rd minute when Jardel embarrassed us all by waddling off the bench, Steve Stone and Teddy Sheringham had already started the rout. Two more late goals from the aforementioned ex-England striker saw him grab a hat-trick that took Pompey to the top of the table and left us with an awfully long and painful journey back North. Only Wolves below us in the table.
18th October 2003 • Manchester City 6-2 Bolton
Don’t you just hate it when you have friends who support the opposition? I went to the game with a couple of City fans, we went our separate ways to our respective ends and then met up again post-match. I also had a close client messaging me throughout the game. It was a mixture of ridicule from the client and patronising from my mates.
I’d like to say it was an eight-goal thriller. But it wasn’t unless you supported City or were a neutral. Bolton’s post-Pompey humiliation had yielded a run of five league games without defeat, the season was slowly turning. All hope of a extended run was smashed off the park at the City of Manchester Stadium on Bolton’s first visit to the new stadium. Kevin Nolan put the Whites head, City equalised before the break and then all hell broke loose in the second period. City raced into a 4-1 lead, Campo pulled one back and then Shaun Wright-Phillips got sent off with half an hour still to play. This was a huge chance for Bolton to get back into the match and rescue something from the game. Alas, Nicolas Anelka and Claudio Reyna wrapped up the scoring and I was getting “are you on a 6-2 shift this weekend”. Yeah, haha. How very funny!
That was the last of the batterings for 2003/2004 – but major heartbreak was to come in the League Cup final at Cardiff, controversially losing 2-1 to Middlesbrough.
2004/05 Season
We needed Big Sam to tighten us up at the back if we were to make a real go of this Premier League malarkey. He duly obliged as the Wanderers spent the whole season without any spankings.
Tottenham managed to notch four goals in a League Cup tie at the Reebok, but only then after extra time in a 4-3 triumph.
2005/06 Season
15th October 2005 • Chelsea 5-1 Bolton
Two years had passed since the 6-2 loss at City, so it was odds-on we were due a bad day at the office. That came at Stamford Bridge but was shrouded in controversy after a reckless Michael Essien challenge on Tal Ben Haim was only deemed a yellow card. At the time Bolton were 1-0 up through an early Stelios goal and holding their own. Then with 52 minutes on the clock nine minutes of sheer madness occurred with Chelsea scoring four times and Ricardo Gardner being sent off for handball. Eidur Gudjohnsen wrapped up the scoring on 74 minutes and Sam Allardyce was left fuming “Essien should have gone and that decision cost us.”
The Whites did tighten up again and avoided any more humblings, but did suffer a 4-1 loss on New Years Eve at Old Trafford – which had now become a graveyard for the visitors.
2006/07 Season
28th October 2006 • Bolton 0-4 Manchester United
Some four and a half years previous, United had come to the Reebok and whacked Bolton by four goals. History repeated itself in 2006 in a Halloween horror-fest!
The league table pre-match made very pretty reading for all Wanderers fans. Sat comfortably in third spot, only United and Chelsea above and the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool trailing below. The latter team one of the early season scalps at the Reebok as the Wanderers brushed them aside 2-0.
We all expected a close game. What we got was a lesson from a team that was relentless and domineering as ever – a team with a frontline of Rooney, Saha, Giggs and Ronaldo firing on all cylinders. The Portuguese winger grabbed United’s third in the 82nd minute whilst Rooney took the match-ball home after his 89th minute strike secured a hat-trick. All of this after his early brace in the first 16 minutes had virtually wrapped up the match with Bolton mustering barely a squeak.
If Halloween had been ruined, then Bonfire Night was truly shat on as Wigan came to the Reebok for a Premier League game and left with all three points.
Thankfully Christmas and New Year were rescued with a rampant five-match winning run through December. Yeah!!
20th January 2007 • Middlesbrough 5-1 Bolton
The second half of the season was a bit wishy-washy, but yet enough was done to secure European qualification. However Big Sam departed with two matches to go and a cloud hung over the club when it deserved to be celebrating.
Bolton suffered a couple of humiliations in that time, 5-1 at Middlesbrough and 4-1 at Old Trafford as the Reds marched on to another league title.
At the Riverside Stadium Stewart Downing ran Nicky Hunt ragged and the home side raced into a 3-0 lead before Kevin Nolan pulled one back. It turned out to be a mere consolation as Downing then sent ‘Boro into the half-time break 4-1 up. The second half witnessed El Hadji Diouf getting himself sent off for using foul and abusive language and then Mark Viduka grabbing his second of the match to end the scoring.
2007/08 Season
2nd December 2007 • Liverpool 4-0 Bolton
By late November the Whites had won only one league game, been knocked out of the League Cup, drawn away at Bayern Munich in the UEFA Cup and next faced Manchester United in the league at the Reebok. What a rollercoaster it had been under the guidance of new boss Gary Megson. One thing he was able to do that Big Sam didn’t was record a home win over Alex Ferguson’s men, when Nicolas Anelka scored the only goal of the match. A few days later the Whites drew 1-1 with Aris Thessaloniki before a trip to Anfield. In Bolton’s return to the top flight they’d acquitted themselves quite well against Liverpool, with four wins, three draws and just five defeats – plus a League Cup triumph at Anfield (thanks to Mario Jardel of all people!). In all of that time they’d not suffered a battering and with the ship starting to steady after the home victory over United nobody expected the slaughter that entailed in early December 2007.
For the record Rafa Benitez’ side, who went into the match unbeaten in the league, scored twice either side of half-time. However the true match-defining moment came when Bolton’s Nicolas Anelka fluffed a simple tap-in midway through the first period and from then on the game ran away from the Whites. German winger Ryan Babel wrapped up the game with Liverpool’s fourth in the closing stages leaving Bolton languishing in 17th spot.
Maybe some of the team had one eye on their next prize, a trip to Red Star Belgrade a few days later, a match that the Wanderers won 1-0 and progressed to the latter stages of the UEFA Cup.
5th April 2008 • Aston Villa 4-0 Bolton
With just six games remaining, the Whites found themselves cut adrift in the bottom three and destined for the drop. After a sensational 1-0 victory over Atletico Madrid in mid February, the season had all but collapsed, not helped of course by the sale of Anelka to Chelsea in January. Nine games without a win and a very sad exit from the UEFA Cup in Lisbon, next up was a trip to Villa Park against a team higher up the league but also on a poor run. It was a battle of two 80s midfield stalwarts in Martin O’Neill and Gary Megson. Sadly for the Whites, O’Neill was better equipped and saw his side end their slump and smash four goals past Ali Al-Habsi in the Bolton goal. The whole Bolton team was now unrecognisable compared to the star-ridden side of the previous seasons. We were surely doomed!
But then, from nowhere, Megson managed to inspire the team to three wins and two draws in their remaining five matches. Even more sensational was the fact that three of those were away from the Reebok, with points secured at both White Hart Lane and Stamford Bridge. In fact they were virtually safe going into that last game against Chelsea, and by grabbing a point there they actually help deny the Blues from winning the title. Crazy times.
2008/09 Season
No batterings, oh yes! Both Chelsea (4-3) and Aston Villa (4-2) chalked up four goals against the Whites but each was far from a battering. The closest they came to being truly walloped was on visits to Merseyside losing 3–0 at Anfield and Goodison.
Gary Megson somehow steered the Good Ship Wanderer to safety once more with a satisfactory 13th position in the league, some seven points clear of relegation. But the Reebok faithful weren’t happy. The season ended with just one win in the final 11 games. The writing was on the wall for the Ginger Mourinho.
2009/10 Season
28th October 2009 • Chelsea 4-0 Bolton
Quite probably the beginning of the end for Gary Megson started in late October as Chelsea smashed Bolton clean out of the League Cup with a sound battering in West London.
Within 10-11 days, the Whites had suffered back-to-back 4-0, 4–0 and 5-1 losses and the supporters had just about had their fill with Megson, who ironically found it pleasing to be facing Chelsea again a few days later.
"It was a poor performance from minute one. We needed to score the first goal, but we were never going to do that with the way we approached it. I'm pleased to be playing them again on Saturday. We need to put on a performance."
31st October 2009 • Bolton 0-4 Chelsea
Not quite sure what performance Mr. Megson was hoping to put on, but the shit-show he delivered did nothing to quell the discontent amongst the home support. Yes, there were some glimmers of improvement in that the Whites and in particular Jussi Jaaskelainen held Chelsea at bay for the majority of the opening half. But once JLloyd Samuel had been sent off and Frank Lampard had scored the resulting penalty, the game was only ever heading in one direction. Did we expect another 4-0 humping, probably not, but we got one as Deco and Drogba grabbed the goals to complete the rout either side of a Zat Knight own goal.
7th November 2009 • Aston Villa 5-1 Bolton
Some 18 months had past since Bolton’s previous thumping at Villa Park. In that time things had gone somewhat stale at the club. Trailing by two goals, Johan Elmander, the ‘big money’ replacement for Nicolas Anelka pulled one back on the stroke of half-time to give the travelling faithful a slender slice of hope to hang onto during the break. The big Swede really hadn’t hit the ground running at all for the Wanderers and found himself on the bench for the trip to the Midlands. However, he’d have been puzzled to find himself running out onto the field in a tactical switch after only 29 minutes. A switch that clearly didn’t work as Villa ran riot after the break with three more goals, leaving Bolton hanging just one point above the dropzone.
Megson stubbornly continued at the helm for a few more weeks before the board finally agreed with the fans and relieved him of his duties… after four games without defeat!
24th February 2010 • Tottenham 4-0 Bolton
Former Wanderers striker Owen Coyle was now in charge at the club after a relatively successful time with Burnley. However as enthusiastic as he was, he’d struggled to arrest the downward spiral and had only won one league game thus far, ironically against Burnley at a bustling Reebok Stadium. He did however see Bolton move into the 5th round of the F.A. Cup and was unfortunate not to see them progress even further. A home tie with Spurs ended 1-1, with the visitors even missing a second half penalty, though it had to be said that the Whites had dominated for a good hour and probably should have put the tie to bed.
Coyle seemed upbeat about the replay suggesting it wasn’t beyond his team to go there and get the victory. Alas, that’s far from what occurred as Spurs battered Coyle’s men and ended any hope of a return to Wembley and a repeat of his 1995 play-off final success with the Wanderers.
9th March 2010 • Sunderland 4-0 Bolton
Battering number five of the season came at the Stadium of Light against the form book. As bad as Bolton had been against Spurs in that cup replay, they then won the subsequent two league games 1-0 at home to Wolves and 2-1 away to West Ham. Renewed hope had descended on Coyle’s team and they had leapt out of the basement positions and into a more comfortable 13th spot, a few places above the Black Cats.
There’s an all too familiar saying “its the hope that kills you”; a saying that all Bolton fans should have tattooed on their hearts. Many travelling Wanderer’s made the journey up the A1 actually thinking we would get something from the game. But by the time the final whistle sounded it was another dose of “Shitsville” dumped on their doorsteps.
Frazier Campbell started proceedings as early as the 41st SECOND! Whilst Darren Bent helped himself to a hat-trick including a penalty that saw Sam Ricketts given a second yellow card.
27th March 2010 • Bolton 0-4 Manchester United
The Whites bounced back from the disappointment of the Sunderland hammering by inflicting the same 4-0 scoreline on local rival Wigan Athletic. But then 10 days later, in another local derby, that scoreline was reversed as league leaders Manchester United came to town.
It’s fair to say that Coyle’s post-match summary wasn’t far from the truth.
"There was a lot of things we could have done better. The scoreline flatters Manchester United – no doubt about it. We were the architects of our own downfall."
Highlighting the moment in the first half when Bolton let United in with a JLloyd Samuel own goal. The Whites resolve was finally truly broken with just over 20 minutes to go when Dimitar Berbatov scored United’s second before adding a third just nine minutes later. Darron Gibson (who?) grabbed the fourth after good work from ‘Michael Jackson wannabe’ Nani.
Ouch!
2010/11 Season
24th January 2011 • Bolton 0-4 Chelsea
Another great run of avoiding total humiliation finally came to an end in early 2011 at the hands of Chelsea once again. Worst still it was a Monday night match for the TV when Bolton fans paid their tributes to the passing of club legend Nat Lofthouse. A sombre affair started and finished in that darkened mood. For some 13 happens to be an unlucky number, it certainly is for the Whites as Chelsea stretched their unbeaten away record against Bolton to 13 years. Goals from Drogba, Malouda, Anelka and Ramires settled the match, elevating Chelsea to 4th in the league and condemning Bolton to mid-table.
In fairness though, this wasn’t your typical humping, with the Wanderers having more than their fair share of the game but failing to capitalise on chances created.
17th April 2011 • Stoke City 5-0 Bolton
The cup run of 2011 brought much joy to a rather mundane season. Going into the pot for the semi-final draw, the Whites faced stiff competition in both Manchester clubs and the team from the Potteries. A sigh of relief came over everyone when the balls paired Bolton with the latter and a ‘much easier’ route to their first F.A. Cup final in 53 years.
The journey there witnessed victories over York City (2-0) and away at both Wigan (1-0) and Fulham (1-0) before the Wanderers were back on their travels again for the quarter final at St. Andrews. In a pulsating fixture, it was the visiting hordes from Lancashire who celebrated wildly with a hard-fought 3-2 victory. The corks popped and Wembley was firmly in sight.
It’s a hard match to recall and to be honest, I imagine very few want to relive those moments. Nobody expected to get battered. If anything, 8th placed Bolton really fancied themselves against 13th placed Stoke City.
What occurred seemed to be a huge blur. 11 minutes, 17 minutes, 30 minutes. Each and every time Stoke scored their fans got louder and the Wanderers players heads dipped lower. Many didn’t hang around for the second half, whereas I waited for the Stoke 4th before decided the embarrassment was more than I could take (I’d even dragged the future girlfriend along).
Two F.A. Cup semi-finals in my lifetime – both ended in despair. At least this time it was a collective error with regards to the shoddy performance of the team and Owen Coyle’s mismanagement.
Some solace was found in the next encounter between the two sides a few months later as Bolton ran out 5-0 winners at the Reebok, the near perfect revenge.
2011/12
10th September 2011 • Bolton 0-5 Manchester United
The penultimate battering during the Wanderers top flight years came once again at home against the bitter foes from Trafford. The following morning witnessed the whole of America (and the Western world) awaking on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy. Bolton fans were awaking in utter disbelief at yet another punishment from United.
After a triumphant 4-0 victory at Loftus Road on the opening day of the season, the Whites followed this up with a narrow 3-2 home defeat to ‘would be Champions’ Manchester City and then a 3-1 loss at Anfield. No real alarm bells were ringing.
However, the visitors were in no mood for letting up after they had recently disposed of Arsenal by the remarkable scoreline of 8-2 in which Wayne Rooney scored a hat-trick. He was to join the elite Premiership marksman with back-to-back hat-tricks as he went on the rampage at the Reebok, intertwining goals with Javier Hernandez (2).
Whilst the Wanderers did get thumped, Kevin Davies did leave his trademark challenge on the game, Tom Cleverly being the recipient on this occasion and leaving the game early as he crumpled under a heavy challenge, a suspected broken foot being the early diagnosis.
2nd October 2011 • Bolton 1-5 Chelsea
In December 2001, Bolton suffered a 5-1 disaster at Stamford Bridge, just four years later they got smashed by the same scoreline, same team, same venue. So it came to pass that Chelsea would complete this trilogy of 5-1 scorelines against the Wanderers but this time on the Reebok turf.
I remember it well, a Sunday kick-off, I was playing vets football and had a mad rush to get home, showered and up to the stadium in time to meet-up with a couple of lads who had travelled down from Scotland via a trip to Bramall Lane the day before. I was late. Chelsea were already 1-0 up through ex-Wanderer Daniel Sturridge who headed the visitors in front on just 90 seconds. We took our places in the stand and watched a masterclass from the team in blue who raced into a 4-0 lead before half-time.
It was a day of stats. Bolton’s 4th straight home defeat (the also lost their next one to Sunderland). Bolton’s worst start to a campaign in 109 years. Adam Bogdan’s first league start of the season (and what a shocker he had). Another Frank Lampard hat-trick. Bolton’s first goal against Chelsea in nine success defeats.
Even though the season was barely two months old, the writing was firmly on the wall and relegation was almost a certainty.
In May 2012, as Sergio Aguero was bringing the EPL title to Manchester City for the first time in quite unbelievable and highly memorable circumstances, Bolton were struggling to overcome Stoke at the Britannia Stadium and slipped quietly out of the top flight, never to return.
Part 3 returns next time with some more horror stories from 2011 onwards.