Local Rivalry Turned Upside down
For Bolton Wanderers fans the world of local rivalry is at an unusual and hopefully quite short phase in history.
Fixture lists that contain derbies against Fleetwood, Accrington and Morecambe tell their own story. Just 10 years ago that would have been unthinkable and before then virtually impossible because none of the sides in question were in the football league. Derbies against Rochdale, Oldham, Stockport and Bury were what we’d have associated with hopefully brief spells in lower league football.
United, Liverpool, City and Everton and have since the 1960s generally been out of our range in terms of rivalry. It’s been great to be in the same division and knock them down a peg or two and there were some great results recorded between 2001 and 2012 in that long, incredible Premier League stretch.
In truth though our “stock” derby matches are Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley and Preston. Wigan continue to defy gravity and therefore have to come in to that equation. Hopefully that won’t last forever. It is galling to see all five of them one division above us but it is also a factor that should rein in our impatience to get ourselves out of League One.
Any time in history when Bolton have been in that third tier there’s rightly been a feeling that we’re below where we should be and that the club and town deserves better. In previous spells in the early 1970s, 1980s/early 1990s we’ve generally had the company of one of those five clubs. It’s unique for them all to be a division above us and instinctively we want to get promoted, get stuck in to them and show them who’s boss around here.
“Next time we see Bolton Wanderers v Burnley, visit Ewood or have to play tinpot Wigan we want to be doing it on even terms with a good chance of putting one over on them.”
Is there any point in us doing that until we are ready for Championship football? If we get there too soon we know that league well enough to be sure it will chew us up and spit us out. In the process we’ll sustain nasty results against those five Lancastrian clubs. You could imagine that happening by finishing sixth this season and then winning the play-offs before ending up back on our arses in League One a year on.
Ian Evatt and the board want us to build our success sustainably. That means it’s not going to come overnight. As such we’re going to have to be patient. Next time we see Bolton Wanderers v Burnley, visit Ewood or have to play tinpot Wigan we want to be doing it on even terms with a good chance of putting one over on them. None of us fancy watching gleeful Blackpool fans celebrating a win over the hated Bolton at Bloomfield Road and Preston’s recent consecutive wins on our home patch became a bit wearing.
How long will it take for the world to begin to turn on a more familiar axis? If we don’t get promoted this season it’s not impossible that we’ll find we’ve got company in tier three next season. Blackpool and Wigan are the likeliest candidates to find themselves in relegation trouble although there are currently likelier candidates for the drop.
For now let’s hope we can effortlessly put away Fleetwood and Accrington having already beaten Morecambe this season. They’re not conversations we ever thought we’d be having and hopefully we won’t be having them for too many more years. But it’s the here and now.