Part 1 of the Wanderers Project 2015, featuring Jack Dearden and Tom Bevington
As promised, here is Part 1, and with no further ado I’d like to introduce Jack Dearden (@TheJackDearden) who kicks off proceedings with his recollection of the 2000 Play Off Final: Ipswich Town vs Bolton Wanderers. I’m sure many of you are familiar with Jack who is the Wanderers reporter for @BBCRadioManc.
4-40am Thursday 18th May 2000. Dawn breaking wasn’t to far away. The only early morning movement came from the occasional whirring sound of a milk float ( yes people had milk delivered back then ) and it was just about dawning on me how significant the previous night’s events were, as night turned to day . With another Knight – Barry about to play a prominent role in the proceedings.
I was arriving home from Portman Road the morning after the night before.
Wanderers had been beaten in the Play Off semi final by an aggregate score of 7-5 after a titanic struggle with the second leg going to extra time.
Think of an Agatha Christie novel, recall any fictional event, however hard you try you couldn’t have written the script of what happened at Ipswich on the 17th May 2000.
Remember this man’s name, he was the referee Barry Knight. I don’t think he ever refereed another Bolton game.
On an incredible evening he issued 12 Yellow Cards and 2 Reds – all to Bolton players, ( Wanderers ended the game with 9 men ) he awarded 3 penalties – all to Ipswich .
Unsurprisingly the Bolton Boss Big Sam was afterwards fined by the FA for his after match comments regarding the way the game had been refereed.
Big Sam was shaking with rage as he watched on from the touchline his anger and despair becoming more obvious with each minute that passed.
After the first leg had ended 2-all there was everything to play for with a Wembley Play Off Final at stake.
Ipswich had never been ahead at any stage until a Jamie Clapham penalty fired them in from in the 184th minute. ( Well it had t be a penalty didn’t it )
In all my time covering football, be it Wanderers or anyone else for that matter I’ve never witnessed events to match what occurred at Portman Road that night.
Come on be honest, how many games have you seen where the Ref awards 3 penalties – all to the same team, sends 2 players off from the same team and books another 10- again from the same team.
It’s a match which will always remain in my memory, arguably for the wrong reasons but I don’t expect the circumstances to ever be repeated.
Ipswich went on to be promoted whilst Wanderers had to wait until the following season before they joined them.
There isn’t a happy ending from a Wanderers perspective to what happened on an astonishing , bizarre evening in May 2000, but with great irony a couple of seasons later Bolton beat Ipswich 4-1, at what was then the Reebok Stadium, a result which effectively relegated the Suffolk side.
So stick that in your Tractor and smoke it!
Next up is Tom Bevington who writes about the 2004 Carling Cup Final: Bolton Wanderers vs Middlesborough. Tom has been a contributor to Vital Bolton for a number of months.
The date was February 29 2004, a special day at an important time in my life, I was just two months away from my 6th birthday. Nevertheless, I was able to take some time out of my busy schedule to watch my first ever football match. It wasn`t a bad one either, it was the Carling Cup Final, at the Millennium Stadium. Our opponent was of course, Middlesbrough.
My memories of the day are faded, naturally. The weeks leading up to the match were full of excitement. Watching us put five past Villa in the semi-final first leg was pure ecstasy. Jay Jay Okocha scored two unbelievable free kicks. Sat in the living room with my family watching the semi final was the perfect appetiser before the final. The enjoyment of that day, was a stark contrast to the shaky nervous 2nd leg. We thought the tie was all wrapped up, but it was a nervous 90 minutes at Villa Park as Villa came within a goal of stealing the tie on away goals.
Then came cup final day. I can remember being sat on a coach on the way to the game, I can`t remember why as I only lived an hour away from the stadium. Banter was flowing, the usual pre cup final antics, and everyone was full of excitement. The bus was full of Wanderers and Boro fans, both trying to sing louder than the other. I sat there quietly, looking around at unfamiliar faces, nervous and full of anticipation. I still can`t work out why both sets of fans were sat on the same bus, but there was a good nature about the whole thing.
The game started and immediately I had realised the struggle of being 3 feet tall at a football match, especially at a cup final. Every break away, every half chance it seemed, everyone would rise to their feet in anticipation, leaving me looking at a fat man`s arse.
Ten minutes in I felt the very same feeling I had on Saturday, it`s as if you can literally feel your heart sink. Two goals down and we hadn’t reached double digits on the clock, the game was over. We`d gone 1-0 down within two minutes, but five minutes later we`d conceded a fairly blatant penalty to worsen the blow. It was just our luck that it had to happen this way (unfortunately for me I had a similarly heartbreaking experience against Stoke City at Wembley watching the FA Cup semi final in 2012). A shocking fumble into the back of the Boro net from Mark Schwarzer after a toe poke from SKD wasn`t enough for us. This was about as bad as it gets for a five year old boy. No doubt tears were shed on my behalf.
The memory itself is not vivid, but those few weeks perfectly encapsulated everything that it is to be a football fan. The thrill of the semi final first leg, followed by the nervous scratchy performance in the second leg, the relief at the final whistle, and the gut wrenching disappointment in the final. The match ended before it had even began, then give us a glimmer of hope that never materialised.
It set me up perfectly for the rest of my life as a Bolton fan, if I only I`d been able to appreciate how amazing it was, being able to see my team in a cup final, as well the great couple of Premier League years we had after that. It was certainly a damn sight better to be a Bolton fan then than it is nowadays.