Bolton Wanderers Love Yorkshire!

Article by e-Bolton Wanderers Correspondent Alan Houghton

Never mind renaming the stadium, let’s move to Yorkshire; five visits, five wins! There was a party atmosphere for our last away trip of the season as the fancy dress and beach balls appeared. I spotted Ronald Reagan, Woody and Batman.

It was a pleasant drive over a sunny Woodhead. Lunch was at the Waggon and Horses at Langsett, where they specialize in home-made pies to die for. Chicken, leek and onion pie, chips and veg, washed down with a couple of pints of Farmers Ale got the day off to a cracking start. They are also getting ready for the Tour de France, which starts in Yorkshire this year and passes by the pub. We also met some very happy Leicester fans in the pub on their way to Premier League via Huddersfield.

We were on the infamous Leppings Lane end at Hillsborough, which is one of the most uncomfortable away fans facilities around these days. The refreshment area under the stand is too cramped and the tunnels to the seats are very narrow. I would not fancy an emergency evacuation from that end.

Dougie Freedman gave a debut to Oscar Threlkeld at right back and he responded by having a solid game. Later he brought ‘one of our own’ Andy Kellett on and he looked very good.

The Wanderers started in party mood. We were three up inside 30 minutes through Neil Danns, Chung Yong Lee and a 25 yard cracker from Liam Trotter, who just might have won some more fans over with this effort. Joe Mattock pulled one back with an equally good shot before half-time. Every time we attacked, we looked like scoring. Wednesday’s defence was non-existent other than Chris Kirkland in goal, the assistant referee and our own poor finishing, otherwise we would have a cricket score. Jermaine Beckford was having his own personal battle with the assistant referee, which he lost by two offsides to nil. At times our players had too much time and space and they fluffed their lines. Their fans were streaming for the exits well before the end, prompting a chorus of ‘Is there a fire drill?’ from the celebrating Wanderers fans.

It was an end of the season game for two teams who have nothing to play for but for us, it turned out to be a great performance with lots to admire, not least two promising youngsters. Dougie must have done something right as the fans were singing his name, which is something they haven’t done for a long time. It augurs well for next season but that all depends upon what happens during the summer. The late season revival has been led again by loan players, even more so than last season. Who leaves, who joins and who comes through from the Development squad are the questions to be answered.

Next up are Birmingham City for our last match at the Reebok stadium. It is now a vitally important match for Birmingham as they have slipped into the bottom three after their shock home defeat to Leeds United and Blackpool’s surprise win at Wigan Athletic. As for us, we’re changing to the Macron stadium as we have new stadium name sponsors. This is inevitable once you name your stadium after sponsors. What we should have done is to have given the stadium a proper name in the first place and then let the appropriate sponsor’s name prefix it, like they do in cricket, for example the Kier Oval. Teams like Huddersfield are already on their third reincarnation of their stadium name after the McAlpine, Galpharm and now John Smith stadiums. It is an important source of revenue these days but it can be better accommodated. How about the Macron Lofthouse stadium?

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