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Bolton Wanderers F.C.



First founded by boys and their master from Christ Church Sunday School in 1874. As time went by the president of the church laid down too many rules and the club broke away in 1877. The first meeting of the newly formed Wanderers club was held at the Gladstone Hotel. The record for consecutive goals in FA Cup games is held by one David Jack.

He scored in eight consecutive ties from the 19922-24, totaling ten goals in all. Notable managers for the club have been Tom Rawthorne, J Benley, John Somerville, Wille Settle, Tom Mather, Charles Foweraker, Bill Ridding, Nat Lofthouse, Jimmy Armfield, Ian Greaves, John McGovern, Phil Neal and Bruce Rioch. The top scorer for the club was Nat Lofthouse with 255 goals between 1941-61. He is also the clubs most capped players with 33 for England.

Their home for most of their history was Burnden Park. It finally became too crumbling to be fit for purpose. Bolton also saw it fit in their wisdom to sell off a corner of the ground to a supermarket. It therefore looks a bit of a mess behind one goal with the corner of a supermarket. They moved into the uniquely styled Reebok Stadium in 1997. A world apart from Burnden Park, the design is ultra modern and has won quite a few awards for being one of the top stadiums in the country. Their recent history has been dominated by one man, Sam Allardyce.

Gaining promotion to the Premiership he established Bolton in the top half of the table, and finished 7th in their best season. Their style of play never won over many neutrals, ultra physical, they won by upsetting the flowing football of their opponents. That's not to say they didn't have talent, many great foreign players like Nicolas Anelka, Hermann Hreidarsson, Ivan Campo, and El-Hadji Diouf have graced their ranks. Home grown stars like Kevin Nolan and Kevin Davies have also given the club a good blend of both English and foreign ingredients.

Sammy Lee took over after Sam left, altering their style of play he was sacked within months of taking the job. He was replaced by Gary Megson, who began by returning to Allardyce's system of play with immediate result.

 

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