Bolton Wanderers Football Club
Bolton Wanderers Football Club
Bolton Wanderers Football Club is a professional English football club. The team is also called 'the Trotters', 'the Wanderers' or 'the Whites'. Now it is in the FA Premier League. Their home stadium is Reebok, Bolton. The stadium is named after the club’s sponsor – the company Reebok. The stadium can accommodate more than 28,000 people.
The main manager of the club is Sam Allardyce. Bolton left the 2003-04 season on the eighth place and strengthened his position in the premier League. Now Bolton is on the sixth place in the League hoping to take a place in the Champions' League.
History
The Bolton Wanderers Football Club was founded in 1874 and originally was called the Christ Church FC. They were one of the twelve clubs that started the Football League. Having been in the League since the time of its foundation, Bolton has spent most of the time in the First Division but not outside it. Fans adored such players like Frank Worthington (the player who was scoring fantastic goals over his head and the author of the autobiographical book “One hump or two..”), John McGinlay (who played in the times of Bolton’s revival in 1990 having scored the most important goals in the matches with Liverpool, Wolves and Spurs), Sam Allardyce (the player and a very successful manager) and, of course, the legendary Nat Lofthouse.
Bolton Wanderers hadn’t won a single trophy since 1958 when two goals of Nat Lofthouse helped the club to overplay Manchester United in the finals of the FA Cup in front of one hundred thousand spectators at Wembley. After this the team got closer to winning the main trophy having got to the second place in the League Cup, first in 1995, then in 2004.
At the end of the 1986-87 season Bolton was moved to the Fourth Division for the first time in its history. But the management believed in the manager Phil Neal and under his supervision the team returned to the Third Division from the first attempt. Neal stayed at the power till the summer of 1992, then he was replaced by Bruce Rioch who two years earlier had won two successful transfers into the First Division with Middlesbrough.
Latest years
In the 1992-93 season which the club spent with Rioch, Bolton got the second place in the Second Division and automatically passed to the First Division. Two years later the club reached the finals of the League Cup for the first time but lost to Liverpool with the score 2-1. But a few weeks later they returned to Wembley for the final play-off of the First Division against Reading. In the first half Bolton were losing 2-0 but fifteen minutes before the end of the added time the team scored two goals and won with the score 4-3. Bolton returned to the First Division after a 15-year exile.
Rioch left his post for the post of the main coach in Arsenal. Derby County was appointed the manager and Roy McFarland became his assistant. Bolton spent the 1995-96 season practically at the bottom of the Premier League table and in spite of some new contacts with the players, Bolton fired Roy McFarland and in 1996 Colin Todd took his place. Todd was not able to save the club from returning to the lower league. But soon the team managed to came back to the Premier League with the first attempt thanks to the season when they got 98 points in the league and 100 goals when fighting for entering the First Division in the Championship.
At the end of the 1997-98 season Bolton was transferred to the lower league because of the difference in one goal with two other teams. In 1999 Bolton reached the final play-off of the First Division but lost to Watford. Colin Todd resigned as a manager and soon his position was offered to Sam Allardyce.
The years 1999-2000 were unlucky for Bolton with the new manager. The team lost the semi-finals of the play-off of the First Division and the FA Cup. But in the 2000-01 season Sam Allardyce succeeded having beaten Preston North End with the score 3-0 in the play-off finals of the First Division.
Since that time Bolton Wanderers has kept its right for the Premier league ending on the seventeenth, sixteenth and the eighth places. In the 2003-04 season the club reached the finals of the League Cup but were beaten by Middlesbrough with the score 2-1.
In 2005 Bolton managed to get to the sixth place in the League and was qualified for the UEFA Cup for the first time. Next season the team was on the 32nd place. In the spring of 2007 Allardyce left the club. His assistant Sammy Lee became the new manager of the club. He was able to help Bolton keep their qualification for the UEFA Cup for the 2007-08 season. In October 2007 Lee resigned and his post was given to Gary Megson.
Crest and colors
The home colors of Bolton Wanderers are white T-shirts with navy trim, navy shorts and white socks. The colors for the away uniform are similar to the home kit but the color is a navy blue base with red trimming. Originally, Bolton players were wearing white shirts with navy blue shorts.
The crest of Bolton Wanderers club contains the initials of the club in the shape of a ball, with red and blue ribbons below. At first, the club's badge was the crest of the Bolton town.
Titles
FA Cup (Winners (4): 1923, 1926, 1929, 1958; Runners up (3): 1894, 1904, 1953)
League Cup (Runners up (2): 1995, 2004)
FA Charity Shield (Winners (1) – 1958)
Football League First Division (Champions (1) – 1997)
Football League Second Division (Champions (2) - 1909, 1978)
Football League First Division (Play-Off Winners (2) - 1995, 2001)
Football League Third Division (Champions (1) – 1973)
Football League (Trophy Winners (1) – 1989)
Football League (Trophy Runners up (1) – 1986)
Current squad
1. Aaron Mooy (midfielder)
2. Ádám Bogdán (goal-keeper)
3. Ali Al Habsi (goal-keeper)
4. Andy O'Brien (defender)
5. Chris Basham (defender)
6. Danny Shittu (defender)
7. Danny Ward (forward)
8. Fabrice Muamba (midfielder)
9. Gary Cahill (defender)
10. Gavin McCann (midfielder)
11. Grétar Steinsson(defender)
12. Ivan Klasnić (forward)
13. Jlloyd Samuel (defender)
14. Joey O'Brien (midfielder)
15. Johan Elmander (forward)
16. Jussi Jääskeläinen (goal-keeper)
17. Kevin Davies (captain) (forward)
18. Lee Chung-Yong (midfielder)
19. Mark Davies (midfielder)
20. Matthew Taylor (midfielder)
21. Nicky Hunt (defender)
22. Paul Robinson (defender)
23. Ricardo Gardner (midfielder)
24. Ricardo Vaz Tê (forward)
25. Riga Mustapha (midfielder)
26. Sam Ricketts (defender)
27. Sean Davis (midfielder)
28. Tamir Cohen (midfielder)
29. Zat Knight (defender)
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