Football / Fan's Eye View: Burnden saga of struggle: No 65 Bolton Wanderers

I JOINED in the bacchanalian orgy of joy with the other 4,700 Whites' fans in Highbury's Clock End on that memorable night a month ago. I thought that this must be the outpouring of frustration from the last 30 years. However, many of my fellow fans, ecstatic at our 3-1 FA Cup fourth-round replay victory over the holders Arsenal, were too young even to remember the club's last brief stay in the top flight, let alone the last Cup final win. Was there a collective, almost tribal, memory at work?

I'm both lucky and unlucky to have started going to Burnden Park in the Fifties. I was at Wembley to see the Trotters win the Cup in 1958 against Manchester United, and saw them finish fourth in the top division in 1959. On the other hand, since 1964 I've seen the club suffer their worst-ever playing record.

Although dad took me to my first matches around 1951-52, my memories of the 1953 final against Blackpool are of playing in my aunt's sweet shop while the adults were in the next room watching the game on one of the few television sets in the area. That was perhaps the last time my common sense took precedence over my football passions.

By 1957, I was allowed to attend home games on my own. Rattles were in vogue and the only untoward behaviour by fans was confined to throwing orange peel on to the heads of visiting United supporters from our vantage point underneath the half-time scoreboard on top of the railway embankment. Those were the latter days of Nat Lofthouse, one of the club's most famous players and now the president.

Removal of the maximum wage in the early Sixties led to Bolton's demise, as it did for the other Lancashire town clubs. I can't believe even now that this was inevitable, but the older clubs seemed to be mesmerised.

Relegation in 1964 was followed by one promotion near-miss in 1965 before the rot set in and players such as Francis Lee were sold. In 1971 we were relegated to the Third Division for the first time. Then, the board got lucky.

They appointed Jimmy Armfield as manager - trainee manager really - and the team won promotion at the second attempt. Although Leeds soon attracted Armfield away, he left behind the experienced Ian Greaves. Two promotion near-misses led, in 1978, to the Second Division championship. The average crowd was 23,000. The big time was back.

Frank Worthington, the 'Bandanna Kid', won Europe's 1978-79 Golden Boot award, but the club could finish only 17th, despite the double over United (four priceless Frankie goals) and my invaluable presence at all 42 games. The following season it all went wrong. Worthington was sold and, later, Peter Reid. The training pitches were sold. Then, with the closure of the Bolton-Bury line, most of the railway embankment terrace was sold for a supermarket. The decline culminated in 1987 with relegation to the Fourth Division for the first time - albeit for just one season.

The climb back has been hard, and is not complete. Phil Neal, another trainee manager, brought in some excellent players but seemed unable to motivate the team consistently. The board then went for an experienced manager, Bruce Rioch, 20 months ago and the rest is history.

Last season we had a Cup win at Liverpool, then clinched automatic promotion to the First Division. Now Cup wins at Everton, Arsenal and at home against Villa have earned Bolton their first sixth-round tie (home to Oldham this Saturday) since I got a ticket for the game at Forest in 1959 - when I promptly went down with flu and missed the match. Not least, we have the best Bolton football for 15 years and even outline plans for a new stadium.

Maybe the Fifties song was right after all. All together now: 'I love to go . . .'