Wanderers 3, Stoke City 2
11:51am Friday 30th December 2005
THE long-awaited advent of Sunday soccer may have sent Lord's Day Observance Society campaigners reaching for their marker pens and placards, but it was welcomed with open arms by the fans in Bolton.
Within hours of the Sunday ban being lifted, nearly 40,000 of them Bolton's average gate in 1973-74 was 15,000 queued to get into Burnden Park for the FA Cup third round tie against Stoke City on January 6, 1974. It was played at a time of a power cuts and a three-day working week. Because of restrictions under the Sunday Observance Act no charge could be made for admission so supporters paid either 40p or 60p for match programmes to get them through the turnstiles.
Although playing in a withdrawn striker's role, John Byrom, a £25,000 buy from his hometown club Blackburn Rovers in 1966, was always the man Bolton depended on for goals. And although they were generally in short supply that season, Byrom had a commendable strike rate of 10 from 16 starts.
He was aware of all the fuss going on around the game, but said he was only ever interested in what happened on the pitch. And it wasn't long before he made his mark.
After 23 minutes on-loan Liverpool and England winger Peter Thompson troubled the Stoke defence yet again, setting up Garry Jones to cross. Paul Jones headed down and Byrom had a simple task to finish it. Another chance fell the striker's way before the interval as Bolton dominated.
During the break, Stoke substituted former World Cup hero Geoff Hurst who knew a thing or two about scoring hat-tricks. He had been a doubt with flu.
Just 90 seconds after the re-start Byrom scored what Stoke manager Tony Waddington described later as "the killer goal". Alan Waldron, Garry Jones and youngster Neil Whatmore were all involved before the blond striker wriggled between two defenders to beat goalie John Farmer.
There was little threat from Stoke, although an Eric Skeels' snapshot against the bar reminded Bolton to be on their guard.
While Byrom's second may have been the "killer" goal, his third a 62nd minute drive from the edge of the penalty area was to be the winner. John Ritchie hit back two minutes later and a Sean Haslegrave penalty gave Bolton five anxious minutes to survive at the end.
Byrom, never slow off the mark when it came to celebrating, was one of the first in the bar afterwards. He recalls: "When the final whistle went John Mahoney, who was at Blackburn as a junior when I was there, said well done'. He said that Stoke had been looking for a striker but that he had told scout George Eastham not to bother with me because I was too fat. I can tell you I had a bit of fun with George and Gordon Banks in the bar afterwards."
Byrom, now 60, grabbed the match ball and got it signed by his team mates.
"Years later I donated it to the Wanderers for their museum but it never got in there. I don't know what happened to it, but if it is still out there I would like to know. After all, the ball that was used in the first ever Sunday game should be a collector's item. If not, then perhaps it could be raffled for charity."
Bolton went to Southampton in the fourth round and two more goals from Byrom earned them a 3-3 draw, before losing 2-0 in the replay. A Kevin Keegan-inspired Liverpool beat Newcastle 3-0 to win the cup while Bolton struggled to mid-table in Division Two.
"Cheeky Chappie" Byrom, something of a cult figure at Bolton in the 1970s, went on to play 296 league games for the Wanderers, scoring 113 goals to add to the 45 he had scored in 106 games at Blackburn.
He briefly returned to Blackburn in 1976 when Bolton released him. These days he lives at Chaigley, near Clitheroe.
WANDERERS: SIddall, Ritson, Nicholson, Rimmer, P. Jones, Waldron, Byrom, G. Jones, Greaves, Whatmore, Thomson. Sub: Lee for Rimmer.
STOKE: Farmer, Dodd, Pejic, Skeels, Smith, Bloor, Robertson, Greenhoff, Ritchie, Hurst, Mahoney. Sub: Haslegrave for Hurst.