GORDON Sharrock called time on a 45-year career in journalism last week, which included 30 consecutive seasons covering the highs and the lows at Bolton Wanderers.

In a special feature, we look back at his top 11 moments, from his first-ever game at Burnden Park in 1979 to matching the mighty Bayern Munich in his final campaign in the job.

11. FRANK WORTHINGTON AND ‘THE GOAL’

“It was my first running report in The Buff and you looked at that and thought ‘it can’t get any better than that’ even though they didn’t win the game.

“Frank was only at the club briefly. I got him at the back end of one season and the beginning of another, then he left. But we always kept in touch.

“He was such a great character, coming into the ground with his white suits, and he’d always tell you tales about when he was in the England squad and the great players he’d played with.

“He was everything you’d think he is. He was that character.

“It was sad when he went and it was obviously something Bolton fans weren’t happy about because he was their darling.

“I think Ian Greaves had got everything he could out of him, and the club needed some money.

“That whole team were broken apart and they were all loyal to Greaves. When he got sacked they were bottom of the table but he’d signed Dave Clement, Len Cantello and Neil McNab – spent about £750,000 – to get them from just established in the top flight to try and push them on.

“He got some back on McNab but they didn’t get a penny back on Cantello and Clement. God bless him, Greaves admitted it wasn’t a good signing.

“It might have been different had they let him have a go at taking them back up but after the sacked him they couldn’t cope with the wage bill.

10. THE TOPSHAM FISHERMAN

“It was 1983 and Bolton were about to play Exeter City and Plymouth Argyle down there, fairly close together.

“Charlie Wright was assistant manager, and a goalkeeper, Simon Farnworth was the Wanderers number one, and we arranged to get a photographer to get them together with Dick Pym.

“He is the legend, for me, three FA Cups and didn’t concede a goal.

“I saw on Wikipedia that when he died at 95 he was the oldest ex-England international footballer.

“He was a great bloke and always very carefully looked after by his daughter, who always used to make sure he slept in the afternoon.

“I think he was 90 when I met him in 1983 and he was as sharp as a tack. It was great watching him talking to Farnworth and Wright, a bit like the goalkeepers’ union.

The Bolton News: INTERVIEW: Gordon meets Wanderers legend Dick Pym

9. ADDING A SPARK

“He wasn’t part of a great team, and it was a hard time to cover Bolton Wanderers but Tony Caldwell stands out for me as one of the players I won’t forget.

“Tony was part time, he was working as an electrician, he hadn’t signed a contract when they picked him up from Horwich RMI.

“Then all of a sudden he banged in five goals in a game against Walsall.

“When Bolton went for the reverse fixture I remember Charlie Wright, who was assistant then, and John McGovern going absolutely ballistic.

“You used to get warm-up balls from the home club and I think Alan Buckley had seen these old fashioned medicine balls and just said ‘give them to Bolton.’

“So in the warm-up the lads are trying to kick round these big leather things that wouldn’t have been out of place in the 1950s.

“McGovern was going mad about the lack of hospitality and a lack of respect just because they had spanked them at Burnden Park.

“Caldwell was awesome, even though he never managed to do it anywhere else.”

The Bolton News: STANDOUT PLAYER: Tony Caldwell with Gordon Sharrock

8. BIG DAY OUT

“After everything that had gone on in the 1980s at Bolton Wanderers, going to Wembley for the Sherpa Van Trophy was special.

“It had been dire, no two ways about it. When people say ‘I was there on that wet Tuesday night at Darlington’ very few of them actually were.

“If every Bolton fan who claimed they were there in those days actually were, we’d be seeing 10,000 crowds instead of 2,000.

“Hardly anyone followed them and they were awful times.

“Then suddenly Phil Neal came along and as much as he got slaughtered by Bolton fans, he did a great job. He took them down into the fourth initially but then straight back up and challenging for promotion.

“They lost to Tranmere in the play-offs but when the Sherpa Van Trophy came along you suddenly realised this team had characters.

“Phil Brown – he was unbelievable. You suddenly had a chance to hang your hat on somebody.

“People don’t realise that Phil Neal signed Andy Walker. Where would the White Hot era have been if he wasn’t at the club?”

7. ENTER BRUCE RIOCH

“White Hot speaks for itself – everything took off from there.

“But what people might not know is that I had a minor part in David Lee coming up here.

“Rioch wanted us to talk him up in the local paper and make sure there was an appetite to sign him, to put a bit of pressure on.

“We probably didn’t need to – his performances on loan had done enough – but whether that was Bruce using psychology with me, making me feel more important, I don’t know.

“But I certainly didn’t think I was compromising myself because you could see he was such a great player.

“Liverpool was a magnificent night. Lots of people would say it never got better than that, and it was definitely a pleasure to report on that time because you knew Bruce was taking the club places.

The Bolton News: WHITE HOT: John McGinlay, David Lee and Andy Walker celebrate after the historic victory against Liverpool

6. THE SAVE THAT WON PROMOTION

“Keith Branagan – what a guy. It was 2-0 against Reading, they were playing like the proverbial bag, and getting a right run-around. Even allowing for the quality in that team they weren’t coming back from three down.

“Branagan pulled off that brilliant save and it gave them a platform to make the comeback. Bruce switched things round at half time and that just set them into a completely different era.

“But for that, they would have been a cup giant-killing team. They deserved to get to the Premier League – but ironically it actually cost them Bruce.

“They were a victim of his success. He saw his contract out, three years, honourable to the last.

“They lost him to Arsenal – in those days the Manchester United in the south. Unfortunately it never worked out for him.

“If any Bolton fan ever asked why he left Bolton to go to Arsenal when he had such a good thing going, I tell them this: He came back to collect an award at the North West Football Writers’ Association and drove there and back in one night, rather than accept our invitation to stay over.

“He said ‘I’ve got to get back because I’ve got important fitness tests tomorrow with Denis Bergkamp and David Platt.

“It was a case of ‘fair enough Bruce’ and as he walked away he gave us a little grin.

5. READ ALL ABOUT IT

“There’s no greater feeling as a journalist than getting a story that gets the whole town talking.

“Being able to break the story that Arsenal were appointing Bruce – not just that we’d lost a manager, but telling the whole country he was going to Highbury, was in our paper before anyone else.

“I remember one commercial manager at the club being upset with me that a story that he wanted us to use as our back page lead one day that Bolton were going to be playing Inter Milan in a friendly was relegated to the second lead by our exclusive that Gary Speed has signed for Bolton.

“He didn’t understand why – and chastised his media officer.

“Toddy’s resignation, Sam’s resignation, the first interview with Sam after he left, we broke those stories. But the kicker to it all was not that they wanted to talk with me, I didn’t matter, it was that they wanted to talk directly to the fans. They wanted to get that message across.

“I just knew them and was a conduit.

4. A MATTER OF CONVENIENCE

“After we’d lost to Watford at Wembley Colin Todd did his regular press conference and to coin a phrase, he was gutted.

“He did all the usual ‘we need to bounce back’ but after that he pulled me to one side and we went for a walk round the inside of Wembley.

“It turns out he was desperate for the loo, so we found an old changing room tucked away somewhere.

“We stood in this little room and he told me what the significance of that defeat would be. He was under such financial pressure that he would have to sell all his best players.

“He said nobody knew what the situation was – so the next day that was our exclusive, the likes of Mark Fish, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Per Frandsen, would be leaving.

“Eventually when Frandsen went, Toddy quit, and that was a low-light, high-light for me because it was a great team.

3. DESTINATION EUROPE

“That first game against Lokomotiv Plovdiv was the one that stands out for me, and I’d always have a chuckle at Sam calling them “Plob dob.”

“The press pack were based near Sunny Beach, so were all the fans, the sun was shining and you just couldn’t have dreamt that this was happening to Bolton Wanderers.

“Everything that happened in Europe after that was great. I think we got results against three European champions in the space of a few weeks at one point under Megson – United at home, then Bayern, then Red Star Belgrade.

“That was great but it was more routine than anything else – the first game in Bulgaria was special.

The Bolton News: SPECIAL: Wanderers celebrate El-Hadji Diouf's goal at Lokomotiv Plovdiv

2. MAKING A SPLASH

“That season under Toddy, 100 goals, and winning the title at Manchester City was just incredible to witness.

“They were already promoted but they won the championship at Maine Road and Toddy dragged me into the dressing room afterwards to do interviews, which was most unusual.

“I think I was speaking with Gudni Bergsson but without me realising I had become a victim to a well-rehearsed routine.

“John McGinlay and Nathan Blake had dived in the bath and Gudni was ever-so-slowly manoeuvring me towards the open door of the bathroom.

“All of a sudden I’m doing the interview and this tidal wave of water come flying over my head. Without being dragged into the bath I couldn’t have been any wetter.

“That was a really special team and they’d blitzed absolutely everything in front of them that season.

1. DRIVING ME MAD

“We were in Indianapolis for a two-week trip but it turned out to be a nightmare for Sam, who’d picked up injuries left, right and centre. It wasn’t a particularly well-organised tour and the training facilities were awful.

“I was with the team at that time, but it wasn’t a regular thing.

“I was due to a big interview Sam for our pre-season supplement but he came down to breakfast one morning and said he couldn’t do it, he was going back home to sign some players.

“He had a casualty list like Neil Lennon has got now, and he said if he didn’t sign some players he’d be goosed. And that was the season they went up into the Premier League.

“He agreed to do a short interview while we were eating but then he put his hand in his pocket and said ‘oh by the way, you’re driving the bus.’

“He said no-one else had driven in the US before. They weren’t big coaches, more mini-bus type things, and they had two of them.

“So for a week I drove the team to and from training. In the last game against the US Under-23 game I ended up driving with a police escort.

“The fans who travel everywhere couldn’t believe their eyes when the coach pulls up and muggins here is behind the wheel.”