25 years ago

GEORGE Oghani — the striker John McGovern tried desperately to get rid of — was starting to pay his way at Bolton Wanderers, but was also costing the club and the manager a small fortune.

He had already passed the appearance limit that meant the club had to pay Hyde United an extra £2,000 on top of the initial fee that brought him to Burnden Park 15 months earlier, and a string of impressive performances also earned him a pay rise.

But McGovern had to dip into his own pocket to buy Oghani a new suit after the man from Moss Side scored his first hat-trick for Wanderers in a 4-0 victory over Preston.

McGovern was more than happy to pay up as he reflected on events during the summer when he did his best to force Oghani into a £500 transfer to Altrincham — and probably would have done if the PFA had not stepped in to support the player.

All that was forgotten as McGovern willingly stuck to his word and took Oghani to a local tailors to get measured up.

“I told George a few weeks ago that I didn’t think he’d ever score a hat-trick,” the manager revealed after the Burnden derby. “I promised him a new suit and, lo and behold, he scored one.”

Typical of a Scot, though, Montrose-born McGovern joked: “When that third goal went in I was shouting ‘offside!’.

“He’s costing us a fortune. I’ve just had to give him the signed match ball — now I’ll have to look round the sales for his suit. I’ve told George I’ll check out the Oxfam shops to see what they have.”

Oghani was on target again four days later but, hampered for much of the game by an ankle injury, he was unable to prevent Wanderers going down 3-2 at Bristol City — their sixth successive away defeat.

Bury could have done with a finisher like Oghani when they missed a hatful of chances at Blackpool before settling for a scoreless draw.

Manchester United were worried that crowd trouble would mar their UEFA Cup clash with top Dutch side PSV Eindhoven.

They had tried to discourage fans from travelling to Holland but the word was that thousands were heading for the Continent regardless.

The future of Bolton Basketball Club was in doubt after the club failed to agree a takeover bid by the sponsors, Homespare.

The club was in dire financial straits and there were fears it may fold unless they cashed in on their star players Colin McNish.

Leigh’s players responded to speculation that rugby league legend Alex Murphy was set to return as manager of the club he led to Challenge Cup glory in 1971 with a dramatic 33-30 victory over Hull.

Hilton Park chairman Basil Lowe dismissed the Murphy rumours as “pure rubbish” and insisted current coach John Woods had the full support of the players.

“The players want John Woods in charge, the directors want John Woods in charge and, after this win, I the think the fans do as well,” Lowe said.

50 years ago

FINGERS were being crossed at Burnden Park as Nat Lofthouse recovered from an operation to get to the bottom of an ankle injury that had already forced the Bolton Wanderers captain to miss the first two months of the season.

The official word was that the legendary centre-forward should be back in training in 10 days, but the fear was that the injury — suffered in a pre-season practice match — might bring a premature end to the career of the town’s favourite sporting son.

It didn’t help that the Burnden directors were known to be scouring the land for a new centre-forward. Ralph Gubbins was certainly not the answer. The man who understudied Nat so impressively in the semi-final victory over Blackburn that earned Wanderers their place in the 1958 FA Cup final, was sold to Second Division Hull City for an undisclosed fee.

The Burnden management had already had a look at Joe Baker at Hibernian and when it emerged that a Bolton scouting delegation — two directors and manager Bill Ridding — had checked out Rotherham’s Brian Sawyer the speculation intensified.

For now, the team was doing pretty well without their inspirational centre-forward, judging by the 2-0 win at Newcastle where Ray Parry celebrated his inclusion in the England squad for the forthcoming international against Sweden by scoring both goals.

Goalkeeper Eddie Hopkinson was the hero of St James’ Park, though, with a string of impressive saves to frustrate the Geordies.

Over at Gigg Lane, skipper Don Watson scored both goals in a 2-0 victory over QPR that saw Bury leapfrog the Londoners and go top of Division Three with the best defensive record in the land.

Tyldesley mineworker Freddie Norris, a star member of Bolton United Harriers, was clocking up 100 miles a week in training as he prepared to fly to Japan to become the first British runner to compete in the Asahi marathon.

5 years ago

JAY JAY Okocha — never a man to make rash statements — announced with a certain pride and pleasure that Bolton Wanderers had finally arrived as a force in what was arguably the toughest league in the world.

The Whites celebrated their 200th Premier League game with a 2-1 win at Spurs — a result that took them to fourth in the table with 18 points from 10 games — after which which the esteemed African declared: “Now we deserve some respect. We are no longer the old Bolton.”

Radhi Jaidi made up for an earlier miss when he headed Wanderers in front on 11 minutes and, after Robbie Keane had made it 1-1 at half time, Henrik Pedersen — fighting for a new contract — fired home the winner.

The fight for control of Manchester United took another twist when the Old Trafford club cut off negotiations with prospective owner Malcolm Glazer.

The American raised his stake in the club to 28.11 per cent, approaching the 30pc mark which would force him to make a formal takeover offer.

But United told the Stock Exchange that the club’s current structure was better served to maintaining their on-field performance.

Sir Bobby Robson and Sir Trevor Brooking headed the list of football luminaries at Brian Clough’s memorial service.

Clough, who died of stomach cancer at the age of 69, achieved legendary status as manager with Derby County, whom he propelled from obscurity to Football league Championship glory, and Nottingham Forest, with whom he won the league title and successive European Cups.