45 Years Ago

FOUR days after producing one of his most impressive performances in a white shirt to help Bolton Wanderers beat promotion rivals Norwich City 5-2 at Burnden Park, Wyn Davies picked up an injury that put a serious dent in the club’s chances of bouncing back into the First Division.

Davies chipped a bone in his right foot in a 4-0 defeat at Northampton that took the Cobblers to the top of the Second Division.

It was a hard pill for Bolton manager Bill Ridding to swallow — especially since Wanderers had controlled 75 per cent of the game, forced 20 corners and missed four cast-iron scoring chances, including a penalty.

A disconsolate Ridding faced the prospect of Davies, the in-form Wales international centre-forward, missing at least half of Wanderers remaining fixtures and admitted: “It is a body blow to our promotion chances.”

Over at Old Trafford, Bill Foulkes was preparing to make his 500th appearance for Manchester United in an FA Cup quarter-final at Wolves.

Raised in the mining community of Thatto Heath — the birthplace of rugby league legends Alex Murphy, Walt Tabern and Austin Rhodes and himself the grandson of a Warrington and St Helens full-back — Foulkes was earmarked for a career in the 13-a-side code until he was spotted by a United scout playing centre-half for Whiston Boys Club.

A colliery worker, Foulkes was literally hauled from underground to make his league debut for United in 1949 and went on to play for England and become Mr Consistency at Old Trafford, helping Matt Busby’s team win two League Championships and the FA Cup.

Wigan took the honours in front of a 40,000 crowd at Central Park where they beat arch-rivals St Helens 7-2 to reach the last eight of the RL Challenge Cup.

Olympic swimming star Dawn Fraser vowed to clear her name after being banned for 10 years — effectively ending her career in the pool — by the Australian Swimming Union.

The ASU refused to explain why Fraser and two other members of the Australian Olympic team had been handed such harsh penalties — the two others received three-year bans — but Fraser claimed all she had done wrong at the Tokyo Games the previous summer was to march in the opening ceremony (against ASU instructions) and wear the wrong swim suit, because the official one was uncomfortable “That’s all I did in Tokyo — that’s on my God’s honour,” she said. “I’m going to fight this sentence. I won’t let them slander my name without explanation.”

30 Years Ago

NEIL Whatmore poached the goal as Stan Anderson kicked off his reign as permanent manager of Bolton Wanderers with a 1-0 victory over European Champions Nottingham Forest.

It was only Wanderers’ second league win of a nightmare season in Division One and ended a miserable winless streak going back six months.

Nevertheless, Burnden Park hailed Anderson’s remodelled team — captained by the fit-again Peter Reid — while the manager paid a personal tribute to the fans, whose vocal backing he claimed had helped the players stand firm under intense late pressure from Brian Clough’s side.

“They sensed we were up against it towards the end and they gave the players a tremendous lift just when they needed it,” Anderson said.

Despite the win, Wanderers were still resigned to relegation and to losing some of the players who had been key to the club’s success under previous manager Ian Greaves.

Long-serving midfielder and former captain Roy Greaves had been released from his contract to take up an offer to play for Seattle Sounders in the United States, while Reid, Willie Morgan and Sam Allardyce were also heading for the exit door.

There was also intense speculation that Paul Jones and Len Cantello would be on their way and, as if that wasn’t enough to contend with, goalkeeper Jim McDonagh handed in an official transfer request, explaining that he wanted to continue playing at the top level.

Former Wanderers captain John Ritson — then at Bury — was embroiled in a major row with the Shakers hierarchy after refusing to play in a Third Division fixture at Wimbledon.

Riston, who was given two week’s notice that he would be sacked for breach of contract, admitted he was wrong to refuse to play the game for the Gigg Lane club but, as he lodged an appeal against his sacking, he launched a withering attack on beleaguered manager Dave Connor.

“I have nothing against Bury but I am not going to play for a manager who branded me a cheat after the game against Mansfield on Saturday,” he said.

“In 17 years as a professional footballer I’ve never been accused of being a cheat and I don’t like it.”

Britain’s potential Olympic athletes, meanwhile, dealt a blow to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s hopes of a boycott of the Moscow Games.

Out of 11 athletes contacted by the International Athletes Club, 77 signed a letter affirming their right to take part.

20 Years Ago

PHIL Neal was seething after his promotion-chasing Wanderers contributed to their own downfall when they lost 2-0 at Reading.

Beaten just once in their previous 10 league games, they had a chance to reduce the gap on Division Two leaders Bristol City to four points but produced an ill-disciplined performance at Elm Park.

“They’ve let themselves down and let the supporters down and it’s only right for me to say I will not tolerate that kind of performance again,” said a furious Neal after the final whistle.

One casualty of the Reading defeat was captain Phil Brown who faced a one-match ban after a booking for dissent took him over 21 disciplinary points.

Football was in a right tizz over Gary Crosby’s controversial goal against Manchester City.

The Nottingham Forest player crept up behind City keeper Andy Dibble and cheekily headed the ball out of his hand before knocking the ball into the net.

City manager Howard Kendall protested, but the FA said Crosby broke none of the rules of the game.

Former Wanderers boss John McGovern returned to football management when he took charge of GM Vauxhall Conference club Chorley, where he stepped up from assistant to succeed Ken Wright, who resigned at Victory Park.