45 Years Ago

BOLTON Wanderers manager Bill Ridding welcomed Football League plans to introduce bonus points for goals in the 1965-66 season.

It would come too late to affect Wanderers’ bid to bounce back into the First Division but, as Ridding pointed out, had it been in operation in the current season, the Whites would have qualified for 18 bonus points, which would have put them second in the table instead of fourth, and hot favourites for promotion.

Ridding was not a fan of another proposal to introduce substitutes but he came out very much in favour of the bonus points plan that was designed to combat the rising tide of negative tactics and had been placed on the agenda for the League Management Committee’s summer summit.

“A goals bonus could kill negative, defensive play and stimulate more public interest,” the Wanderers boss said.

Football was undergoing something of a revolution in the Sixties when, at times, there was as much attention being paid to events off the field as on it — as when the players union, the Professional Footballers Association, threatened to ban television coverage of the FA Cup semi-finals and finals.

The FA caused the rumpus when they decided not to pay the customary £5,000 from their annual television fees into the Players Accident Fund. Consequently the players threatened to ban cameras from the big FA Cup games, but when FA chairman Joe Mears realised they meant business, he backed down.

Red was definitely the colour for Liverpool when they booked their place in the semi-finals of the European Cup — on the toss of a disc.

After five hours of football the quarter-final between Bill Shankly’s Anfield heroes and German champions Cologne ended in stalemate, 2-2 following extra-time in their replay in Rotterdam. So it was left to Belgian referee Shaut to decide who went through to meet the holders Inter Milan.

Players did not dare watch as the disc was tossed but when it came down red for Liverpool, trepidation gave way to jubilation.

But it was a rather subdued Shankly who remarked: “Naturally we are happy to qualify but I would have preferred the match to have been decided on the number of corners rather than toss for it.

“Then we would have won too, but that would have been more satisfactory.”

The kick-off time for Preston’s Second Division match against Huddersfield was put back from 3pm to 7.30pm, to avoid a clash with the town’s annual Egg Rolling Festival.

Wally Tallis — the 6ft 4ins Australian full-back — left Hilton Park to a standing ovation after clinching a dramatic 6-5 victory for Leigh over Leeds with his first ever points for the club.

Tallis produced some valiant defending to frustrate the Leeds attack and put the gloss on a sensational performance in the closing minutes when Leigh skipper Bev Risman, who had landed only two of six goal attempts, let the new man take the decisive penalty. It was a beauty — a 40-yarder that went hard, low and straight between the uprights.

30 Years Ago

STAN Anderson’s Wanderers were virtually resigned to relegation from the First Division but were still capable of ruffling a few feathers, as they showed when they beat Spurs 2-1 at Burnden Park.

Young striker Mike Carter, promoted from the reserves, put Wanderers on their way with a wonder goal on 25 minutes, corkscrewing his way round a succession of defenders before slipping a shot past Spurs keeper Barry Daines. Neil Whatmore scored his 13th goal of the season to double Wanderers’ lead on 65 minutes and, although Chris Jones pulled one back four minutes later with a header from Glenn Hoddle’s cross, Spurs never really threatened to spoil the party.

It was Wanderers third win in a month and Carter’s third goal in five days — the perfect response to Anderson’s advice to the young number nine that he would never score goals if he played “with his back to the goal”.

“He was playing like a target man,” the Wanderers boss said of his protege. “We made him turn round and go straight at defenders and now he looks like scoring every time he gets the ball.”

United won the 100th Manchester derby with a goal that should have been credited against City’s Tony Henry, who deflected Mickey Thomas’s shot past keeper Joe Corrigan.

But Henry’s blushes were saved when official reports gave Thomas the goal. Not that it made any difference to City boss Malcolm Allison, whose job was on the line after a run of 14 games without a win as he turned his attention to the forthcoming crunch clash with Wanderers at Maine Road.

It was announced before the Old Trafford derby that Martin Edwards had been appointed United chairman in succession to his father, Louis, who died of a heart attack a month earlier.

Bolton Harrier Steve Kenyon ran himself into pole position to represent Great Britain at the Moscow Olympics when he outclassed a star-studded international field to win the Swintex 25km road race on home soil.

20 Years Ago

WANDERERS experienced that sinking feeling as they lost ground in the Third Division promotion race with a 1-0 home defeat by Brentford.

But they got no sympathy from manager, Phil Neal, who read the riot act on Monday morning.

“There’s a cold vaccuum in the dressing room and I plan to find out why,” the manager said in threatening tones. ‘I’ll change things — even if I have to turn some kids out.”

Neal refused to point fingers at individuals but implied criticism of Steve Thompson and Paul Comstive, who were replaced in a double substitution when he moaned: “Winning a tackle in midfield wouldn’t have gone amiss.”

Former Swansea defender Alan Knill, now manager at Gigg Lane, could not conceal his delight after helping Bury to a 1-0 win at the Vetch Field that propelled the Shakers back into the Third Division promotion race.

“We’ve got a very good chance of a play-off spot and we are certainly good enough to stay in the running,” Knill said after David Lee’s first-half goal took the Gigg Lane side up to sixth, level on points with Wanderers.

Manchester United were grateful for a couple of goalkeeping errors at Southampton where they recorded only their third win in four months.

Goals from Colin Gibson — a speculative 25-yard shot that embarrassed Saints keeper Ian Andrews — and Mark Robins, who knocked in the rebound after Andrews had spilled Neil Webb’s shot, eased the Reds’ relegation fears.

Graham Gooch’s inexperienced England side were giving the West Indies a serious run for their money in the Caribbean, where they won the first Test.

Ian Botham missed the series as he recovered from a long-lasting back problem but, on a speaking tour of the Gulf, he made it clear his absence was only temporary.

“I’m fit and my back injury has now completely healed,” Botham said, “I’m raring to go. I’m determined to regain my England place.”