15 YEARS AGO: Bolton Wanderers’ first major cup final appearance for 37 years ended in Wembley heartbreak for Bruce Rioch’s Whites and their army of supporters.

The Pride of Bolton bowed to the Pride of Anfield in one of the finest ever League Cup finals Steve McManaman showed the class that made him one of England’s most exciting young talents with wonder goals in the 37th and 67th minutes to put Liverpool’s name on the Coca-Cola Cup.

But Wanderers, still just a second-tier club but with a giant-killing reputation — made Roy Evans’ Premiership giants fight all the way.

Alan Thompson’s 69th-minute goal proved merely a consolation for Rioch’s heroes, yet it was hailed one of the finest strikes seen for years at the famous old stadium. And had Thompson not been denied by a superb save by Reds keeper David James when it was still 0-0, who knows what might have happened.

The final brought a sixth League Cup triumph for Liverpool, a fifth winners’ medal for their captain Ian Rush and the man-of-the-match award for McManaman. But it also enhanced the ever-growing reputation of a Bolton team that deserved the rousing send-off they received from both sets of supporters at the end.

There were tears but there was also a determination not to allow the heartbreak derail Wanderers’ drive for promotion.

More than 75,000 spectators paid £2.3million to watch a David and Goliath showdown that might have gone to extra time had an innovative free kick, featuring Thompson and Richard Sneekes, not ended with Alan Stubbs’s long-range shot drifting off target.

But skipper Stubbs summed up the determination in the Burnden camp when he swiftly turned attention to the nine-match run-in, starting at Swindon Town — the team Wanderers had beaten dramatically in the semi-final — and insisted: “That is our biggest game of the season. We’ve been beaten but all the talk in the dressing room was of the promotion push. We are going to have to give it our best shot because we are good enough to be up there in the Premiership.

“Liverpool were really no better than us. Steve McManaman was different class and David James pulled off a world-class save. We had chances and now we’ve got to show some grit and determination to get out of the First Division.”

Rioch was confident his players had the spirit to put the disappointment behind them.

“They are a super bunch with terrific character, great personality and great ability,” he said of his Wembley warriors. “It’s been a great achievement reaching the final and hopefully some of them will be back here again either at club or international level to play at the mecca of football.”

10 YEARS AGO: Rarely in the long and glorious history of Wembley had a losing team left with so much pride.

Bolton Wanderers of the First Division took Premier League Aston Villa to extra-time and then a nail-biting penalty shoot-out before suffering a painful defeat in the semi-final of the FA Cup.

Ten months earlier, Wanderers had made a sad exit under the shadow of the twin towers after losing to Watford in a play-off final that proved a bitter disappointment and just weeks earlier they had bowed in humiliation after a disastrous two-legged Worthington Cup semi-final against Tranmere Rovers.

But this time it was different. As they boarded the team coach, Sam Allardyce’s players knew they had done themselves, the town and the Nationwide League proud in a semi-final in which they were only meant to be making up the numbers.

This time they had been just one kick away from taking a unique place in Wembley history.

Some said it was Wanderers destiny, as winners of the first FA Cup final at Wembley, to appear in the last at the soon-to-be-demolished old stadium.

But on reflection, the way their luck eventually deserted them, it seemed the fates had actually conspired against them.

They were more than a match for their Premiership opponents but one calamitous miss by Dean Holdsworth, just nine minutes from the end of extra time, let Villa off the hook, taking the game into a penalty shootout . . . and the world just came tumbling down.

Holdsworth redeemed himself when he stepped up to beat David James to make it all square after Steve Stone had kicked off the shoot-out, But the Villa keeper saved the next two spot-kicks from Allan Johnston and Michael Johansen and with Lee Hendrie and Gareth Barry tucking theirs away, all that remained was for Dion Dublin to beat Jussi Jaaskelainen to make it 4-1 and take John Gregory’s men through to the final.

Holdsworth’s miss was one of the most glaring ever witnessed at Wembley, but Allardyce refused to let the striker carry the can.

“I don’t attribute any blame to anybody,” the manager said. “If you were going to back anyone you’d have backed Deano, but it wasn’t to be.

“He was a brave man to take the first penalty.”

40 YEARS AGO: Nat Lofthouse prepared to give youth a fling in Wanderers’ final Second Division game of what turned out to be a largely disappointing season.

The Bolton manager had already blooded talented teenage winger Chris Duffey in a scoreless draw in the penultimate fixture at home to Carlisle United, just three days after he had signed professional forms.

Now the spotlight was on another of the rising stars of the Burnden academy, 16-year-old Don McAllister, the former Radcliffe, Prestwich and Whitefield Schoolboys star, who was strongly tipped to make his debut against Norwich.

Off the field, Wanderers were doing their utmost to discover the whereabouts of the heroes of the FA Cup finals of the 1920s and 1950s for a reunion to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the club’s move from Pikes Lane to Burnden Park.

Across the Atlantic the Mexican Football Federation’s preparations to stage the World Cup suffered a blow when two of their star players were expelled from the team’s headquarters after a night out in the holiday resort of Acapulco, which turned into a “wild binge”.

Half-back Gabriel Nunez turned up at the team’s hotel at 6am while forward Ernesto Cisnero hadn’t shown up at all. The rest of the team had to get out of their beds to look for them.

Both players were suspended indefinitely and were told they would not play in the World Cup.

Meanwhile, Sir Stanley Rous, president of FIFA — the ruling body of world soccer — ordered referees to clamp down on indiscipline at the World Cup.

“We realise that referees around the world are, in general, becoming negligent and permitting players to take command of the game,” Sir Stanley said. “Referees will have more power at this World Cup than ever before.”

Bolton United Harrier Ron Hill, the world record holder at 10 miles and European marathon champion, was clocking up 130-miles a week in training as he prepared to defend his Amateur Athletics Association 10-mile track title.