45 years ago

MANCHESTER City’s directors were hoping to give their supporters a couple of extra Christmas presents – but were told to go shopping elsewhere by Bolton Wanderers and Bury.

City – £50,000 in the red but desperate to win promotion back to the First Division – were said to be planning a £100,000 swoop for Wanderers’ Wales international centre forward Wyn Davies and Bury’s highly-rated 19-year-old inside forward Colin Bell.

However, the widespread reports were contemptuously dismissed at Burnden Park and Gigg Lane.

Wanderers chairman, Ted Gerrard, said: “Despite the headlines we want to make it perfectly clear that our centre forward, Wyn Davies, is not for transfer.

“Furthermore we have had no intimation whatsover from Manchester City regarding Davies. We must regret that news of this kind is published as it causes unnecessary concern both to the club and the players.”

Bury chairman Bill Allen was equally scathing as he rubbished the speculation.

“So far as Bury are concerned, Bell will never wear Manchester City colours,” the Shakers chief insisted. “Had City been interested they would have phoned me and asked us if we were prepared to release the player and how much we wanted for him. They have not done that.”

Bury knew they would come under pressure to cash in on Bell sooner or later, but Mr Allen said this was not the time.

“Everyone is watching Colin Bell. He is the best 19-year-old player in the country. We don’t mind people watching him, but under no circumstances will he be made available to Manchester City. They could not afford him.”

The transfer speculation did little to improve the mood at Burnden and Gigg with both clubs going into Christmas on the back of morale-denting defeats.

Wanderers lost 1-0 at home to Derby County – part-timer John Bower scoring the Rams’ match-winner in the 89th minute of a game that was played in heavy mud.

And, despite the efforts of the aforementioned Bell, Bury went down 4-0 at Birmingham.

Meanwhile, City did their promotion hopes a power of good with a 2-0 win at Crystal Palace where Mike Doyle, switched from centre half to centre forward, scored both goals.

Champions Manchester United, drawn against Portuguese giants Benfica in the quarter finals of the European Cup, put on a show at Old Trafford where they beat Spurs 5-1.

30 years ago

BOLTON Wanderers’ decision to switch to Friday night football in the hope of cushioning the effect of pre-Christmas apathy backfired when a crowd of only 6,315 – the lowest League gate since their Third Division days – turned up to watch the Second Division clash with QPR.

The idea was to leave spectators free to go shopping on the last Saturday before Christmas – and Wanderers won the first battle when their groundstaff beat the winter snap and the pitch was passed fit by referee George Courtney.

But the smattering of Bolton fans who did bother to turn up went home disappointed after Stan Anderson’s Whites lost 2-1 – Mike Flanagan scoring a controversial winner for the Londoners 13 minutes from time.

Fans and players waited in vain for a referee’s whistle as Flanagan’s 40-yard chip sailed into the empty net – Wanderers keeper Terry Poole having been fouled by Simon Stainrod’s challenge.

Stainrod had put Rangers in front on 38 minutes, but injury-hit Wanderers were level by half time – visiting keeper Chris Woods fumbling Alan Gowling’s tame near-post flick.

Having lost at Bristol City in their previous game, the defeat meant Wanderers went into the Christmas games at Wrexham on Boxing Day and at home to Blackburn on December 27 desperate for points to avoid being dragged down into the relegation zone.

It proved a torrid weekend for Anderson who saw his highly-rated horse, Badsworth Boy, unseat jockey Tommy Carmody at the final obstacle when 15 lengths clear of the field in the £2,000 Ladbroke Betha Hurdle at Towcester.

Former Bolton boss Ian Greaves had something to celebrate, though, after being appointed manager of Third Division Oxford United.

Greaves, out of work after being sacked by Wanderers the previous January, said: “I feel the time is right to come back. I’m ready to get stuck in again.”

Bolton Harrier Steve Kenyon beat Olympic Games runner Dave Black and New York marathon star John Graham to win the Birchfield 10-mile road race in 47mins 4secs – his fastest ever time at the distance.

It was a morale-boosting victory for Kenyon in his first road race since he had been forced by injury to withdraw from the Olympic trials the previous May – a setback that kept him on the sidelines for five months.

20 years ago

WANDERERS’ drive towards the Third Division promotion zone stalled when they were held to a 2-2 draw by Cambridge United at Burnden Park.

For 45 minutes Phil Neal’s Wanderers, under the influence of the cultured Steve Thompson, passed rings round John Beck’s side. But in the end they were pummelled into surrendering a share of the spoils by a team whose reputation for no-nonsense, physical, route-one football was growing with every wince-inducing performance.

No one could have predicted anything but a Wanderers win when they led 2-0 at half time thanks to goals from Stuart Storer and Thompson. But the team that boasted the most dangerous aerial threat in the division turned the second half into a siege – Phil Chapple pulling one back nine minutes after the break and Dion Dublin equalising six minutes from time.

Beck – reviled by the game’s purists – believed his much-maligned style would be Cambridge’s passport to promotion.

“Bolton imposed their game on us and it was embarrassing,” Beck admitted, looking back on a first half in which his midfield players hardly had a kick. “But we imposed our game on them in the second.”

Style was also on the agenda down in London where Bruce Rioch, who would one day succeed Neal as manager at Burnden Park, warned Millwall fans to expect a significant change of emphasis in the new year.

Lions fans had been used to a more direct approach under previous managers John Docherty and Frank McLintock, and were proud to proclaim: “No-one likes us we don’t care!”. Rioch, who had tried to impose his will when he arrived the previous summer but had seen some of his players revert to their old style in recent games, was determined to get them back to playing a more entertaining brand of football.

“Some players have been brought up here on very aggressive, direct football and it’s possible that when they’re put under pressure they revert to their old habits,” Rioch said.

“But I’ve got to win with a bit of style and I’ve got to win with a bit of class.

“I know a lot of players won’t be happy but I want them to enjoy playing and I want people to enjoy watching us.

“You might say we’re looking for Utopia, but if you don’t aim for it, you don’t get it.”