Bolton fans address players ahead of Forest match

We asked fans to pen an open letter to the players to tell them exactly what being a Bolton fan means to them, and what they expect on Sunday.

All the letters have been printed in Friday's edition of The Bolton News - and are also included below.

I’M travelling up from Northampton to watch the mighty Whites attempt to stay in the Championship this weekend.

It’s not a choice that has been made lightly, due to money being rather tight lately. Instead of going into the last game with it in our own hands, a win is all we can do and all I will ask is for my money to have been spent well.

The best of luck to the team and Parky, you’ve worked hard... Just one more time let’s beat those odds!

Jake Gilman

FROM day one, we made history, one of the 12 founder members of the Football League, and we scored the first goal.

The three greatest cup finals of them all, ‘23’, ‘53’ and ‘58’, we won two, but it should have been three.

The Burnden Park disaster 1946, 33 men, women and children lost their lives supporting their beloved Super Whites.

Heroes and legends from near and far, Nat, Frank Worthy, Super John (and the Super Kev’s), Jay-Jay, Youri , Gudni and Campo (even Lofty), Fabrice Muamba – White Hart Lane, Never, ever, ever give up.

Last year you were heroes.

We will be with you on Sunday, it’s time for heroes again.

Andy Wilkinson

I TUNED into the game from Indonesia on Saturday night local time, and to say I was disappointed with the spineless performance would be an understatement.

I’m 24 years old and have been travelling to watch BWFC for as long as I can remember.

I plead to all 11 of you players that start on that pitch on Sunday to give every single last ounce of passion and effort you have in your bodies to keep us in that division.

Make it a day to remember for all BWFC fans who worship the ground you all walk on.

Jonny Shepherd

STAND up and fight for this shirt, club and most importantly the fans.

It was always going to be a hard task this season but six weeks ago it looked like we had done it.

Whatever has happened in the past in history now. Staying up I think would be a better achievement than promotion!

Shoot, attack, fight for every ball – that’s the main things the fans want to see, don’t be afraid to shoot, we need goals!

Believe in yourselves, hold your head high and give a performance you as a player can be proud of.

And one more thing, remember it’s not over until the fat lady sings.

Good luck lads – push forward and show you’re good enough to wear the shirt and play in this league.

Chris Bowden

WE are with you. We are one. BWFC runs through our blood and veins. Yes, it’s tough to pick ourselves up but we can do it.

I don’t care about the owners or boardroom battles but I do care for every single player who gives their all and fights for our shirt.

Show passion, fight and attack and we’ll fill the Macron with a roar.

I know you’re hurting but we know you are capable showing us that you want us to survive.

You see us clap and cheer when you walk out on that green carpet, we get goosebumps with the anticipation of what’s to come – let that feeling spur you on.

I’ll turn up Sunday with my family as I do every match. Once in, never out.

Kelly Jenkinson

QUOTE of the day on the way home from Burton away: “We could have been born with any team but we were given Bolton... What did we do to deserve this?”

We are well drilled in poor performances, relegations, poor management, having a voice the board chooses to ignore, getting beat by 10-man opposition, having poor strikers, but having a false representation of the town by 11 overpaid cowards is embarrassing and will not be tolerated much longer.

The town needs Bolton Wanderers to survive thrive and prosper. The chairman says all the right things.

We need to retain our position in the second tier of English football and rebuild a team that reflects the working class. Restore pride and repay all us loyal fans.

Chris Heyes

TWO points from 11 games, that’s all we had. We were completely out of our depth and I honestly couldn’t see us scoring a goal again, never mind winning a match.

Somehow we turned it around. We gave ourselves more than a fighting chance of staying up. I left the Macron Stadium after the games against Bristol City, Fulham and Aston Villa a very proud White. We looked like a solid team with everyone pulling together and fighting for the shirt.

Everyone wanted it. We had fought against the odds.

The same set of players are in that dressing room. Come out on Sunday giving everything you’ve got.

Leave that pitch on Sunday knowing you couldn’t give any more. Despite everything that has happened in the last seven games, we can still put things right and you can make every Bolton fan in that ground proud of you. Don’t waste the opportunity.

Go and become heroes. Make memories for yourselves that will stick with you for the rest of your life.

Win that match on Sunday and you will see how much it means to us.

Liam – season ticket holder since 1997

IN 54 years as a supporter, I have eight promotions and nine relegations on my CV. I don’t want another relegation, please.

Bolton Wanderers have consumed a larger portion of my life than they have been reasonably entitled to.

My long-suffering wife describes my condition as an affliction. A bit harsh but it is certainly an addiction!

I was fortunate enough to have a good education and a good career. That has allowed me to indulge my passion for my club. First team, reserve team, youth team. Home and away. Work commitments sculpted around match dates and times.

My wife gave up trying to book our family holiday until the fixtures were released many years ago. Often seemed a coincidence how a summer vacation happened to find us in the same town where the Whites would be playing a pre season friendly!

And whatever the outcome on Sunday I will be there, God willing, next season and the ones after that.

Perhaps I have never really grown up but the fortunes of my club mean so much to me. So just one last big push against Forest from EVERYONE, please.

This great club deserves that at the very least.

Steven Battersby

I HAVE been watching the Wanderers since before I can remember.

Me and my Dad are there every year – West Stand Lower, row Z, seats 119 and 120. I turn 18 this Sunday (officially become a man) and whatever happens I’d like to see everyone associated with the club giving it everything they’ve got. You can’t ask for anything more.

Sam Parkinson AFTER a long and challenging season, we’re 90 minutes away from surviving in a league nobody else gave us a chance of staying in.

We’re 90 minutes away from every sacrifice being rewarded.

Each player is 90 minutes away from immortality.

On Sunday, you have the chance to be forever remembered by Bolton Wanderers fans.

Be the one who makes that important save. Be the one who makes that last-ditch tackle.

Be the one who throws your body in front of the ball.

Be the one who chases after the ball when everyone else’s lungs and legs are burning with fatigue.

Be the one, most importantly, who scores the goals that keep us up.

Write your name in the history of a founder member of the Football League alongside Eddie Hopkinson, Nat Lofthouse, Sam Allardyce, John McGinlay, Youri Djorkaeff and Kevin Davies.

Very few footballers get the chance to be responsible for a defining moment in a club’s history; you have that chance on Sunday.

Make sure you take it.

Damon Hesford

STAYING up would be a great achievement, one that would match the feeling of beating Peterborough to gain promotion last season.

It would mean we can hold our heads high – we survived against the odds.

To beat Forest and find out that results have gone our way would create a euphoria that will carry us through to the following season.

It means we can look forward to beating certain local rivals who are Championship-bound!

It would put smiles back on faces and bums back on seats.

It would mean the team showed the passion that BWFC have always had, and it still runs strong.

It means light at the end of the tunnel.

It means...Everything!

Chris McKeown

I UNDERSTAND many are out of contract or returning to parent clubs, and perhaps don’t see themselves at the club in the next few months.

Whether you do or don’t, it’s one more game. At the the end of the day, if you walk off the pitch knowing you haven’t fought tooth and nail for every ball, you have to live with that.

We have the ability to stay up, we’ve shown that.

If you’re going to get a relegation on your CV, go down fighting, there’s nothing more a fan can ask from the 11 on the pitch.

Oliver Jacques

I HAVE been going to the matches with my grandad since I was 10 and he always talks about the idols from the 1950s.

Stay up and I will be taking my grandkids to the matches talking about how Vela, Beevers (pictured above), Taylor et al saved our club.

James Studders

TAKE inspiration from this quote by Jimmy Dean: ‘I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”

We believe and so should you. Yes, it’s tricky, but with a focused one-team approach, you will be surprised what you can achieve.

Let the achievements of our great Nat Lofthouse, inspire you to fight for every ball and to be strong in the tackle. Be proud, and make us proud of you.

Be brave, and good luck.

Andy Hulme

I HAVE spent over an hour trying to put into words what it would mean and I keep writing something then changing it, then re-writing and cannot seem to get the right words and meaning.

Staying up would show the same effort and commitment that us fans show by supporting home and away every week.

It would also prove wrong all the Bolton haters and doom-mongers who wrote us off!

It would be a fantastic achievement for all involved and possibly get us bigger investment this summer and for the future.

And because I love BWFC!

Kevan Lees

I HAVE been watching Bolton Wanderers for 46 years and I love the Whites with a passion.

But what on earth has happened over the past few weeks?

After the Barnsley game I really thought we had turned a corner, but boy was I wrong.

You all need to get a fire in your bellies and show as much passion and commitment as we, the fans, have done from up in the stands.

Please show us on the last game of the season how much we, the fans, mean to you.

If we go down let’s go down fighting. It would mean more to us than just giving in.

A forever fan who has Bolton Wanderers in my heart.

Leslie Davies

TO WEAR the white shirt of Bolton is a privilege, an honour bestowed upon so few.

It represents a hard-working town and carries the hopes and dreams of many. It’s not just a job, a way to earn a living, something to help pay off the mortgage. It should mean so much more.

Us fans want passion, commitment, hunger and desire. We need you to walk off that pitch unable to give an ounce more. Give us everything you’ve got from minute one to 90, win every personal battle, and we’ll applaud you off at the end.

On Saturday at Burton you let us all down so badly because Burton wanted it more – this is unforgivable.

The best football I’ve seen us play is at Barnsley in the second half, attacking full-backs, wingers running at defenders at pace.

More of this please.

Dominic Carey

I’VE been regularly watching Bolton since the early sixties and met my future wife in 1971, discovering she was a big fan – attending home games with her dad – what luck!

From that point on the three of us went to games together, both home and away. We shared the highs and the lows and I married her in 1974. What she didn’t know about football wasn’t worth knowing.

When I wanted to live somewhere warmer she would always say ‘ But what about Bolton Wanderers?’ We loved our times at Burnden Park and The Reebok.

In 2009 my beautiful wife passed away from cancer after only three weeks of being diagnosed.

The club rallied and some signed photos were kindly sent to her in hospital and they lined her window sill.

She now has her ashes scattered within the ground, a memorial stone in front of the glass doors and an entry in the book of remembrance.

The club offered a half- page obituary in a match programme and both Andrew Dean and Rev Phil Mason have provided support to my family and myself throughout.

The club means such a great deal to us all and we visit her stone before every home game. This is what the club means to us but you wonder if management and players share that love for our great club.

Those involved in any way on Saturdays should look at themselves very closely as thousands of people live by the club they follow, and in many cases have done so for many years.

I hope they realise how most supporters feel.

On Saturday we were feeling sick to the stomach. We were so very close to surviving in this league.

Positive strong hearts are needed in our final match.

George Hadfield and family