FOOTBALL fans find lots of reasons to start a rivalry – most often geography, sometimes envied success, but every once in a while a fixture crops up that just brings out the worst in everyone...

Wednesday, May 17, 1995, and Alan Thompson’s corner was bouncing around the Wolves box at Burnden Park with Wanderers trying to get themselves back into the game.

Amidst the sea of bodies, keeper Mike Stowell dived on the ball. Standing above him, David Kelly aimed a shove at John McGinlay, who then swung what he later described as a “little tap” in return.

Irishman Kelly landed flat on his back.

To those of us who were watching on TV, the action was described thus: “McGinlay’s gone in fighting for it, Stowell has gone in bravely,” roared commentator Alan Parry on the night. “A punch was thrown! A punch was thrown!

“Oh hello, hello, that’s off,” echoed co-commentator Jimmy Greaves. “The referee has no choice, McGinlay has got to go.”

Instead, referee Steve Dunn chose to book both players, a decision that looked lenient 18 years ago but insanely liberal compared with today’s standards.

Dunn’s decision proved so controversial a scrap even broke out in the press box when one of the local fans took issue with a commentator from BBC West Midlands who was voicing his displeasure.

The fixture between Bolton and Wolverhampton Wanderers had rich history, with both clubs having served the Football League since day one.

But that play-off semi-final, which saw Bruce Rioch’s side overturn a first-leg deficit to book a Wembley date with Reading, meant it would be a whole new ball game from there.

Fast forward to January 1997 and things went stratospheric.

The “Battle of Burnden Park” won’t be forgotten by any of the near-19,000 people who saw it.

McGinlay went out extra early in the warm-up to give Wolves fans a little wave, while mascot Lofty the Lion also did his bit to wind-up the 3,000 travelling supporters, earning a ticking off from the footballing authorities in the process.

But if that was harmless fun, things took a nasty turn when nearly every player on the pitch piled into a mass free-for-all. Later, bemused referee David Allison described the afternoon thus: “At two minutes past three I gave a goal kick and all hell broke loose,” he said.

McGinlay scored, of course, as Wanderers won the game 3-0 and his name remains central to the rivalry that continues to this day despite the 87 miles that separate the two stadia.

It isn’t the only strange rivalry that Bolton has, of course.

The mention of the words Tranmere and Rovers prompt a scowl from supporters of a certain vintage.

Football is full of odd rivalries at every rung of the ladder.

Brighton and Crystal Palace, Germany and Algeria, Marseille and Paris St Germain, the entire Football League and Leeds United – all born from the fact that two groups of fans just don’t really like each other that much.