Hull City 1, Wanderers 2

11:46am Friday 30th December 2005

Battlers stage one Hull of a fightback IN these times of Premiership luxury a Friday night at Hull's old ramshackled Boothferry Park would hardly rate as a mouthwatering encounter.

But back in the old Second Division, 5,000 Wanderers fans flooded over the Pennines to witness what became one of the club's greatest comebacks of modern times.

Bruce Rioch's Wanderers lay in third place four points adrift of Port Vale in the final automatic promotion spot.

In what had been an incredible end to the season, they had won 13 of their last 16 games. The latest victory had come in the final three minutes of a game at Bournemouth, courtesy of a rare Phil Brown effort.

The pressure was on, and everyone in a white shirt knew it.

Much of the verve and swagger which had epitomised Bolton's season until that point was missing in the opening 30 minutes, with young centre half Alan Stubbs particularly nervous.

His slip let in Ryan France on 24 minutes, only for the Hull winger to shave Keith Branagan's left-hand post. Moments later, Stubbs again put his keeper under pressure allowing a long ball to drop over his head and cause Branagan to collide with Tigers' giant striker David Jones.

To cap off a miserable first half, Stubbs was then sent off for deliberately handballing France's goalbound header on the line. Dean Windass smashed home the spot kick, and left Wanderers with a massive mountain to climb in the second half.

Despite having a numerical disadvantage, Wanderers had much the better possession in the second half, with McGinlay turning and testing the Hull backline at every opportunity.

Hull keeper Steve Wilson made a miraculous save from Tony Kelly on 67 minutes, but soon after, Wanderers got the goal they deserved.

McGinlay once again harried Hull full-back David Mail into a mistake to force a corner, from which Brown crossed for Mark Seagraves to head goalwards, off Tigers' goalscorer Windass and into the net.

The crowd poured on to the pitch, and for one unsavoury moment it looked like the game could be abandoned when Hull defender Rob Miller collapsed in a heap.

But the game continued, and Branagan was forced into reaction saves from David Norton and Linton Brown before the final sting in the tail arrived with three minutes to go.

David Burke sent a shot towards goal, and, not for the first time, McGinlay was in the right place at the right time to stab the ball home.

On came the exuberant Bolton fans once more and Wanderers held on for a famous victory.

Keeper Branagan reflected: "You play in cup finals and play-off finals, but games like the one at Hull are the ones which really stick in your memory.

"When we scored the equaliser, the crowd just flooded on to the pitch and it seemed to take them ages to get back into the stands.

"We started off again, but it always looked as if they would spill back on to the pitch so the referee asked Phil Brown (Bolton's skipper) if he wanted him to blow the final whistle.

"But Browny was saying no, play on,' and in doing so, we scored the goal which eventually saw us get promoted."

Winger David Lee, whose drive on the day helped Wanderers force their way back into the game added: "The spirit in that side was incredible, we didn't know when we were beaten. It was an incredible night."

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