TRIBUTES have poured in from Frank Worthington’s former Bolton Wanderers team-mates after the Burnden Park legend passed away at the age of 72.

The ex-England international became a terrace hero with the Whites after signing for the club on loan in September 1977, and then permanently for a club record £90,000 from Leicester City.

He helped Wanderers to the Second Division championship in 1978, scoring the winning goal against Blackburn Rovers, and then finished as the top scorer in the First Division the following season with 26 goals in all competitions.

Leading the tributes, former Bolton midfielder Peter Reid described his former team-mate as a “genius”.

“He was such a character,” he told The Bolton News. “A rock and roll footballer who just loved his life.

“He had that image but don’t think for a second that he wasn’t a dedicated footballer. He was always the last one to leave that training ground.

“He loved Elvis and he loved football. You could tell by the way he played it and the number of clubs he played at.

“I remember playing for Everton against him in an FA Cup semi-final when he was well into his thirties – but you could see he was still such a quality player.

“He was a genius. More than that, though, he was a gentleman.”

Worthington will be forever known for his virtuoso televised goal for Bolton at Burnden against Ipswich Town.

Reid maintains, however, that he scored a better one later the same season.

“Everyone talks about the Ipswich goal and I was right behind it because I was injured,” he said. “I think that was the only time I heard all the Bolton fans walk out of Burnden Park happy, and they had lost the game 3-2!

“But he got one against Phil Parkes at QPR a couple of months later that was out of this world.

“He clipped it over his head, put it through a defender’s legs, then hit one from 35 yards with such bend and whip. It was incredible.

“He was a great entertainer and he will be sadly missed.”

Jim ‘Seamus’ McDonagh also remembered the QPR goal as one of Frank’s finest moments in a Bolton shirt.

“We were under pressure at QPR and Peter Nicholson toed the ball out of the box to Frank on half way. He spun past the centre-half, dropped his shoulder to send one lad the wrong way and cut inside to hit the ball with pace into the top corner. Phil Parkes – and England goalkeeper who was about 6ft 6ins – couldn’t get near it.

“Frank was that excited he ran to the dugout. Stan Anderson was a great guy but he was quite deadpan. Frank was leaping all over him and he just had a look on his face like: ‘What are you doing?’”

McDonagh kept goal in Ian Greaves’s fondly remembered Wanderers side that fought its way into the top-flight for the first time since the early sixties.

Worthington’s flamboyant fashion taste and love of Elvis Presley made him stand out as one of the great entertainers. But McDonagh maintains there was much more to his former team-mate than flair and fashion.

“He played on that maverick tag,” he said. “At his heart he was a Yorkshireman. He had no airs or graces. He’d remember your name and always say hello whenever he’d meet you.

“I last saw him several ago at a Huddersfield Town game and there had been a lot of talk about his health.

“I saw he was coming up into the stands so I hid behind a post and jumped out at him. And his face lit up. ‘Seamus’ he said, and wrapped his arms around me.

“We sat and watched the game and he was switched on. I think he was even still playing a bit of football.

“You won’t get another one like him, that’s for sure.”

McDonagh also recalled that very little about Worthington’s game was by the book, starting with his warm-ups.

“We would all be there doing stretches and running up and down trying to get the circulation going and Frank just grabbed a bag of balls and would stand there chipping them on to the crossbar, one after the other. He’d do seven, eight, nine, 10 at a time.

“He had a left peg that could open a can and was such a graceful player to watch. He just glided over the pitch.”

Mike Walsh was Worthington’s room-mate during most of his time at Bolton and got to know the striker well off the field.

“His gear was different, his tastes were different, but that was Frank and everyone loved him,” he said. “He was a quiet lad. He wasn’t confrontational but he had that charisma and could walk into a room and just make it a better place.

“People might look at him and think he was a drinker but I can tell you there were lads in that squad who could sink a pint or two and he wasn’t one of them. He’d have a couple of halves of lager and the women would be falling over him left, right and centre.

“When he came to Bolton we thought we were signing a superstar. And to be honest, we did.

“It’s so sad because I can still see him standing next to me with a big grin on his face like it happened yesterday. I will miss him.”

Alan Gowling had a hand in Worthington’s most famous Bolton goal against Ipswich and believes his skill level was up there with some of the very best.

“I was fortunate to play with two great players – George Best at United, and Frank Worthington at Bolton.

“You can say anything you like about the playboy image, and he played up to that a lot, but when he got on that football pitch he could do things that nobody else would even think about.

“I used to have a laugh and a joke with him because I’d be doing all the hard running and he got to do all the fancy stuff.

“But that is why we were successful. It was an honour to have played alongside him and he brought so many happy memories.”

Neil Whatmore was another player who brought the best out of Worthington’s mercurial talents.

“He will be sadly missed,” said the former Burnden Park striker. “I am on a WhatsApp group with a few former players down here and almost every one of them has a story to tell about Frank. But we all say the same thing: What a player, what a character.

“There was a misconception about him, I think, that he didn’t work hard at his game and I don’t think there was a harder trainer or a more dedicated player in that group.

“Frank was the talisman. You see these teams in the Premier League spend 60, 70, 80 million trying to buy success but they don’t get that the key is finding the right players to fit the right jobs. With Frank in that team we all had a position to fill in around him. We were the cogs, he was the wheel.

“You could watch him play all day. I can remember many instances in a game where he would bring the ball down on his chest on the left wing and ping a volley out to the right, to Willie Morgan, and you’d be left standing there and thinking ‘how on earth did he do that?’

“Nobody would ever think of doing something like that and it is what made Frank special. He lived his life his own way and on a football pitch he was just magical.”

Peter Nicholson believes Worthington's finest hour came on a moody night at Ewood Park, Blakcburn, when his goal ended a long wait for Wanderers to return to the First Division.

"When  you talk about great goals, that is the one I remember from Frank," he said. "That really meant something and the pressure on that game, it was incredible.

"He was a goalscorer. I was very fortunate to play with a couple at Bolton - Frank and John Byrom. And when the ball would drop to either of them in the penalty area you got excited because you knew it would end up in the back of the net.

"I remember crossing one in for Frank against Manchester City. We were 2-0 down and I'd got down the right, put the ball in, and Frank produced the most wonderful volley past Joe Corrigan. You just stood there and applauded him. 

"I think Peter Reid scored a penalty soon after as well.

"Frank had all the dress sense and the charisma, it was just part of who he was. I think Ian Greaves just laughed at most of the stuff he wore. 

"He'd have the headband on and the wristband to soak up the sweat. I don't know how much actually came off him, though, he made it look so easy."

Worthington won just eight caps for England at a time when striking options were plentiful.

"When you look at the players who have won 30 or 40 caps nowadays and think that Frank only got as many as he did, it's such a crying shame," Nicholson added.

"He had a bad two years with his health and it is such a shame that nobody has been able to see him recently because of Covid. 

"Rest in peace, Frank. He will be missed."