THERE were tears in Mark Leather's champagne as he raised a glass to Liverpool's Coca-Cola Cup victory over Wanderers five years ago.

Being such a key man in the Reds' backroom team, he shared in the winners' joy but didn't even try to hide his disappointment at 2-1 result.

"I actually had my Bolton shirt on under my Liverpool top," says the dyed-in-the-wool Wanderer," much to everyone's disgust.

"I don't think Roy Evans was too pleased. He used to give me some stick because, when Alan Thompson scored, he reckons I made a definite movement on the bench before I managed to restrain myself!"

There'll be no question of divided loyalties on Sunday though. After five and a half years as the Anfield physio, Leather has landed the job of his dreams. And, if omens are anything to go by, he reckons he'll be a Wembley winner once again.

"I didn't realise at first," he confesses, "but Sunday will be exactly five years to the day since that Coca-Cola final when I was in the other camp - April 2nd 1995.

"I can't remember much about the FA Cup Final the following year but I remember the Bolton game vividly. After the game, as all the Liverpool players were running round and the fans were jumping about, I saw the disappointed Wanderers' fans and realised that among them would be people I'd grown up with. My heart went out to them.

"In fairness, I don't think they were so downhearted. It was such a big thing to get there and turned out to be quite a day out because the team had played well.

"It's the manner of the defeat that wrankles with spectators. It's not so bad if you know you've played well and those two Wembley appearances that season - the Coca-Cola Cup and the Play-off Final against Reading - were phenomenal games compared to the nightmare performances against Tranmere in 1991 and Watford last year when we never really got going at all. If we'd played anything like on the day, we'd have beaten Watford - especially after beating Ipswich over two legs in the semi-final."

Spoken like a true fan, which is precisely what Mark Leather is. "I've never made any secret of the fact," he admits.

"I was brought up on John Byrom, Freddie Hill, Francis Lee, Wyn Davies, Syd Farrimond, Charlie Hurley, Hughie Curran and Charlie Wright. So this is the first time in my life that we've been in an FA Cup semi-final.

"I've been on all the other Wembley trips, starting with the Freight Rover Final against Bristol City, and if I hadn't been going as the physio on Sunday, I'd probably have been going down in a minibus from Adlington with my mates."

Sam Allardyce, who knew him from their days working together at Preston, had no hesitation in recruiting the highly-rated Leather, who was working in private practice after leaving Liverpool in acrimonious circumstances last season.

"I can't say the environment of a big Premier League club really suited me," he admits, "some people are cut out for it but I'm not so sure I was necessarily comfortable with it.

"My mentality is more akin to the family atmosphere of a club like this. Fundamentally it's the same job; I'm here to treat the players and get them fit as quickly as possible but it's being Bolton Wanderers that makes it special.

"You always want the team you're working for to win because you're a professional and I've sampled other clubs but, after coming to Bolton, I don't want to go anywhere else.

"I can remember, when I was working at Burnley, getting tickets under false pretences for the Hull City-Bolton game when we won promotion from the old Division Two to the First. It was a Friday night game.

"I got tickets as a Burnley 'scout' and went with a mate of mine but I wasn't there to watch any of the Hull City players. I was there with my Bolton scarf!"

Anyone who knows the depth of his feeling for the Wanderers won't be surprised if Mark Leather walks out wearing that same scarf on Sunday.

"And I don't care what anyone says," he insists with the passion of a fan and the wisdom of a man on the inside, "if we play well, we have a great chance of beating them!"

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.