NATHAN Blake would no more forget the people who helped him on the way up than he would ignore the fans who idolise him now he's reached the top.

That's why the Wanderers top scorer made the effort this week to travel to Cardiff to pay a personal tribute to his old physio, then took time out for one of his youngest but most fervent supporters.

They both showed their genuine appreciation with beaming smiles and "Good Luck" messages that Blake will take with him when he goes out to take care of business at Chelsea tomorrow.

Jimmy Goodfellow and Andrew Gidney are generations apart but ask them who's likeliest to tip the survival scales Wanderers' way and they'll come up with the No 9 - the centre-forward who has plundered 13 Premiership goals with a team that has spent the second half of the season fighting relegation.

If the battle is won at Stamford Bridge and Blake is able to look forward to even bigger and better things in a second successive season in the top flight, he might well reflect on how his career will have come full circle. For it was with Chelsea where the young Welshman started as a trainee in the late Eighties before a bout of homesickness led to him returning to Cardiff, where his home town club gave him his big break.

"It was a blessing in disguise leaving Chelsea," he says with the benefit of hindsight after powering his way into the top flight with Wanderers, via Sheffield United.

"London was a bit too fast for me. Going back, I lived at home and it turned out to be the best for my football." That was where Jimmy Goodfellow came in. He was an influential figure behind the scenes at Ninian Park and Blake is forever grateful for his help and advice.

"Jimmy had a lot to do with many of the players who came out of Cardiff in those days," he recalls affectionately. So there was no question of him not turning up at Tuesday night's testimonial game...even though he resisted the temptation to play against a Manchester United X1.

Tomorrow is serious business and Blake had no intention of taking risks that might have kept him out of the game.

What would young Andrew have said if his hero had got himself injured in a benefit game for someone he had never heard of? (All due respects to Mr Goodfellow, of course).

The 11-year-old Junior White has practically worshipped the ground Blake treads and, thanks to events over the past few days, believes the bond is now stronger than ever. Andrew, a pupil at Canon Slade School, has been politely pestering Blake for one of his shirts since before Christmas, each time being told to wait until the last match at the Reebok. His patience paid off and, true to his word, the striker made sure the No 9 shirt in which he scored the first of Wanderers five goals in the crushing of Crystal Palace, was duly delivered.

They'll need a crowbar to prise it out his grasp as he sits glued to the television screen.

When they met up for a chat and a photograph on Thursday, Blake had words of encouragement for the youngster as he prepared for the do-or-die clash with Chelsea.

"We're going into the game on the back of two excellent results," he said confidently.

"We're in a better position than Everton because we know our destiny is in our own hands. If we win the game, that's it. It doesn't matter what they do."

Like every member of the Bolton squad, Blake has had a never-say-die attitude throughout the ups and downs of the fight for survival, although he admits his belief wavered after the 4-0 defeat at Derby. "I honestly thought that was it," he recalls. "That was a game we really thought we had to get a result from. We'd been poor in one or two games but we seemed to have got away with not conceding too many. But that was a big blow.

"After that drubbing I thought to myself, if we don't win our next game it's over with. When we lost at home to Leeds I'm sure Everton thought we were going to get buried at Villa. As it turned out that was a big win for us.

"That was when you started to hear Everton complaining about the strength of the team Chelsea were going to turn out against us." Blake is good friends with many of the players he's likely to come up against tomorrow - the likes of Eddie Newton, Frank Sinclair, Michael Duberry and Andy Myers - and knows not to expect an easy ride, despite the fact that Vialli's men will have the European Cup Winners Cup on their minds.

"I spoke to Eddie (Newton) last week and he tells me he thinks they are going to put out a normal side," Blake reveals. "But they've got such a strong squad, it's going to be really difficult, whatever team they play.

"I don't think Everton can expect an easy time against Coventry either because they are going for points to try and finish as high as they can.

"We're just going to go there and concentrate on our own game. And we won't be nervous. People have been writing us off but we've been saying all the time that we'll fight to the end. "Every game has been like a cup final for us. It's been very tiring, stressful. It takes a lot out of you having to perform in pressure games every week. It seems we haven't had a chance to relax at all.

"We're looking forward to the end of the season and getting a rest but we know we have one more job to do first.

"Let's hope we can enjoy the summer with smiles on our faces."

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