Wanderers will celebrate the Reebok's 10th birthday with a repeat of their fixture against Everton. Here Gary Speed, who played for Everton on that day, looks back on the game's big talking point.

GARY Speed has turned the clock back 10 years to put a new slant on the "goal-that-never-was" debate.

Playing for Everton on that historic first night at the Reebok in September 1997, the Wales international - now a Bolton favourite himself - was as well-placed as anyone to judge whether Wanderers were robbed when referee Steve Lodge waved play on after Gerry Taggart's second half header crossed the line.

And his memory is crystal clear: the ball was OVER the line before Terry Phelan hacked it away . . . but Wanderers were definitely NOT the victims of an injustice.

"If that goal had stood, we'd have been the ones who were aggrieved," said Speed, the evergreen midfielder for whom the Reebok has been home for the past three years.

"I was there, I was right on the line. I got a perfect view of it and the ball was definitely over the line. But, I'm sorry, it was never a goal . . . there was a foul on Neville Southall by Nathan Blake, which everybody seems to overlook.

"It was probably the first major decision that highlighted the need for goal-line technology, but that, as far as I am concerned, would not have come into play that night because we should have been given a foul."

No-one could possibly have predicted that night that the decision would have such a bearing on the fortunes of the two teams, who ended the season locked on 40 points, with Everton, with marginally better goal difference, surviving relegation from the Premiership at Wanderers' expense.

Speed has good reason for being less precise in his recollection of that dramatic finale.

"I'd left Everton for Newcastle by then, so I wasn't too concerned. But, obviously, being an Everton fan, I was pleased they stayed up," he said.

"I remember Everton played Coventry, but Bolton . . . I'm told they were at Chelsea.

"But I remember that first game vividly and not for the goal, but because Princess Diana died that weekend and all the games on the Sunday were postponed. We weren't sure whether our game was going to be played or not.

"It wasn't a distraction when we were on the pitch but everybody was talking about lt in the build-up."

Already a seasoned pro, Speed had played at bigger and better grounds than the Reebok, but he believes the foresight of the men who designed the stadium to cater for a capacity crowd of 28,000, got it spot on.

"It was a fantastic stadium then and still is," he added. "Whoever designed it and built it, got it just right. Any bigger and it wouldn't have helped Bolton's cause.

"It's a tight, little stadium and, when the fans are right behind us, the atmosphere is great.

"Down the years we've been strong at home and I think the atmosphere of the Reebok has a lot to do with that.

"The ground has seen a lot in the last 10 years and, hopefully, it will see a lot more.

"We've built a club here that, for its size, has had a lot of success and, if we continue to work hard, there's no reason why we can't continue to progress."