Wanderers fan Margaret Casey recalls happy memories of a meeting with former Wanderers owner Eddie Davies and says why all supporters should be grateful to him

I WOULD like to tell you about my personal memory of Eddie Davies.

We went to watch Bolton play Preston at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium in the play-off final and stayed in the Angel Hotel, just a few yards from the ground.

We noticed a sign saying “Welcome Bolton Wanderers”. We enquired about it and were told Bolton would be having a reception at the hotel after the game, win or lose.

We won and my friend, Margaret, and I managed to gate-crash the reception.

At that time there was no such thing as taking unlimited photos on your mobile phone which were then just for making phone calls and sending texts.

We had forgotten to take our cameras, so Margaret bought a throwaway camera for £5.

At the reception we didn’t eat or drink anything. All Margaret did was take pictures of me with players, Sam Allardyce and Nat Lofthouse.

Eddie Davies came over to us and asked if Margaret would take a photo of his daughter holding the play-off cup, as his camera had run out of film.

Margaret said she would be happy to do so, provided she could take a photo of me holding the cup afterwards. He said that would be fine.

At that time, we didn’t even know who Eddie Davies was.

Margaret took the photo of his daughter and then, when it was my turn to have my photo taken with the cup, she realised she, too, had run out of film.

Eddie said he would arrange for me to have my photo taken with the cup at the Reebok Stadium at a later date.

We thought he would forget all about it, but, after Margaret mailed him the photo of his daughter, he contacted her and invited us both to the pre-season friendly against Athletic Bilbao.

We had a meal in the directors’ lounge, we had seats in the directors’ box for the game and he arranged for me to have my photo taken on the pitch holding the play-off cup, just as he had promised.

Eddie and I are about the same age, and I have been watching Bolton since I was three years old.

We had a great time talking about all the games we had both seen at Burnden Park as children, Eddie standing with his dad at the Railway End, and me sitting with my dad in the Manchester Road Stand.

Anyone who can match me for memories of the 1950s and 60s at Burnden Park is a true supporter, and Eddie was definitely that.

I am at a loss to understand how some supporters can possibly imagine Eddie became the owner of Bolton Wanderers just to make money for himself and his family.

The economics of how losing £200million can be profiting yourself and your family will need to be explained to me very slowly over several hours and, even then, I doubt I will believe it.

Eddie was a true supporter who used his wealth (and left himself considerably poorer) in order to give Bolton Wanderers and all their supporters their finest hour, and for no other reason than that.

Every supporter who enjoyed those heady days in the Premier League and in the European Cup, watching the likes of Okocha, Djorkaeff, Campo and Hierro, should be eternally grateful to Eddie for those wonderful memories.

They should not be moaning about the difficult times which occurred when Eddie finally decided to continue backing Bolton, and losing millions every year, would reduce him and his family to penury, so reluctantly had to sell the club.

Any one of those people, under those circumstances, would have done exactly the same thing.

Even though he had sold the club, it doesn’t surprise me one of the last things he did before he died was to save the club he loved from administration by giving a loan to Ken Anderson to enable him to pay off BluMarble.

We all owe Eddie a debt of gratitude that can never be paid, and I hope some way will be found to make a permanent memorial to him to thank him for giving Bolton Wanderers the best of times, and to ensure his name will never be forgotten.

Margaret Casey

Wanderers supporter