Bolton Wanderers 2-2 Wimbledon, 2001: Colin Hendry and Robbie Elliott score for Whites

Runaway leaders Fulham had all-but wrapped up Premier League football for the following year, but Sam Allardyce was confident the second automatic promotion spot was still up for grabs, if only his side could catch a break.

Graeme Souness’s Blackburn Rovers had command of second spot but Wanderers missed out on a chance to climb above them after a controversial game against Wimbledon, where two points were wrestled from their grasp by a late deflected effort from Kevin Cooper.

To make matters worse, just 60 seconds before the ball hit the back of the net, Ian Marshall had been floored by defender Mark Williams and, not for the first time, Bolton’s penalty appeals were ignored by the official, in this case, Tring’s Bill Jordan.

The Whites had not been given a penalty in the league all season, a peculiar statistic given their penchant for attacking football.

Allardyce suggested that his players had been too honest and that they should make more of an effort to ‘win’ decisions from referees.

“The gaffer’s sick to death of telling us to go down!” lamented Simon Charlton after the 2-2 draw. “It isn’t cheating, it is part and parcel of the game nowadays because everyone is doing it – except us!”

One theory was that the straight-talking Allardyce had been so critical of officials in the past that he had turned the men in black against his club.

It was a claim that could, of course, never be substantiated, but was clearly weighing on the players’ minds as they filed out of the dressing room to discuss an unsatisfactory point.

“It was a definite penalty,” Marshall argued. “He grabbed me and maybe I was a bit too honest, and I should have gone down. But once the referee has made his decision there is no point arguing about it, you’ll only get in trouble.”

His view was backed up by Colin Hendry, whose second-half goal had looked for more than 25 minutes like it was putting Bolton back into the top two.

“I suppose this is the bit where I say that things are meant to even themselves out over the course of a season,” he said with a bemused look. “But when a team has only been awarded one penalty all season, and that was in the cup, then you can hardly expect things to level out, or we will be getting penalties in every game to the end of the season.

“Since I came here in December we have had maybe a dozen stone-cold claims for a penalty and not got a single one. And this was another. I had a very good view of it and the referee had a great view.”

Though Wanderers’ annoyance was understandable, there must also have been a frustration within the camp that the game need not have been as close as it was in that final minute.

Terry Burton’s Dons had already pegged them back once, Patrick Agyemang levelling after Robbie Elliott had fired his team ahead with a cracking 28th minute free-kick.

Wimbledon had not given up on a play-off spot after dropping out of the top-flight the previous year and they somehow managed to stay in the contest as Andy Campbell crashed a shot against the bar and Ricardo Gardner kicked at fresh air after the ball sat up nicely for him 10 yards out.

Scot Hendry put Bolton ahead again on 68 minutes, smashing in Gardner’s corner in a week where he had already scored twice for his country in a World Cup qualifier against Scotland.

Kelvin Davis prevented the excellent Leam Richardson from extending the lead and, in Wimbledon’s defence, Wanderers had needed on-loan keeper Matt Clarke to be equally defiant in the first half with saves from Agyemang and Jason Euell.

There was nothing Clarke could do, however, when in stoppage time Copper’s shot took a wicked deflection off Paul Warhurst before burying itself into the net.

Wanderers had not won in five home games and though they would lose just one more game before the end of the regular season, dropped points against Wimbledon, Stockport and Birmingham City would prove costly and cast them into the uncertainty of the play-offs.

Little did we know at the time but this would be the last time Bolton faced Wimbledon before the controversial move to MK Dons, which prompted the launch of AFC Wimbledon, who have now thankfully returned to their Plough Lane home.

Thankfully, we do know that things turned out well in the end. And Allardyce’s side did indeed get a penalty, and an important one too.

It happened in the play-off semi-final first leg, with Gary Megson’s West Brom on the back foot having led 2-0. Gudni Bergsson had pulled a goal back in the 81st minute before Tony Butler pulled down Bo Hansen, and Per Frandsen stepped up to score a vital equaliser, setting things up for a memorable home leg, won 3-0.