Bolton Wanderers 3-1 Hereford United, April 30, 1977 - Retro archives match

It was April 30, 1977, and Wanderers were hot on the heels of Nottingham Forest and Notts County in the battle for third spot, having scraped past bottom club Hereford United at Burnden Park.

Bolton had two games in hand and trailed by a single point and having just missed out to West Brom a year earlier, Greaves was determined to go one better.

In order to take the stress off his players, he moved operations to the seaside for four days in the build up to a game at Luton Town.

“It is just a matter of getting away from well-meaning and very interested fans who are putting an awful lot of pressure on the players,” he told The Bolton Evening News.

“They only have to take a walk into town and you can guarantee they will be asked if the Wanderers are going to get promotion.

“It is getting worse and worse so we decided to forget about football for three or four days and play some golf. While the players are relaxing they will be training fairly hard.

“Their frame of mind is important and on Saturday they gave a poor performance in spite of beating Hereford 3-1.

“That is not what we are looking for. A lot of nerve ends showed on Saturday and the break will give us a chance to work more closely with them.

“We have four results to get, starting with Luton on Saturday and we aim to be prepared.”

Greaves confidently predicted that County would fall away as challengers and that it would come down to Wanderers and Brian Clough’s Forest for the final promotion spot.

“I believe that Wolves and Chelsea will get the points they need and at the end of the day it will between us and Forest,” he said.

“What we have done over the last few weeks in training is start from scratch, to try and remove mistakes. We have spent a lot of time recapping certain aspects of our game.”

John Sillett’s Hereford were already well adrift at the foot of the table when they travelled to the North West but the nervousness in Bolton’s play made for a surprisingly even contest.

It took an own goal by goalkeeper Tommy Hughes to put the Whites on the winning path, his punch from a wicked in-swinging Roy Greaves cross ending up in the net after 35 minutes.

Bolton improved and Steve Ritchie cleared a Sam Allardyce header off the line before Steve Emery did the same to stop Steve Taylor making it two.

Hereford refused to go quietly, though, and it took until the 80th minute to find a second goal, Allardyce getting on the end of Willie Morgan’s corner and squeezing the ball past Emery on the post.

Even then there was time for late drama as Roy Carter turned in Jimmy Lindsay’s cross. In their hurry to find an equaliser, Hereford left space behind them, and Taylor was able to capitalise a minute from the end to give the score-line a flattering look.

“It was more like a Fourth Division game,” moaned Greaves after the final whistle. “But it doesn’t matter to me. We have entertained enough this season.”

Wanderers, who released goalkeeper Andy Slack and defenders Brian Hart and Gary Johnson, were also relieved to get Peter Reid back safe and sound for the run-in.

The midfielder had made his England Under-21 debut in a 1-0 win against Scotland at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane.

“He did very well,” Greaves said of Reid’s performance in a game won by Laurie Cunningham’s goal. “It was the first time the players had got together and it showed at times.

“It the squad can keep intact I feel sure they can go from strength to strength. There was a lot of talent on show.”

Elsewhere, Peter Thompson took to the town square to sell copies of his testimonial brochure alongside the Bolton Evening News staff.

Sir Malcolm Campbell’s land speed record was beaten after 51 years. Robert Horne clocked an average 191.64 mph at an RAF base in Gloucestershire.

ABBA’s Knowing Me, Knowing You was number one in the charts and British broadcaster David Frost interviewed US president Richard Nixon over the Watergate scandal, with the programme aired five days later.