Bert Tyldesley followed the fortunes of Bolton Wanderers through eight decades and kept a diary of his time in the terraces. With the kind permission of his family, we bring you his reflections on that journal, entitled: 75 Years a Wandering.

The Bolton News:

BRUCE Rioch had sent some of his players out to the freezing fans queuing for tickets to see Arsenal’s FA Cup visit to Burnden Park, armed with mugs and jugs of warm tea.

No wonder there was such interest. Arsenal were the holders of both major domestic cups and had not lost in this competition since January 1992, two years previously.

But come matchday, Wanderers set about the Gunners with a contempt which had to be see to be believed.

It had been all Bolton, with several near misses at the Arsenal end. More or less on the half-hour John McGinlay created an opening for Jason McAteer to coolly slip the ball under the body of the great David Seaman. Uproar! The Geriatric Shelf joined in with a well-orchestrated wheeze.

Leading 1-0 at half time having been much the better side, the Wanderers were hardly composed and prepared for what was about to happen five minutes or so into the second-half. Ian Wright took advantage of a lucky rebound to equalise, and 10 minutes later, the inevitable Tony Adams stole in on the blind side to put the cup holders in pole position.

Believe me, all of us on the Geriatric Shelf, all those in front of the terraces, all those behind the wing stand seats, it was an injustice. Only one team deserved to be in front and that was Wanderers.

But no team of Bruce Rioch's is beaten by being nearly knocked out. They shook their collective heads, composed themselves once more into the superior side on the day they undoubtedly were, and in the 25 minutes remaining preceded to give the high-and-mighty Gunners the rounds of the kitchen.

Late as it was - on some watches only three minutes remained, although the official timekeepers said four - it was time enough when Owen Coyle decisively beat Seaman to book a journey to Highbury.

If it was uproar when the first goal went in, it was euphoria when the second bulged the net.

The geriatric shelf wheezed itself almost into oblivion, and strange to tell, not one either there or anywhere in the Bolton section of the crowd considered the visited to Highbury anything other than a routine problem.

All the same, 10,150 Burnden spectators watched the Wanderers routinely dispose of Watford on February 5, 1994, the smart money was on Arsenal for the returning encounter just a few days later on the ninth, after all, it was only common sense.

And events seemed to be conspiring in the big boys’ favour as the Wanderers were delayed by heavy traffic on the way to Highbury and arrived a little hot under the collar. This showed in the opening quarter of an hour, or so, when the Gunners were on top and should have gone ahead through Kevin Campbell. But Campbell missed, and with that miss it seemed Arsenal’s chance of retaining the cup had vanished.

Around 20 minutes into the game David Lee graced us with one of his telegenic blockbusters which forced Seaman to push away for a corner. Mark Patterson’s kick encouraged a bout of head tennis, which culminated in Phil Brown finding the ever-reliable Mcginlay, who was only too pleased to complete the exchange with a goal from close range.

Following proceedings ad hoc on the radio (I was at a school governors’ meeting) I learned Alan Smith had grabbed an equaliser 10 minutes or so before half time.

But as the second-half progressed, all the football was coming from Wanderers, with the Premier League giants huffing and puffing, hanging on for grim death in front of their own supporters.

I missed a lot of this because of a flurry of phone calls but the game returned to my attention 10 minutes into extra time when I was able to pick up a melee between Nigel Winterburn and Owen Coyle which let in Jason McAteer for an open goal.

Then, 15 minutes later, I watched an error by Lee Dixon, which let in substitute Andy Walker for a cool cross-shot, which sealed the game Oh, my Wanderers. And, oh, the television highlights later on. We had waited a long time for this kind of occasion, but it seemed so worth it.

Three days later we were playing Derby County at the Baseball Ground in front of 16,000 or so spectators, which was recognised as a non-event. It was not about the league this year, it was about the cup, and so we were not unduly upset at a 2-0 defeat which consigned us to the nether regions of the First Division once more.

All the attention switched to a forthcoming encounter just eight days ahead against Aston Villa at Burnden Park in the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Yet another Premier League scalp lay in the waiting, Mr Bojangles, Ron Atkinson, and all.