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Peter Reid admitted the only positive to come out of his first game back at Bolton Wanderers in 34 years was that he didn’t have to thumb a lift home.
Beaten out of sight by Bristol City before the international break, a difficult journey back to the North West was made worse by a mistake at the petrol pumps on the M5.
Now, the former Sunderland boss – back at his first professional club to lend a coaching hand with Jimmy Phillips until the end of the season – wants Wanderers to show they still have something left in the tank.
“I have never been a good loser and I can imagine how people felt after the Bristol game,” he told The Bolton News. “I know how I felt, especially when you’re at the motorway services and you put unleaded petrol in your diesel car because your head has gone. It isn’t a great sight and I didn’t have a good Saturday.
“I got back and my car was like a Fred Flintstone car. It was lashing down, we’d just been done six, and the car was bumping along. I’m thinking ‘oh please just get me home.’
“I had one crumb of comfort, that I got home, and then it cost me a few quid getting it drained – but that’s another story.
“I understand fans paid good money to watch that performance but honestly if you’d have been with me on that Saturday journey home I was just as bad.
“Now I look at it this way: I have to enjoy it, and if I can help the new owners in any way, I will. We have eight games left – let’s get on with it.”
There is no hiding how delighted Reid is to be back in football, let alone at a club that has remained close to his heart through a distinguished career as player and manager.
He still lives in the town, still picks up a copy of The Bolton (Evening) News to check on the club’s progress, and still recalls the day he walked into Burnden Park to be confronted by the hulking presence of Nat Lofthouse in the gym – a moment he says brought home the importance of representing Wanderers.
“It’s getting like all our yesteryears,” the 59-year-old said, before launching into another anecdote about his early days at Bromwich Street.
Whether Reid or indeed interim boss Phillips is a part of Wanderers future beyond this season remains to be seen and might just depend on how the pair do in the next eight games, starting with tomorrow’s visit of Reading.
But the Liverpudlian is keen to make the most of the time he has back at Bolton, and will be reminding everyone what they are playing for.
“I have lived round here since 15,” he said. “I’m a proud Scouser but this is my adopted home, no doubt about it.
“The history of Bolton Wanderers has never left me.
“It is about supporters; the ordinary bloke in the street.
“I know loads of the celebrity fans – Danny Jones, Vernon Kay and people like that and they love the club but the lifeblood of this club is the working man.
“Owners will come and go. People in the boardroom will come and go. This club belongs to the supporters.
“Do we have to remind the fans what a great history this club has got? I don’t think we do. We should be tapping into it and making sure we go again.
“It will happen – look at clubs like Swansea City or Bournemouth who have been down there at low ebbs. With great respect to clubs like those two they don’t have the tradition and history of this place.”
Despite the 6-0 hammering at Ashton Gate before the international break, Reid admitted he had to keep his well-documented temper under wraps in the dressing room.
“I was involved in a documentary at Sunderland where they showed me in the dressing room being a little bit volatile,” he said.
“You can’t do that all the time. As bad as the players were, I know it was a one-off.
“I can understand it and sometimes when you look at people you have to know when to pick your time and place, and that wasn’t it.
“It might have been if they’d been with me putting petrol in the flipping car, though.
“I was involved at a team that got beat 7-0 at QPR on that plastic pitch. I’m not blaming that by the way but it happens. And we had some good players in that team.
“We have to front up now. That can’t happen again.”
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Beaten out of sight by Bristol City before the international break, a difficult journey back to the North West was made worse by a mistake at the petrol pumps on the M5.
Now, the former Sunderland boss – back at his first professional club to lend a coaching hand with Jimmy Phillips until the end of the season – wants Wanderers to show they still have something left in the tank.
“I have never been a good loser and I can imagine how people felt after the Bristol game,” he told The Bolton News. “I know how I felt, especially when you’re at the motorway services and you put unleaded petrol in your diesel car because your head has gone. It isn’t a great sight and I didn’t have a good Saturday.
“I got back and my car was like a Fred Flintstone car. It was lashing down, we’d just been done six, and the car was bumping along. I’m thinking ‘oh please just get me home.’
“I had one crumb of comfort, that I got home, and then it cost me a few quid getting it drained – but that’s another story.
“I understand fans paid good money to watch that performance but honestly if you’d have been with me on that Saturday journey home I was just as bad.
“Now I look at it this way: I have to enjoy it, and if I can help the new owners in any way, I will. We have eight games left – let’s get on with it.”
There is no hiding how delighted Reid is to be back in football, let alone at a club that has remained close to his heart through a distinguished career as player and manager.
He still lives in the town, still picks up a copy of The Bolton (Evening) News to check on the club’s progress, and still recalls the day he walked into Burnden Park to be confronted by the hulking presence of Nat Lofthouse in the gym – a moment he says brought home the importance of representing Wanderers.
“It’s getting like all our yesteryears,” the 59-year-old said, before launching into another anecdote about his early days at Bromwich Street.
Whether Reid or indeed interim boss Phillips is a part of Wanderers future beyond this season remains to be seen and might just depend on how the pair do in the next eight games, starting with tomorrow’s visit of Reading.
But the Liverpudlian is keen to make the most of the time he has back at Bolton, and will be reminding everyone what they are playing for.
“I have lived round here since 15,” he said. “I’m a proud Scouser but this is my adopted home, no doubt about it.
“The history of Bolton Wanderers has never left me.
“It is about supporters; the ordinary bloke in the street.
“I know loads of the celebrity fans – Danny Jones, Vernon Kay and people like that and they love the club but the lifeblood of this club is the working man.
“Owners will come and go. People in the boardroom will come and go. This club belongs to the supporters.
“Do we have to remind the fans what a great history this club has got? I don’t think we do. We should be tapping into it and making sure we go again.
“It will happen – look at clubs like Swansea City or Bournemouth who have been down there at low ebbs. With great respect to clubs like those two they don’t have the tradition and history of this place.”
Despite the 6-0 hammering at Ashton Gate before the international break, Reid admitted he had to keep his well-documented temper under wraps in the dressing room.
“I was involved in a documentary at Sunderland where they showed me in the dressing room being a little bit volatile,” he said.
“You can’t do that all the time. As bad as the players were, I know it was a one-off.
“I can understand it and sometimes when you look at people you have to know when to pick your time and place, and that wasn’t it.
“It might have been if they’d been with me putting petrol in the flipping car, though.
“I was involved at a team that got beat 7-0 at QPR on that plastic pitch. I’m not blaming that by the way but it happens. And we had some good players in that team.
“We have to front up now. That can’t happen again.”
Source