Best BWFC season from a fan's perspective

Whilst it's another offing international break, thought I'd ask what in your view was the best season to be a BWFC fan? We've had some stinkers and some crackers and I have a fondness for all the teams I've seen since the '50s but I'm going for 1996/97 when we were promoted to the top tier under Colin Todd.

Started off with a number of concerns including letting a few of our better players leave including Fabien Defreitas, Alan Stubbs and Sasa Curcic - raking in £8million in the process. I was wondering how we'd cope without them as I knew very little about the signings he brought in - a couple of Danes called Frandsen and Johansen. The Brits he signed - Neil Cox, John Sheridan and Jamie Pollock were all known quantities and not especially impressive from a fans point of view. Having been relegated from the top tier the previous season we had to cut the wages though.

The season got underway with a boring 1- 1 away at Port Vale and TBH I was fearing the worst, but after successive wins against Man City, Norwich and QPR we were looking promising. Despite a hiccup away at Southend, we pressed on and rocketed up the table.

Looked like it was all going tits up by November/December when a run of 6 draws and 2 defeats saw us slide back but from there on in we just seemed to get better and better.

We had a decent run in the League Cup beating Chelsea and then memorably a 6 - 1 home win against Spurs, but it was our league form that made watching the Wanderers an absolute joy that season.

We finished with 100 goals (that's entertainment folks!) and would have had 100 points if we'd won the last match away at Tranmere instead of drawing so had to settle for 98 - and the title and promotion. Happy days.

Yes that is the season I would pick too.  

Still seething over that late Tranmere equaliser.

xmiles wrote:Yes that is the season I would pick too.  

Still seething over that late Tranmere equaliser.

There's no pleasing some people.... We won the league by a street amigo - 18 points or something like that. And moreover, we looked forward to every game instead of dreading it.

Have to agree on the 96/97 season, went to 95% of the matches that season, my two personal favourites were winning at Stoke with 10 men(after Nathan Blake was wrongly sent off)  and winning the title at City with Scott Sellars wonder goal. Great times.

I don't think Neil Cox was there that season though.

For me it's 1977/78. I was eight and it was the first season in which mum let me go to night games with dad on a schoolnight and we got promoted to Division 1 in part thanks to a Frank Worthington goal against Blackburn Rovers. Every match that season was an adventure, especially the midweek away games where we sometimes got home long after midnight. For me the players were Titans and Ian Greaves was the master of the universe. I can't remember a single match that I didn't enjoy regardless of the result because it was all time spent with dad away from things like bed time and home work and is your room tidy? Maybe the football on offer wasn't the best but I didn't know that then and I don't care now. It was all magic.

Finishing 4th bottom is maybe a strange one but I would go for the 2002/03 season.Okocha and Campo both signed in the summer to join Djorkaeff.It was the first season of the galacticos
Highlights in the first half of the season were the midweek win at Old Trafford which I attended and the Boxing Day seven goal thriller v Newcastle.
It was the run in of the last ten games or so that really made this season memorable.The facts are that we won 5, drew 3 and lost 1 of the last 9 games to pip West Ham by 2 points.
Our first league win over Spurs in a generation thanks to an injury time JJ penalty was a joyous night and then came the match v West Ham when Jay Jay scored his iconic goal to win 1-0.My feeling was that big spenders West Ham would have to much for us but that match was an attitude changer for me.We had a great manager and a match winner in JJ.
We then had that heroic second half fightback from 2-0 down to snatch a point against Arsenal and the penultimate match was a very nervy 0-0 draw at Southampton.I made the journey to St Marys for the evening kick off with a good 2,000 other Bolton fans.West Ham beat Chelsea in the afternoon to move one point above us so it was a huge match.Memories are of a pretty drab but hugely important point to take us into the last match knowing a win v Middlesbrough would keep us up.
A match as big as a play off final for us and they did the business going 2-0 up early on to send big spenders West Ham into the 2nd tier.

We finished that season with 10 wins 14 draws and 14 defeats to show the standard needed to finish 4th bottom that season

Growler wrote:Finishing 4th bottom is maybe a strange one but I would go for the 2002/03 season.Okocha and Campo both signed in the summer to join Djorkaeff.It was the first season of the galacticos
Highlights in the first half of the season were the midweek win at Old Trafford which I attended and the Boxing Day seven goal thriller v Newcastle.
It was the run in of the last ten games or so that really made this season memorable.The facts are that we won 5, drew 3 and lost 1 of the last 9 games to pip West Ham by 2 points.
Our first league win over Spurs in a generation thanks to an injury time JJ penalty was a joyous night and then came the match v West Ham when Jay Jay scored his iconic goal to win 1-0.My feeling was that big spenders West Ham would have to much for us but that match was an attitude changer for me.We had a great manager and a match winner in JJ.
We then had that heroic second half fightback from 2-0 down to snatch a point against Arsenal and the penultimate match was a very nervy 0-0 draw at Southampton.I made the journey to St Marys for the evening kick off with a good 2,000 other Bolton fans.West Ham beat Chelsea in the afternoon to move one point above us so it was a huge match.Memories are of a pretty drab but hugely important point to take us into the last match knowing a win v Middlesbrough would keep us up.
A match as big as a play off final for us and they did the business going 2-0 up early on to send big spenders West Ham into the 2nd tier.

We finished that season with 10 wins 14 draws and 14 defeats to show the standard needed to finish 4th bottom that season

Yes I remember that season. Signing Laville seemed to be the turning point. It was a real blow when he was badly injured a few games into the 2003-04 season.