Do you miss Burnden Park?

Just read a nice story about AFC Wimbledon finally getting back to their spiritual home after 18 years away from Plough Lane. They now have a new stadium which opens this week.

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It got me thinking about our move to the Reebok, yes it is a great stadium but the atmosphere has never been the same in my opinion. Most of my best memories involve games at Burnden Park and the rise through the divisions under Rioch.

I know by the end it was a shithole but could we have redeveloped Burnden Park and stayed where we were instead of moving to Horwich?

What's done is done, but I do miss the old place. I was taken to my first game in 1959, and virtually lived there from that day on.
Nearly all my best memories are of BP. The smell of strong pipe tobacco and even stronger spirits, was always the first thing that hit me as I pushed through the turnstiles. Always a brilliant atmosphere, which, sadly, hasn't been replicated inside our new home.
That last game against Palace was a great farewell, but a sad one, and I shed more than a few tears that night. I'm sure many did.

I'll never forget the day I drove along St Peters Way from Manchester Airport to Egerton and Burnden Park was gone. I was close to tears.

My happiest memories as a Bolton fan were spent on Burnden Terrace and although I can recall some pretty miserable times there were many more great ones with some fantastic football played on that ground.

I think I left the UK around a month after our first game at The Reebok so it hasn't ever really feel like home for me despite seeing many great games there during the Premier League years. It obviously hosted an amazing period for the club with incredible talent on display and us performing to a level that I don't suppose we'll ever see again but it never had the same atmosphere and spirit that Burnden had for me.

It seems like a very very long time ago now but Burnden recalls my fondest memories of watching the Whites.

boltonbonce wrote:What's done is done, but I do miss the old place. I was taken to my first game in 1959, and virtually lived there from that day on.
Nearly all my best memories are of BP. The smell of strong pipe tobacco and even stronger spirits, was always the first thing that hit me as I pushed through the turnstiles. Always a brilliant atmosphere, which, sadly, hasn't been replicated inside our new home.
That last game against Palace was a great farewell, but a sad one, and I shed more than a few tears that night. I'm sure many did.

Think you'll find it was Charlton, Boncey

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Charlton. My God, now my mind is going. Had to check the programme to be certain.

I put the wrong bins out too. This is serious.

boltonbonce wrote:Charlton. My God, now my mind is going. Had to check the programme to be certain.

I didn't have to check, Bonsey. I remembered the Charlton supporters who, to a man, stood and applauded the Bolton team at the end of the match. It confirmed a long-held view that there was something different about supporters of clubs like Charlton and Fulham when compared with the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea.

But I also remember Charlton as one of the first visiting clubs I saw at Burnden Park when Stan Hanson was in our goal and the legendary Sam Bartram theirs.

I remember a home game against Man City. I was in the Embankment for that game. I remember it as there was a pie fight going on. People were throwing meat and potato pies over the barriers at each other. This went on for 20 minutes or so, sporadically. Then the City fans jumped the railings and got into our end. After pandemonium for 5 minutes the Police threw them back out. I was very young.

Like a lot of us, got a lot of good memories of Burnden, from the late 50's till the last game there but time moves on, fortunately i can mostly remember the good ones, just the one that wont go away That Sunday.

Anyway i've been lucky enough to have been  going nearly every week, sometimes three times a week for the last 5 years apart from the first lockdown with a great set of people and now it looks like i'll be missing it again, Dam the Covid