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The last Bolton Wanderers team to lift a domestic knockout trophy at Wembley 34 years ago will be well represented once again this weekend.
Indeed, in the case of Mark Winstanley and John Thomas, even the shirt they wore when lifting the Sherpa Van Trophy will be with them in the crowd on Sunday – albeit on the back of one of their sons!
The two former Wanderers can still recall their glorious day of sunshine, bucket hats and inflatables, where Phil Neal’s side ran out comfortable winners against Fourth Division Torquay United to end what had then been 31 years without success in the cup competitions.
Newly promoted and riding on the wave of a long unbeaten run before the May 28 final, Bolton had booked their place at Wembley with a two-legged victory against Blackpool, Steve Thompson’s penalty proving the difference between the two sides.
Neal and his assistant based their team at the Bellhouse Hotel in Beaconsfield, and also got some training time at Lilleshall and Beaconsfield FC a couple of days before the final. They would soon be joined by a throng of Wanderers fans and, unbeknownst to the coaching staff, a big wedding party on eve of the game.
“It was so noisy me and Jules (Darby) had to drag Steve Thompson’s bed into our room so he could get some sleep,” Winstanley recalled. “Jeff Chandler roomed with him – but he could sleep through anything!”
Interrupted sleep aside, preparations for the game had gone well. Just over 27,000 Bolton supporters boarded the coaches and ‘specials’ en route to Wembley, far outnumbering the Torquay contingent on the day.
“I remember Alf Davies (Bolton’s former commercial manager) telling me about Ian Greaves bringing Mansfield to Wembley the year before,” Thomas told us. “He had been so taken by the sight of the supporters as you drove into Wembley, he told the driver to drive around the block and do it again.
“So, I wanted to take in all that happiness as much as I possibly could. I went and sat right at the front by the gear stick so I could watch the whole thing out of the big window. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it now.”
There was a sprinkling of stardust before kick-off as players were introduced to Elton John, who was about to launch his new single “Sacrifice” and had recently started a new tour.
“My wife asked me if I’d said anything to him,” added Thomas. “I shook him by the hands and said we’d both seen him in Birmingham a week earlier and we’d really enjoyed it. He said ‘thanks!’”
The game itself was played in blistering heat and though Torquay took the lead through Dean Edwards, Julian Darby restored parity and Bolton gradually took control.
“When you are sat watching the FA Cup final on the TV when you are a kid, it always looks sunny,” Winstanley said. “But I’m telling you, that day it was absolutely roasting.
“The old groundsman, Alan Whittle, told me that the pitch at Burnden Park was exactly the same size as Wembley but it didn’t feel that way when you were running around in that heat.”
Wanderers rode their luck a little in the early stages of the second half as Torquay hit the woodwork but once Jeff Chandler put them ahead – “the world’s biggest deflection,” added Winstanley – there was no looking back.
Dean Crombie scored the third, a goal which many Whites fans of a certain vintage believe is one of the best scored in a cup final.
“He didn’t get many,” said Thomas. “But you look at that back and it’s still a terrific goal, and that pretty much killed things off for us.”
“The good thing is that he doesn’t like to mention it,” grinned Winstanley. “But if John Stones had gone and scored a goal like that in a Wembley final, we’d all be talking about £100m players. It’s a shame that because it was two lower league clubs at the time it probably doesn’t get the attention it deserves.”
The day was capped off by big forward, Trevor Morgan, who scored the fourth and then produced a forward roll in front of the fans, many boasting pre-nineties fopp fringes, baggy Madchester fashion and inflatable Norpigs.
Wanderers quite literally had their moment in the sun, and the players were determined to enjoy it.
“It sounds strange saying it but we were a really normal bunch of lads,” Winstanley said. “There were no prima donnas, and in my time at Bolton I don’t think we ever had anyone in the team that wouldn’t run his backside off for you.
“When you have got a team like that it can make things happen. Ask Arsenal, Liverpool or Everton – they were all favourites, but they couldn’t live with us.
“It was no different that day. It was a great feeling once the final whistle had gone to know you were walking up to get a winner’s medal and to lift the trophy.
“I’m not really one for the limelight but I just remember being chuffed to bits for the people around me and looking at the faces of the fans. It was just a brilliant experience all around.”
Should Ian Evatt’s side emerge victorious on Sunday evening, celebrations are likely to be checked, given the proximity of the game at Exeter City the following Friday, and the seven league games thereafter.
Back in 1989 there was no such problem.
“The Champagne flowed, although knowing our lot it was probably something cheaper than that,” Winstanley said.
“I remember the Torquay fans staying behind and clapping us off the pitch,” added Thomas, whose shirt and winner's medal still have pride of place at home. “Me and Trevor Morgan grabbed a giant flag and started heading to the other side of the pitch where the Bolton fans were.Thomas had been in the crowd in 2011 when Wanderers were heavily beaten by Stoke City in the FA Cup semi-final, his son, Dylan, wearing his Sherpa Van Trophy shirt.
The hurt that day – echoed, even magnified for years afterwards as Bolton spiralled – also sticks in the former striker’s memory.
“It was a horrible day against Stoke, they just didn’t turn up,” he said. “It has been tough times for the club and we don’t know how close it came from going out of business.
“Now it looks like they have the right people in charge and a good manager doing a good job, it has been a complete turnaround.
“It would be fantastic for everyone in the town if they won. It lifts the whole place.
“I can remember swapping buses and going into the town centre on an open top ride, seeing thousands of them. They had even somehow managed to get on to top of BHS!”
Winstanley reckons Evatt’s players will need no more motivation than to look up at 34,000 fans in the Bolton end.
“Stoke wasn’t a good day,” he said. “You go out there for yourself, first and foremost, because you are a footballer, it’s what you have trained to do. But it is when you look up there and you know how much it means to people, that’s when it really hits home.
“I’d be chuffed for them to go and win on Sunday, for the whole town, because it hasn’t been the best few years. Thankfully it looks like things are heading back in the right direction.”
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