Sherpa Van Trophy Memories

Dean Crombie recalls his famous Wembley goal that helped Bolton Wanderers to Trophy glory

GLORIOUS sunshine bathed 25,000 jubilant Wanderers supporters at Wembley as they watched a swaggering performance that graced the hallowed turf – who could forget the Sherpa Van Trophy final?

It is 25 years since Phil Neal’s side outclassed Torquay United under the Twin Towers and lifted what remains their last piece of silverware in a knockout competition.

Wanderers had been down in the doldrums, their demise complete after relegation to the old Fourth Division for the first time in their history.

Immediate promotion to the Third Division had got the Whites moving back in the right direction but it was not until a magical day on May 28, 1989, that the club’s long-suffering fans really got a chance to celebrate.

The man most associated with the 4-1 victory is Dean Crombie – then an experienced midfielder who had played more than 300 times for Grimsby Town, but who did not have a reputation as a regular goalscorer.

His goal, the third of the afternoon, was one that is still eulogised about among Bolton fans to this day.

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“I’ve recalled it once or twice,” said Crombie, now working in the Wanderers Academy set-up. “But Peter Nicholson tells it better than I do. I think I won the ball back in my 18-yard box and I just carried on running – which was a bit novel back then because they didn’t want to break that far down the pitch.

“Jeff Chandler and John Thomas were involved and then all of a sudden I was bearing in on goal. I was thinking ‘what am I going to do now?’ “I didn’t get much time to think about it, and it was one of those surreal moments watching it bounce into the net. It is the moment that people remember me for, and I like that fans still talk about it, not in a big-headed kind of way because it almost takes away from everything else I did in my playing career, but to be there and share it all with the players and half the town; it was a very special moment.”

If the scenes had been joyous during 90 minutes, they were nothing compared to what happened over the next 24 hours.

“It was quite ridiculous, from the changing room onwards,” Crombie said.

“We had a fantastic time because as a group there were no airs or graces in the team – if someone stepped out of line, there was someone else to put them back in again.

“The camaraderie was incredible, so the dinner we had afterwards with players, staff and the families – even people like George Warbuton were there – it was a great night.

“Needless to say the journey back was a long one the next day but when we turned up at Burnden Park there were thousands of people to greet us.

“Then we had the civic thing at the Town Hall and it was just ridiculous how many people had crammed in around the place. It was surreal.

“I’d done something similar at Grimsby when we got back-to-back promotions but to see the whole town turn out and celebrate was something I won’t forget.”

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David Felgate says Bolton Wanderers fans were like an extra man in Wembley triumph


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IT was a special day Wanderers goalkeeper David Felgate thought may never arrive after a three-year wait to grace the Wembley turf.

The Sherpa Van Trophy final of 1989 saw the Whites win silverware at Wembley for the first time since the FA Cup side of 1958.

For Felgate, it had been a shorter wait after he was cruelly denied the chance to play for Wanderers in the Freight Rover Trophy final in 1986.

On loan at Burnden Park from Grimsby Town, Felgate’s spell came to an end before the big Wembley date against Bristol City and he was denied a chance to play under the famous Twin Towers.

The Welsh stopper signed for the Whites and, fortunately for him, they were back at Wembley three years later.

Wanderers fell behind to a Dean Edwards header in the first half, but hit back through Julian Darby.

Second-half strikes via a John Morrison own goal, Dean Crombie and Trevor Morgan sealed a 4-1 win and gave Felgate that feeling he had dreamt of for years.

Felgate told The Bolton News: “I remember the feeling I had when I found out I could not play against Bristol City and it was awful.

“My loan had ended a week earlier and I even think their boss, Terry Cooper, was okay with me playing but it wasn’t to be.

“You wonder if you will ever get the chance to play at Wembley again.

“Thankfully, it came my way three years later and what a special day it was.

“I remember we went down really early and stayed down in London and there was a great team spirit in that group of players.

“We prepared well and went into it confident after ending the season with a run of 19 games unbeaten. I just couldn’t see us losing.

“We just needed it to all come right on the day and thankfully we fired on all cylinders.”

Felgate wanted to soak the occasion in full and vividly remembers the noise levels walking onto the pitch.

Despite falling behind to Cyril Knowles’s side, Felgate always felt Wanderers would go on to win and so it proved.

The 54-year-old, who now works as a coach at Manchester City, added: “We started brightly and then conceded from a corner and I think and it was a bit of a shock to the system.

“But we were confident and when we got level, I was not to concede again.

“I made a couple of saves at 2-1 but that was my job – they were saves I was expected to make.

“But I didn’t concede again and we scored two more, including that Dean Crombie goal where he just ran and ran and kept going to score.

“It was that special feeling when the final whistle went.

“I sat on the floor afterwards trying to let it all sink in and was trying to find my family and enjoy it with them.

“I was drained but you forgot your tiredness to sprint up the stairs to get your winner’s medal and I remember Elton John handing the trophy over.

“Then it was celebrations in front of something like 25,000 Wanderers fans before heading back to the dressing rooms and those big old baths.

“The fans were special that day, and during my whole time at Bolton, because they travelled in big numbers everywhere.

“To win a cup for them was fantastic because they really were like an extra man for us in games.”

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Julian Darby in a daze after his Wembley heroics


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Julian Darby, second left, celebrates with Trevor Morgan, John Thomas and Robby Savage after scoring Wanderers' equaliser at Wembley.


JULIAN Darby will never forget fulfilling his boyhood dream, scoring at Wembley and lifting a trophy – just don’t ask him what happened next!

More than 25,000 Bolton fans had swarmed down south in the blazing late May sunshine, returning in party mood to celebrate with the players outside the Town Hall the very next day.

But for boyhood Wanderer Darby, whose crucial strike had dragged Phil Neal’s side level early on in the game, the 24 hours after the final whistle were something of a haze.

Darby hadn’t been at the bubbly, even though there was plenty of the fizzy stuff being passed round the dressing room after the club’s first cup triumph since 1958.

Rather it was a mixture of dehydration and concussion that laid the midfielder low in his hotel room as fans, players and staff partied hard into the night.

“The doctor told me I had to stay in my room and just drink water, I just wasn’t with it,” Darby recalled. “I can’t remember much of it at all – even when we came back to Bolton on Sunday and did the parade, my head just wasn’t there.

“I remember someone from the Bolton Evening News coming to ask me a question and I just stared blankly at them. I just didn’t have anything left".

The heat – 91 degrees according to the weatherman on the day but much hotter at pitchside – made for a bad day to go a goal down early in the game.

“It was a cauldron,” Darby said. “There was nowhere for the heat to go, so when Torquay scored we needed to get back into the game right away or we’d be done for.”

Wanderers were red-hot favourites, unbeaten in 19 games going into the final and looking to set a new club record at 20.

Torquay had shocked Wolves in the semi-final and seized an early lead through Dean Edwards before Darby played out his dream four minutes later.

“I remember their keeper was an old lad, about 6ft 4ins tall, so when I spun and hit the ball from a corner I just remember telling myself ‘keep it low, keep it low,’ said Darby, who made 346 appearances for the Whites.

“It must be every boy’s dream to score at Wembley. I’d played there for England Schoolboys aged 15 but this was the first time I’d actually started a game there.

“It’s one of those things that will never leave me.”

Victory at Wembley also provided some redemption for manager Neal, who had found himself at odds with the club’s fans when a poor spell over the Christmas period dragged Wanderers temporarily into a relegation battle.

Farnworth-born Darby had some sympathy for the manager, who had given him his big break in professional football in the old Fourth Division, and who had seen how the Hillsborough Disaster six weeks earlier had affected the Liverpool legend.

“I always got on well with Phil,” he said. “He was in charge during a tough time for the club.

“Burnden Park had seen better days, we were training on any old park pitches we could find because Bromwich Street had been sold, and yet he got us going in the right direction.

“Wembley came at a difficult time for him personally because the Hillsborough tragedy happened the week before we beat Blackpool in the Northern Area final and you could tell it had hit him hard.

“Everyone involved with Liverpool knew someone who had suffered and you could see by the way he acted in that game that he wasn’t himself.

“He was subdued. He sat down instead of being up and down the touchline.

“To keep going with all that happening must have been really hard for him.

“But on a personal level, he gave me my chance. I owe him a lot.”

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one of my best Wanderers memories, i recently found a picture of me on the Wembley steps from before this game, Looking all young and wide-eyed as it was my first visit to Wembley.

Dean Crombies goal is still one of my favourites and who can forget Trevor Morgan and his sumo role on the pitch  

Its so long ago Reg Varney (on the buses) was driving the bus, seriously it was a great day apart from all the piss running down the wembley steps.

It was bloody hot that day, wasn't it?

Here are the goals.

(Scroll to about 5 mins in for the action. Sorry about the music. Jimmy Somerville is obviously popular in Torquay.)

Happy Days.

Sherpa Van Trophy Memories: How the Bolton Evening News reported the match at the time

Bolton Evening News, Monday May 29, 1989 A day to remember Wanderers savour cup triumph BOLTON WANDERERS 4 TORQUAY UNITED 1 Report by GORDON SHARROCK

THE bitter taste of defeat in 86 made success in 89 all the sweeter as Wanderers triumphed in style at Wembley yesterday.

Jubilant players savoured every moment of a day that will go down in history and stay forever in the memory.

Dave Felgate, robbed of his Wembley place three years ago, was last to leave the field. John Thomas grabbed his family and friends and trooped back up the tunnel while others just soaked up the atmosphere of the greatest day of their lives.

And no-one was happier than proud manager Phil Neal, who rated the triumph as highly as anything he had managed in his record-breaking days with Liverpool.

Yet amid the celebrations Neal found time to consider the feelings of Cyril Knowles, the Torquay manager who led his club to the greatest day in their history only to bow out to a superior team effort.

Neil cast his mind back to Wanderers’ 1986 defeat at the hands of Bristol City in the Freight Rover final. “I know exactly how Cyril feels because I was in his position,” Neal said.

“But he knows his players have made an awful lot of people happy.”

Knowles said his side did not deserve to lose by such a wide margin but accepted Neal’s point and admitted: “It’s been a fantastic day.”

Torquay had their day out at Wembley but Wanderers were there to win the cup. And they did it the hard way, coming from behind to give 25,000 cheering fans four memorable goals to enjoy an all-round team performance to remember for a long time to come.

Wembley was a fitting, sun-drenched stage on which to set a new 20-match unbeaten record. But with the temperature at 91 degrees, it was not a place to be chasing the game.

Fortunately, they were not behind for long after Dean Edwards had given Torquay a shock lead.

Having been in control, Wanderers were caught out by the always dangerous near-post corner.

Had it not been for Bolton’s own Julian Darby spinning and hitting the equaliser within four minutes it might just have been an uphill battle.

Back on terms Wanderers got back into the groove and the only question was whether they could turn their superior quality into the goals that would give them the trophy.

The answer came in a second half of frantic excitement.

Jeff Chandler’s shot deflecting off the luckless John Morrison for the second on 63 minutes; Dean Crombie racing almost the length of the field to start and finish a move that brought him his first goal for the club on 79 and three minutes later Stuart Storer providing the cross with his first touch of the ball to lay on the fourth for Trevor Morgan – the first goal by a Bolton striker in the entire Sherpa Van run.

Yet at 2-1 Felgate made two quite exceptional saves to deny Daral Pugh and Mark Loram goals that could have ruined Wanderers’ day of glory.

The roles of Chandler and Storer totally justified Neal’s selection policy. Chandler was to start the game with Storer – recently nicknamed “Exocet” because of his explosive speed – being introduced late on to torment tired Torquay legs.

More importantly, the victory and the lifting of the trophy fully justified the Bolton board’s decision to back Neal three months ago when his position was in serious jeopardy.

Neal asked his players to go out yesterday and win in some style. They played with passion and drive in a game that proved a terrific advert for the lower divisions and put pride back into the name of Bolton Wanderers.

Wanderers
Felgate, Brown, Cowdrill, Savage, Crombie, Winstanley, Chandler, Thompson, Thomas, Morgan, Darby. Subs: Storer (for Chandler, 80) and Stevens.

Torquay
Allen, Pugh, Kelley, McNichol, Elliott, Loram, Airey, Lloyd, Edwards, Weston, Morrison. Subs: Smith (for Airey, 71) and Joyce (for Weston, 72).

Attendance: 46,513.

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The day put pride back into the town, recalls Bolton Wanderers manager Phil Neal

Phil Neal’s abiding memory of Wanderers’ glorious triumph over Torquay United at Wembley was not of 25,000 joyful fans or Champagne corks cracking in the dressing rooms – it was of the late, great Nat Lofthouse savouring one more cup triumph.

In a rare interview, the former Burnden Park boss recalled his delight at having restored some of the feelgood factor to a club that had hit rock bottom under his tutelage just two years earlier.

Wanderers had been relegated to the bottom tier in Neal’s first full season in charge for the first time in their history.

But the much-decorated former Liverpool and England defender claims the lows the Whites had suffered in the dark days made victory In the sunshine 25 years ago all the more sweet.

“It was a day that everyone, top to bottom at the football club, enjoyed,” he told The Bolton News.

“It was proof that we were finally getting things right and pushing ahead.

“I never saw it as a success for myself at the time – although looking back now I regard it just as fondly as anything I did with Liverpool. It was the people who had been there with me, the backroom, who had been so strong when things really were bad.

“And I can still see Lofty (Lofthouse) smiling at the fact we were lifting a trophy again all those years after he had been heading them in.

“To see the club operating on that stage, at that level, and still feel that burn of excitement he had as a player back in 1958.

“That was what winning the cup was about that day: making people happy again.”

Much-maligned in his six years at Bolton, many now look back on Neal’s long reign more favourably, as it laid the groundwork for Bruce Rioch’s more celebrated White Hot era.

Neal’s other two trips to Wembley with Bolton ended in disappointment – three years earlier in the Freight Rover Trophy against Bristol City and two years later with defeat against Tranmere Rovers in the play-offs.

But the Wembley win against Torquay had also been tinged with emotion for the former Anfield man, who six weeks earlier had been on the touchline as he heard news of the tragedy unfolding at Hillsborough.

“I remember vividly where I was, managing Bolton at Fulham, and the news hit me like a gunshot,” he said.

“I’d already been through Heysel as a player and it brought back a lot of emotions which probably played on my mind because such a big part of my life had been at Liverpool.

“We got through it – and again I have to thank people around me, my staff, and people like Sammy Lee who played their part.”

Neal paid special tribute to the man who brought his side back into the game that day, Julian Darby.

The home-grown player had experienced his fair share of stick but had been one of the first names on his teamsheet at Wembley.

“The crowd would get at Julian like you wouldn’t believe,” he said.

“But the great thing about him was that you could say to him ‘I need you to play right-back, then the next week centre-half, or in midfield, and he never batted an eyelid. That was his quality. I don’t think the fans really realised just how important he had become to the team because he wasn’t one of these glamorous midfield types.

“It was that kind of day. Even Dean Crombie, who didn’t get many goals, it was his final. He will never forget that.”

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I liked Julian Darby as a player for his work rate and effort but saying that "he wasn't one of those glamorous midfield types" is perhaps the understatement of the year.