The A-Z of Bolton Wanderers

Ahead of our game with Bolton, we take a look at the A-Z of the Lancashire club. Included are quite a lot of facts and stats, as well as me tempted fate with what I chose for the letter L. Also included is the story of a moral victory over some Germans, as well as Bolton Wanderer's double-unique-ness in Premier League history.

A is for Ali Al Habsi, one of the goalkeepers currently at Bolton, but just like all the rest, he has absolutely no chance whilst Jussi Jaaskelainen is at the club.

B is for Burnden Park (right), the ground use by Bolton between 1895 and 1997. It hosted an FA Cup Final replay in it's long history. However, much like Hillsborough many years later, overcrowding in 1946 saw the deaths of 33 Bolton fans. There is now an Asda store where the ground used to be.

C is for colours. Bolton's home kit is traditionally white and navy blue. Their current home kit is white on the top half and then white and thin blue strips for the bottom half of the shirt, with navy blue shorts and white shocks.

D is for Dirty, Dirty Kevin Davies holds the record for the most ever Premiership fouls, standing at a whopping 683 fouls before the season began. The striker has never been quite the same threat in front of goal, scoring just 49 goals in his 227 appearances for Bolton after rather unsuccessful spells with Southampton and Blackburn.

E is for Eddie Hopkinson, the record appearance holder for Bolton. He made 578 appearances for Bolton between 1952 and 1970.

F is the for FA Cup. Although they don't have a proud history in the FA Cup, Bolton do hold a record for goals scored in the competition. When they lost to Blackpool in 1953, they became the highest scoring losing finalists (not including penalty shoot out wins) in the competition's history, losing 4-3.

G is for great upset. Bolton went to Bayern Munich in the 2007/8 in the UEFA Cup and like Norwich before them, came away with a very respectable result, taking a 2-2 draw away from the German giants.

H is for Horwich, the area the stadium is in. Many fans travelling by train are often fooled into going to Bolton and going from there, whereas Horwich is the closest train stadium to ground by quite some distance.

I is for impressive. Despite, and no disrespect is meant by this, Bolton being one of the smaller sides in the Premiership, they certainly know how to attract world-class stars to the Reebok Stadium. In the time since the Premiership began they have been represented by players such as Jussi Jaaskelainen, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Youri Djorkaeff, Jay-Jay Okocha, Stelios Giannakopolous, Ivan Campo, Fernando Hierro and Nicolas Anelka.

J is for Johan Elmander. He is Bolton's record transfer having cost Bolton £8.2 million from Toulouse in June last year. It seems a long way off from the £1000 that they paid for Alf Bentley in 1911 from Derby County.

K is for Klasnic, a Croatian on loan from Nantes and arguably Bolton's best player. He started his career at St Pauli.

L is for loyal. Now, I started writing this before Wednesday morning, so I'll actually just leave what I wrote for L, talk about tempting fate. Other than the short-lived Sammy Lee reign, Bolton have often been quite patient with their managers in recent times. Since 1996 they have only had four managers, as much as teams like QPR get through every few months. Colin Todd was joined manager with Roy McFarland in 1995/6 before the latter left, Todd kept control until 1999 and Sam Allardyce then took over. Allardyce turned Bolton into an established top flight team before leaving for Newcastle in 2007. Gary Megson has been in charge since the sacking of Sammy Lee. -MEGSON WAS SACKED THE MORNING AFTER I WROTE THAT-

M is Manchester United. When Bolton won 2-1 at Old Trafford in 2001, they became the first team since the formation of the Premiership to come from behind to win at Old Trafford. They also won 2-1 the following season as well.

N is for Nat Lofthouse, arguably Bolton's most famous ever player. He was the first Bolton player to play at the World Cup, something that has only been matched by seven players since. Lofthouse scored 285 goals during his 503 games at Burnden Park.

O is for old. Fernando Hierro became the oldest debutant when making his Premier League bow for Bolton at the age of 36 years and 151 days on August 21^st 2004.

P is for Promoted sides. Bolton are involved in both the best and worst seasons for promoted sides. In 1996/7 they won promotion with Barnsley and Crystal Palace, all three were relegated, the only time in Premier League history that has happened. They returned in 2001-2 along with Fulham and Blackburn, all three surviving on this occasions, again the only time this has happened in Premier League history.

Q is for quirky, a word you could use to describe Peter Kay, a comedian who supports Bolton. Another famous fan is the victim-mentality boxer, Amir Khan.

R is for records. Bolton's highest league win was an 8-0 game against Barnsley in 1934. Their biggest Premiership win was 5-0 against Leicester in 2001, that coming five years after a 6-0 home defeat to Manchester United in the 1995/6 season.

S is for sheep's testicles. There used to be a forfeit for the management and board that any time Bolton won by more than three goals, they would go to a restaurant for a meal that consisted of sheep's testicles. Footage of them eating the meal can be found on the DVD Own Goals and Gaffs.

T is for top flight. This is the 71^st season that Bolton have played in the top flight of English football. However, they haven't won the title once, making them the record holders for the most seasons in the top division without ever winning it.

U is for unusually cheap. By Premier League standards, the Reebok Stadium was surprisingly cheap at £25m. Many view that as good value for money (by comparison to some other more expensive grounds).

V is for very unpopular. Opposition was rife when Bolton decided to name it the Reebok Stadium in 1997. However, given that Reebok is a local company to Bolton, opposition has since died down over recent years.

W is for Wembley. 126,047 fans attended the FA Cup final at Wembley in the 1922/3 when Bolton faced West Ham. That crowd is the largest ever attendance for an FA Cup final at Wembley.

X is for the eXtra effort Bolton players might not put in that they might realise their place in the first team isn't guaranteed now that Megson is gone. City players know what this is like because after Peter Jackson left, City dominated a game against Darlington and even Lenell John-Lewis wasn't entirely pants for once.

Y is for Ye Olde Imp. Bolton's reserve team coach is former City man, Alan Cork. Cork spent five games on loan to City from Derby during the 1970s before going on to play for Wimbledon, Sheffield United and Fulham.

Z is for Zat Knight, a defender currently at Bolton having formerly played for Fulham and Villa.