REMEMBER MATTHEW HARDING

Sam Allardyce, a front runner to become the next England manager brings his warriors Bolton Wanderers to Stamford Bridge tomorrow and the talk is that Bolton are prepared to go one better than their last visit when they drew 2-2 after being 2-0 down at one stage.

All the talk is coming from the opposition camp as is usual but what appears to have been forgotten that Chelsea confirmed the Premiership title last season at The Reebok, the home of Bolton Wanderers FC with Super Frankie Lampard confirming the title status of Champions. And hasn't Super Frank been in fine form recently. England's hero against the Austrian's last Saturday and again in midweek with a super volley winner against the Poles. Keep it up Frank.

But as the What Do You Know? series continues, 'What Do You Know'? about Bolton Wanderers FC?

Although Bolton Wanderers were not officially formed until 28th August 1877, a local schoolmaster at Christ Church called a meeting of local teachers and local men and preached the idea of introducing football into the local area. This idea was overwhemingly accepted and so therefore the path to Bolton Wanderers was formed.

It seems that the local schoolmaster has his nose put out of joint because team meetings were held at his school without permission, so meetings were then moved to the local hotel called The Gladstone and because of the 'Wandering,' Bolton Wanderers were officially formed.

1881 saw Bolton move to Pikes Lane and a tidy sum of £150 was spent on ground improvements. A season ticket for 1 guinea secured your afternoon's entertainment for the season.

Bolton's place in footballing history will always be secured by the fact that they were one of twelve football clubs to form the Football League on 17 April 1888 AND in 1923 in the FA Cup Final against (at the time) Second Division West Ham, now famously known as the White Horse final because of a White Police horse called Billy, doing his best keeping sections of an estimated 150,000 Wembley crowd behind the hoardings, Bolton ran out winners 2-0 with goals from David Jack and John Smith.

Many time I have been to Bolton's old ground at Burnden Park and have enjoyed the local 'delicacy' of mushy peas with chips, even after a game where Chelsea have been beaten. Alas I have not been fortunate to visit the Reebok Stadium, not even for Chelsea's confirmation of last season's Champions.

However I do have one serious enjoyable memory of a game between Chelsea and Bolton at Stamford Bridge. Way before Abramovich. Way before Batesy.

1978/79 season in front of a stupid crowd of less than 15,000 (see how fickle Chelsea fans can be?) and this was the 'old' First Division. Chelsea were poor. WIth fifteen minutes to go Chelsea were 3-0 down. On came Clive Walker as a sub and Chelsea won 4-3. What a last fifteen minutes. One for the memory archive.

Its always tinged with sadness when Chelsea and Bolton meet especially since that tragic night in 1996 when Matthew Harding was killed in a helicopter crash along with his associates returning from the League Cup defeat by Bolton between the two clubs. I do hope that the present day Chelsea remember the contribution made by Matthew Harding in some form tomorrow.

Anyway. Under the managership of Sam Allardyce, a former Bolton player, Bolton achieved their highest finish in the top flight last season and managed to secure a UEFA Cup place for this season.

In their first sortie into Europe in their history Bolton comfortably beat off the challenge of Polodiv from Bulgaria and my 'spies' tell me that Bolton are now sold out for their trip to Portugal in November against Vitoria Guimaraes. Enjoy it lads and lasses.

Bolton Wanderers FC Famous fans include:

Emma Forbes

Peter Kay

Vernon Kay

'Sheephead' from Soccer AM - And in the South Light Drizzle

Patrick McGuinness

Amir Khan

40 YEARS A BLUE!