Walking Down the Manny Road: Inside Bolton's Football Hooligan Gangs

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Matt Mills gives an honest and insightful look into his time at Bolton - telling the story of how he went from outcast to club captain under Dougie Freedman (twice). And there really is no better place to be on a Tuesday or Wednesday night than this atmospheric old ground, when the crowd scents the possibility of another famous cup upset. The lesson that too many people were being squeezed into football grounds clearly went unheeded, given the disasters at Ibrox in 1971 and Hillsborough eight years ago.

GUDNI BERGSSON | Walking Down the Manny Road - Episode 6

You know, the one we all thought was going to be built on the back of the ground but which now occupies half of the Embankment.

No longer will the fat cats come to conquer in the cup competitions only to be treated like dogs - the Wanderers have seen off Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool and Tottenham in the last four years while still a Nationwide League outfit. And for the last time, we've heard Green's Radio Five Live colleague Jimmy Armfield, a Bolton manager in the 70s, say at his old stamping ground: "What happened there was. But, I ask you, couldn't a club with the proud tradition of Bolton Wanderers have come up with something more original than naming their new ground solely after the club's sponsors.

Walking Down the Manny Road - Bolton Wanderers Podcast Walking Down the Manny Road - Bolton Wanderers Podcast

Even Middlesbrough, the embodiment of big bucks and commercialism, managed to retain some dignity when naming their new home the Cellnet Riverside Stadium. Every club needs a mascot in modern day football, in recent times mascots can be considered as important as a club badge as part of a clubs identity and Bolton have had one of the longest serving mascots in the Football League and Premier League. The Wanderers favourite reveals just how much he had wanted to remain at the club under Neil Lennon, how Phil Parkinson wasted the opportunity to pair him with Zach Clough, as well as why beating Nottingham Forest to remain in the Championship ranks as a career highlight. The bulldozers will move in along Manchester Road, when the ground, is sold to carve up this famous site, where the ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies would have provided gripping television drama material. We are promised an all-seater venue fit for the 21st century and, from what I've seen, this out-of-town arena does indeed look mightily impressive: sprouting up in a spaceship kind of a way by some fields close to the motorway.We also ask the former Bolton goalkeeper what it was like to work alongside a young Jussi Jaaskelainen, as well as how it felt coming up against Wanderers whilst on loan at Ipswich Town in 1999 - a Play-Off tie remembered for all the wrong reasons. The legendary former captain also reflects on the highs and lows of big occasions at Wembley and the Millennium Stadium, as well as explaining why he put off retirement for three consecutive years before finally hanging up his boots in 2003.