FEBRUARY 15th

Funnily enough Bolton Wanderers FC was once known as Christ Church FC, playing in Lancashire from 1874. I am following this link for obvious reasons, that is if you have read yesterday's blog.

The club was renamed Bolton Wanderers in 1877. Wanderers made their first official performance in October 1881 in the FA Cup. In 1935 on this day, Jack Slater, a Bolton full back, died having lived only to 46 years old. He was a footballer with Bolton from 1906-19 making 99 appearances. He later became a millionaire and an MP!

Another "disaster" occurred on this day in 1995, when the friendly international match between the Republic of Ireland and England was abandoned after 27 minutes following a crowd riot at Lansdowne Road. The 47,000 crowd was clearly not happy to be sharing the space, so the FA and referee Dick Jol, had no choice but to pull the plug.
Jack Charlton's side were 1-0 up after 27 minutes-I was watching this from the safety of my front room. The England team looked as they might not recover; they were:
Seaman, Barton, Adams, Pallister, Le Saux, Anderton, Ince, Platt, Le Tissier, Beardsley and Shearer. This looked a good side but the Irish were just as well thought of. Name them?

Overall the two countries have met 16 times with England winning 5 times with 9 draws. The first game between the two was on 30th September 1946.

On this day in 1964 Oxford United became the first Fourth Division League side to reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup by beating Blackburn Rovers 3-1. The Oxford side lost to Preston, future Cup finalists, in the next round.