It’s a little ironic that my first “first team” match was at Burnden Park, as I have lived in Bolton for the last 36 years.
I had been to many reserve team games at Maine Road when my father took me to this match, aged 8.
We lived in Ladybarn at the time and the coach (I’m sure it was Finglands) picked us up outside Quick’s chip shop on Mauldeth Road. I remember that we sat in the main stand and I’m pretty sure that we played in purple shirts and white shorts. I always thought that we had won 2-0, but the records show that it was 2-2. I must have ignored their goals! Unfortunately, my clearest memory of the day was being sick out of the coach window, as I always was when travelling by coach.
My first cup tie was also away, against Grimsby at Blundell Park in January 1959. This also ended 2-2.
We went by train and I remember being left outside a pub by my dad and his mates with a bottle of lemonade and a bag of chips. It was on a corner and I was frozen by the biting wind coming off the North Sea. I remember that the pitch was covered with snow, which had just been dug out as the pitch markings, and I think an orange ball was used. I can remember standing on Cleethorpes station for ages afterwards waiting for our train. I can remember spending the return journey desperate to go to the toilet, but it was a non-corridor train!
I went to the replay the following Wednesday, when we lost 2-1. Ron Cockerill scored one of their goals from about 30 yards.