Bolton back from brink to showcase resurgence with Wembley final

“B olton is going to be a ghost town,” the club’s chief executive, Neil Hart, says as he looks forward to the Papa John’s Trophy final against Plymouth that will bring 34,000 of their fans to Wembley on Sunday. It is a huge turnaround for Wanderers, who were almost a ghost club, coming close to going out of business in 2019 after being issued with a winding-up petition.

Football Ventures purchased Bolton from Ken Anderson in the summer of 2019 but it took time to turn the ship around after years of decline. Trust with the supporters and local businesses needed to be rebuilt after a breakdown in relations over the way the club had been run by previous owners.

After back-to-back relegations, Bolton struggled to adapt to life in League Two, a 6-3 home defeat by Port Vale in December 2020 arguably the nadir. By mid-January they were 17th in the fourth tier but surged up the table under Ian Evatt, earning automatic promotion.

The upward trajectory has continued and Bolton are in their second consecutive season in League One, pushing for promotion with a bonus day out under the arch to celebrate their progress. “It’s not the be-all and end-all if we do get beat on Sunday,” says Ian Bridge, the secretary of the Bolton Wanderers Supporters’ Trust. “It will be a very good day out. After what we have been through in recent years, Bolton fans just want to be able to go watch our club on a Saturday afternoon rather than worrying about owners and winding-up orders.”

Staff and players had gone unpaid, resulting in tears in the office when the new chairman, Sharon Brittan, arrived with cake in 2019 after completing the purchase. Hart was a key appointment in 2021 to improve the club off the pitch to ensure they can progress on it.