Bolton 0 County 1

A moment of magic from Tanto settles a tense encounter at the Toughshit

Mar 17, 2025

Monday 17 March 2025

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NEXT HOME GAME: Burton Albion – Saturday 29 March, 12.30pm

NEXT AWAY GAME: Wrexham – Saturday 22 March, 3pm

Dear County fans, Stopfordians, Bolton supporters, and anyone else from The Football Family joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Monday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore.

Dave Philbin joins us this afternoon to reflect on Saturday’s 1-0 win, which keeps County in the automatic promotion picture ahead of what could well be a season-defining trip to North Wales on Saturday.

Today’s edition is sponsored by CFN School of Motoring. A big thank you to Craig.

Thanks also to Luke and Hannah at LBL Roofing & Building Ltd who sponsor our Bolton Wanderers content on the website.

You’ll also see the advert for my comedy night at the end of this month. There’s now just 8 tickets remaining, which I’d love to get rid of. We’ve got a fantastic line-up, including Mike Newall (Britain’s Got Talent) and Chris Washington (Live from the BBC, Mock the Week, Richard Osman’s House of Games). Drop me a message if you’d like to come along.

Finally, I’m currently walking every street in Stockport to raise money for mental health charity Mentell. If you’d like to make a donation to help me reach my target, please click here.

Total distance so far: 240.07 miles

Total steps so far: 392,922

Total raised so far: £2,287

Total completed streets so far: 474 (Click here for the full list, which includes reports and photos from every day of the walk.)

Further information on the walk can be found by clicking here.

Des Junior

Photo courtesy of Mike Petch

✍️ Saturday’s match in one word

Stunning.

🤔 Pre-match thoughts

Honestly? I was apprehensive about the next two against Bolton and Wrexham and would have taken two points from the six available. Bolton seem to have switched since the departure of Evatt so I knew we’d be facing a completely different side than the one that got battered in SK3 on 9 November. I was excited to see Beno in the starting line-up for the first time as well.

🧐 Post-match thoughts

The old adage is true: Bolton really do get battered everywhere they go. As I have said on here before, I can’t stand it when we get beat and people say “context is key, we were in the National League North six years ago” as if that excuses poor performances. What we can do though is look back on days like Saturday with great pride. We went to Bolton for a big FA Cup day out whilst in non-league, and a few years later we go there to complete the double over them and go five points clear in League One. Amazing. On to the game, it was a good old fashioned game of football between two teams trying to get promotion, ruined in parts by another referee who wanted to make the game all about him. Having said that, we were lucky to stick with 11 men, so swings and roundabouts!

⚪️ Verdict on Bolton

I thought they were pretty good going forward, especially in the first half, but their defence couldn’t deal with our pace up top. Second half they had a great chance that was ballooned over the bar, then we didn’t let them back in until after we scored. You can see why they’d been on a good run up until the Bristol Rovers game, and they have the potential for another. It was nice to hear Schumacher say we were the best team they’d played since he got there, behind Birmingham!

🔵 Verdict on County

Really pleasing for large parts. We created enough chances to deserve the win and ultimately were unlucky to only come away with one goal. To call out a few individual performances, yet again Brad Hills and Ethan Pye were colossal at the back. Recently I said Tanto had played his best game in a County shirt (can’t remember which game) but I think Saturday can take that mantle. Even before he scored he was unplayable. I was surprised to see Norwood subbed off as I thought he was doing well in the midfield, but clearly the sub worked! As did the others: Moxon was excellent, Fevrier looked like he did at the start of the season off the bench, and Wootton was Wootton! The most pleasing part, for me, was the defensive work every player put in for the final 10. We reduced them to long shots as they just couldn’t get through us. They dug in, stuck together and made sure we made the trip back with three points.

👣 Top Trotter

Thomason.

🎩 Top Hatter

Tanto.

👂 Atmosphere

It was great. A proper away day; never went quiet. I thought the atmosphere might struggle with two tiers, but it definitely didn’t. “Who put the ball in the Bolton net, half the fucking team did” was hilarious. I don’t think I have ever heard a louder rendition of “The Scarf” than the one that followed the minute’s applause for Lou Spalding. It really did make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up… well, it would have done if I had any. RIP Lou - I hope you got to enjoy that!

🙏 Hopes for the rest of the season

It’s mad what three points can do. At 12.29pm on Saturday, my hope was to stick in the play-offs knowing it’d be tough. Now I think if we win at Wrexham we’re back on the automatic train. Either way, a great season, but it would be slightly disappointing to miss out on the play-offs at this stage.

😀 Best part of the day

Tanto’s goal and the carnage that followed.

😡 Worst part of the day

Lily kicking over my lid-less bottle of Coke. Cheers kid!

Dave and Lily

The British Library receives a copy of every single book published in the UK. In the same fashion, Des Junior believes a detailed record of every County game should be preserved for the history books. So here’s the full story of our 1-0 victory at Bolton Wanderers on Saturday 15 March, as told from his County-related WhatsApp groups…

11.32am: A first start for Beno today.

12.37pm: Addai is making me nervous.

12.39pm: Same. Always heart-in-mouth stuff.

12.45pm: Like that just then.

2.01pm: Tanto! What a goal!

2.04pm: So clever with his feet as well as quick, the defender can't get a tackle in.

2.28pm: “Bolton Get Battered” coming through nice and clear.

2.32pm: Some fantastic saves from Addai towards the end of that second half. Still makes me nervous though doing Cruyff turns on his line!

3.38pm: That was a great result, especially given how the game ebbed and flowed. The goal from Tanto deserved to win any game.

6.52pm:

7.07pm: S Club 7 have aged a bit.

7.10pm: There’s only 6, though.

7.13pm: Des is the 7th, behind the camera.

7.14pm: That’s a right dodgy pub.

7.16pm: It is tonight with that motley crew in it.

7.20pm: This place is Bolton’s Chestergate.

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Photo of the day

Racecourse Ground, Wrexham

Let’s warm up the oven ahead of the weekend…

LBL Roofing & Building

Any Bolton fans (or indeed, any County fans living in that neck of the woods) joining us today? If you need any roofing work doing at home, LBL Roofing & Building are dedicated to providing top-notch services with an unwavering commitment to quality and customer satisfaction.

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➡️ Visit lblroofingandbuilding.co.uk for further details.

Today in SK

🎬 Cinema

Two films at The Savoy Cinema (SK4) today. The Last Showgirl (15) at 5.45pm, followed by I’m Still Here (15) at 8.30pm.

➡️ Click here for tickets.

🍟 Food and drink

Bitter £2.30 a pint all day at The Cross Keys (SK8). Plus, discounts on certain lagers between 12pm and 6pm.

A number of venues are featured on The Scarf My Father Wore such as The Crown (SK2), The Dog & Partridge (SK2), The Alexandra (SK3), The Crown Inn (SK6), The Steelworks (SK6), The Three Tunnes (SK7), Flute & Firkin (SK12) and The Ram’s Head (SK12). Support them this month by popping in for a few drinks or a bite to eat.

🎶 Free jukebox

The Nelson Tavern (SK1). From 6.30pm.

Random snippets from old County programmes

#22 - County v Hartlepool, 16 September 2003

The programme for the Hartlepool game in September 2003 included an interview with Aaron Wilbraham after he came off the bench to score twice in County’s 2-2 draw at Sheffield Wednesday three days earlier.

Aaron Wilbraham emerged as the County hero when he came off the bench to salvage a richly-deserved point for the Hatters with two second-half goals at Hillsborough. And, as the 23-year-old told us later, he fancied another! “I wanted to get another one as well,” he beamed. “I wanted to grab a hat-trick!”

Wilbraham stunned the Wednesday faithful by scoring just 19 seconds after replacing Jon Daly during the interval and he then silenced more than 20,000 Wednesdayites with an equaliser 16 minutes from time. Alby’s celebration, though, wasn’t appreciated by Brian Curson - the match official promptly brandished a yellow card.

But just why did he race over and sit with the substitutes after scoring? “I was just having a pop at the manager because he left me on the bench,” Alby explained. “It was my way of telling the gaffer that I wanted to play. There was no malice or nastiness intended, I was just pointing out that I shouldn’t be on the bench if I can score two goals. I wanted to play at Hillsborough but that’s how football goes sometimes. You’ve just got to get on with things and let your football do the talking and hopefully that’s what I’ve done by getting the two goals.”