By Dickie Felton | Monday 18 October 2021
Police started the afternoon in fashionable baseball caps – but finished it in helmets and riot gear.
On the field it was a glorious day for Wigan – sending their local rivals packing by four goals to nil.
What absolute joy in the Wigan end when Will Keane opened Latics’ account and then James McClean’s thunderbolt put the game to bed shortly after 4pm.
But the chaotic actions of a minority will also stick in the memory.
On Saturday morning I enthusiastically wrote that *Bolton V Wigan is one of the most volatile fixtures* in British football. By 3PM the atmosphere was absolutely brilliant. Both sets of fans giving it large during the match with barely a pause for breath.
I didn’t see any problems pre-match as I was safely supping cider in the upper tier concourse by half one.
My only concern was that every hand sanitiser station was empty and the poor girl on the till had no idea what a vegetarian pie was…
Trouble sparked in the second half when Wigan players trying to take corners – most notably Max Power – became the target for plastic bottles being thrown from Bolton sections.
Somehow the barrage was allowed to continue. Stewards and police removed at least two Bolton fans from the areas where objects had been hurled.
At one point the referee gestured to take both sets of players off the field but seemed to change his mind.
At the same time a section of Wigan fans in the upper tier began pulling up advertising hoardings. And – I can’t fathom why – sent them crashing down on their fellow fans in the lower tier.
One flare was thrown towards the pitch, reportedly narrowly missed a child and burned the coat of another Latics supporter.
In a dark comedic moment a Bolton player threw objects back off the pitch and narrowly missed hitting the referee with a half empty Fanta.
Latics right-back Max Power was giving it right-back to the hooligans by picking up thrown bottles and drinking them.
At full-time, sensing there may be an unfriendly farewell party outside, we hung on to let most of the crowd go.
A serial of police officers suddenly stormed out of the Wigan stand to contend with trouble outside.
This sight reminded me of stormtroopers dropping everything with reports that Luke Skywalker had gatecrashed the Death Star.
As we walked back to Horwich Parkway animosity between both sets of fans flared.
One supporter was being restrained on the floor by police – I’ve no idea which club he supported.
Bolton fans hung around gesturing and goading the Wigan fans, while police on horseback did their best to keep troublemakers at bay.
We managed to tip toe through an open gate onto the station platform.
Our train seemed to come under the control of British Transport Police (BTP) who announced it wouldn’t be stopping anywhere other than Preston and would then go onwards to Wigan North Western.
Bizarre, for the train wasn’t scheduled to go to Wigan at all.
It was a case of getting Latics fans out of Bolton as smoothly and quickly as possible.
We got off at Preston station to head north to Cumbria and bumped into about 300 boozy Derby County fans on the platform who had been at Deepdale.
Clearly BTP didn’t want one group of football fans running into another, so Wigan fans just stayed on their now private charter service back home. You’ve got to hand it to the cops.
On Sunday police confirmed five arrests were made following ‘a number of incidents of public disorder and assault of a police officer’.
Chief Superintendent Colette Rose, said: “I am saddened that a group of individuals took it upon themselves to ruin the game for the rest of the fans.
“The game had to be paused several times due to objects being thrown on to the pitch and one of our officers was assaulted, as well as rival supporters causing disorder following the game.
“This is quite frankly disgusting behaviour and will not be tolerated in any shape or form.
“We will continue to work closely with the football clubs to carry out a full investigation into the criminal activity that occurred today and bring those involved to justice.
“Our officers were present in the stadium at the time the offences happened and swiftly removed those responsible.”
What Saturday’s unruly events mean for both sets of fans going forward is up for debate.
Officials at both clubs must be concerned about what sanctions they may be hit with.
Given it was Bolton’s home match could they face a fine or partial stadium closure?
Wigan could also be fined for damage to the University of Bolton stadium.
Could away ticket allocations be reduced the next time these rivals meet?
It would be a shame if law abiding fans could not attend this match due to the actions of the minority.
The atmosphere and spectacle of 21000 fans in a League One match was brilliant.
But when things boil over as they did on Saturday, we all lose.
(Dickie Felton is a Wigan Athletic season ticket holder).