Bolton Wanderers history could read different without Stoke City, FA Cup disaster | OneFootball

Bolton Wanderers supporters will believe that their recent history could have been very different if not for the 5-0 hammering at Wembley Stadium.

This weekend sees the first round of the FA Cup taking place with four-time winners Bolton Wanderers entering into it still, frustratingly, as a League One club.

The Trotters have had a rich and plentiful relationship with the world’s oldest cup competition with some famous finals along the way, such as the 1923 White Horse Final, the 1953 Stanley Matthews Final, and then the 1958 defeat of Manchester United.

One of England’s proudest and most historic clubs playing in the proudest and most historic cup competition in world football is always worthy of attention but as they embark upon a first round clash in the Midlands against League Two highflyers Walsall, there will be the almost obligatory annual pause for reflection about what could have been.

The 2011 FA Cup semi-final defeat to Stoke City was harrowing and left many Wanderers fans sick to their stomach but it is perhaps the intangible impacts of that day that have caused the decline from around that point to today.

A horror story at Wembley

After a dramatic 3-2 defeat of Birmingham City at St Andrew's in the quarter-finals in a topsy-turvy clash in which Lee Chung-yong scored a late winner for Wanderers, Bolton went into their FA Cup semi-final against Stoke knowing that the winner of the tie would face Manchester City, who had edged past Manchester United the previous day in the other semi.

Bolton had enjoyed an impressive season up to that point with Owen Coyle’s side, spurred by the January signing of Daniel Sturridge on loan from Chelsea, looking likely for a top-six finish in mid-April. They were firm favourites against a mid-table Stoke side that, managed by Tony Pulis, would surely be limited on the big Wembley pitch.

However, the afternoon at Wembley was disastrous.

Bolton had a chance early on when Gary Cahill whistled one just over the bar after an appeal for a penalty with a Ryan Shawcross handball in the mix.

However, that was to be the only positive moment for Bolton as they struggled to cope with an aerial bombardment from the Potters whilst also making several dreadful mistakes.

Stoke raced into a 3-0 lead before half-time with Matthew Etherington latching onto a Paul Robinson mistake to fire home from distance before Robert Huth scored a volley from the edge of the box that crept into the bottom corner and then Kenwyne Jones made a fool of Zat Knight for the third.

Ex-Bolton man Jon Walters then rubbed salt into the Whites’ wounds in the second half with an excellent brace to complete a 5-0 rout and finish a day that promised a potential return to Europe with one of the most humbling experiences any football supporter or club could have: a five-goal thrashing at Wembley in an FA Cup semi-final.

Bolton’s issues ever since

In the aftermath of their 5-0 annihilation by Stoke at Wembley, Bolton went on to lose their final five matches of the Premier League campaign, sinking down to 14th in the table.

It was a time when just making the final got you a UEFA Europa League qualifying spot, which Stoke took up instead, and it would’ve been the first time that Wanderers had been in Europe since the 2007/08 season when they famously defeated Atletico Madrid and drew at the Allianz Arena against Bayern Munich.

Instead, they dropped like a stone and were relegated on the final day of the 2011/12 season, famed for the Sergio Aguero moment as City won the title, with a 2-2 draw at, of course, Stoke, despite the fact Bolton had hammered the Potters 5-0 in a revenge outing at the then Reebok Stadium earlier that term.

A campaign that could have brought European nights and the riches that go with instead saw Bolton head for the second tier, where their financial problems began to mount to the point of administration and near liquidation on a couple of occasions.

There will always be a thought of ‘what if’ for any club but if Bolton had won that game that they were favourites for then the status and financial gain of playing in Europe again may well have been enough to attract players that helped them avoid relegation just at the wrong time before the mid-noughties financial boom with a renewed TV deal.

Every club has these sliding-door moments and the nostalgia will kick in for Bolton supporters as the 2024/25 FA Cup campaign begins with thoughts that the Wembley catastrophe may well have been the catalyst for the overall demise of the club in the last decade or so.