After losing their first game of the season in the first round of the LFA cup, perhaps unjustly, the Old Boltonians approached the following league game against Failsworth Dynamos eager to make amends. Making their inaugural appearance on the hallowed turf of the Bolton School 1st XI pitch, the Old Boltonians were confident of victory.
The Old Boltonians started the game brilliantly. It was all one way traffic. Complete domination. Failsworth were played off the park. Darren Dalton turned the possessional advantage into a scoring lead after 20 minutes, after neatly converting a Kieran Walsh cross into the corner of the net. The lead was doubled soon after, when Matt McCllelan volleyed home after a corner. 2-0. The Old Boltonians cruising.
The lead could have been extended on numerous occasions. Failswoth were on the ropes. But with seconds remaining in the half, to continue the boxing analogy, they struck a numbing jab from nowhere. An innocuous corner was floated into the box and, perhaps in the midst of complacency, a free header was afforded to the onrushing centre half, who halved the lead with their first shot of the game. 2-1.
Despite the late goal, the Old Boltonians remained confident of coming out of the game on top and even scoring more goals. What followed will go down in the annuals of amateur football as a collapse of catastrophic proportions and illustrates with precision that football is indeed a game of two halves. Within four minutes of the restart, the Old Boltonians were behind, as some sloppy play led to Failsworth scoring with their second and third shots (the third being a penalty). However, the Old Boltonians were still playing the better football and were by no means out of the game. This soon changed.
Some debatable changes in formation and tactics coupled with the questionable attitude of the majority of the Old Boltonians players turned the game into a debacle. The Old Boltonians were systematically torn apart as chance after chance was carved out by Failsworth. The outnumbering of the Old Boltonians defence by the Failsworth attack was of Alamo proportions. The change in the score was inevitable. A terrible half of football for the Old Boltonians was drawn to an end by a final whistle that could not have come any sooner to end the misery. The end result was the heaviest defeat the Old Boltonians 1st XI have suffered for many a year. 6-2. Let the inquest begin.