ontd_football | The Other . . . Other Manchester Team

With the Premier League start coming up soon . . . it would be nice if all of the new soccer fans here decided to root for some of the "lesser" Premier League teams. So, here's my little dossier on the Bolton Wanderers, new home of my boy Stuart Holden.

Fun Facts about Bolton

Founded: If you can believe it, in 1874 as Christ Church FC by Rev. John Wright.

Location: Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. This makes them the 3rd team from the Manchester area, competing against the giant names of Manchester City and Manchester United.

The Bolton Wanderers play at Reebok Stadium, which while not coming close to my favorite English stadium, is rather attractive.

Before playing in Reebok Stadium, Bolton played for a whopping 102 years in Burnden Park, which was demolished in 1999. The move from Burnden Park to Reebok was in 1997, accompanied by a controversial change in badges (the old badge featured the crest and colors of the city of Bolton, the new one is much more abstract with a blue and orange ribbon).

Bolton was one of the 12 founding members of the English Premier League, which formed under the name First League in 1888. They also hold the record for the longest time spent in the top division of English soccer; their current spell has lasted 71 years. Sadly, their highest rank came in the 1920s, taking 3rd place.

Bolton Today

Bolton's home uniform 2010-2011

Unfortunately I couldn't find a good picture of Bolton's away uniform for 2010-2011.

Also unfortunately, the latest first team picture is from the '08-'09 season, even on the Bolton website. This is what happens when your club has to compete for cash with Man City and United.

Here's a fun and fairly recent video of the guys on the team playing "Hit the Crossbar"

Highlights of a famous draw against Bayern Munich. It doesn't sound very impressive, but it is quite a feat for a small team to do this to one of the most successful and certainly best funded of the German teams.

The Official Website

For those of you who must know every detail: the Wikipedia article.

Bolton begins its 2010-2011 season on Aug. 14th at 15:00 GMT vs. Fulham at Reebok Stadium. I hope you'll be watching :).