a small town football team punching way above its weight. bolton wanderers have a small but passionate band of followers and tend to be disliked by the media, fans of other clubs etc for the reason that over there time in the english premier league they have taken a scalp of one of these teams and/or knocked them out of
cup competitions. known as 'long
ball merchants' they have a tendancy to play
football that gets 'in the face' of there opponents and consecuently stops them playing 'propper
football' as the media call it. basicaly they are looked at as a small club that dosent belong in the premership - this only started when the beloved media sweetheart west
ham was relegated at the reebok stadium in the 2001/2 season. the media still try to call them a small club even after 2 european tours (the second was the last 16 only getting knocked out on away goals by sporting lisbon following a 2-2 draw with byern munich) a league
cup final, 2 FA cup semis and beating lyon every year in the
peace cup final.