Bolton Wanderers: Divisive figure kept Premier League dream alive at the Reebok | OneFootball

Positively reminiscing about Matty Taylor's impact at Bolton Wanderers and why he should be remembered fondly by supporters.

A debate over Bolton Wanderers' best players of the past two decades, and where they fit in among the finest to ever play for the club, has raged on social media recently.

The likes of Gary Cahill, Stelios Giannakopoulos, El Hadji Diouf, and Nicolas Anelka are names mentioned as well as more recent talismans such as James Trafford, Conor Bradley, and Dion Charles.

One player that didn't crop up too often and would be considered a controversial pick by many is a stalwart from the latter days of the Premier League era, Matty Taylor.

But there is a real case to be made he was vital to prolonging top-flight status at the Reebok Stadium and should be remembered much more fondly.

Matty Taylor made Bolton memories in the late 2000s

For around a decade and a half leading up to the arrival of Taylor from Portsmouth in the January transfer window of 2008 for a fee believed to be in the region of £4 million,Bolton supporters had seen their team rise from the third-tier of English football to perennial top eight finishers in the then Premiership and a couple of UEFA Cup qualifications.

Throughout that period, special memories were made and bonds were forged with big names such as Fernando Hierro, Kevin Nolan, Youri Djorkaeff, and Jay-Jay Okocha.

However, supporting a football club is about creating and reacting to special moments so even as the quality diminishes, memories are still forged as goals and aspirations alter but the visceral feeling of following your club remains.

In the 2007/08 campaign, Bolton, after a seventh-placed finish the year before, narrowly escaped relegation by a point gained on the final day of the season with a 1-1 draw at title-challenging Chelsea thanks to a Taylor equaliser.

However, it wasn’t really that game that kept Wanderers up but the four matches prior that saw them collect ten points from four games, including a crucial win at Middlesbrough and a decisive 2-0 victory over Sunderland on the penultimate weekend of the season.

In that win over the Black Cats, Taylor was instrumental in a front three alongside goal scorer El Hadji Diouf and talisman Kevin Davies with his trademark whipping corner kick turned in by Sunderland forward Daryl Murphy late on to clinch a vital and league status-saving three points for the Trotters.

In the first few months of his time at Bolton, Taylor had provided some memorable moments such as a first-half brace against Arsenal to give Bolton a 2-0 lead at half-time in a game they eventually lost to Arsene Wenger’s side, but more was very much to come.

The season after, he had become a stalwart for Wanderers in a side managed by Gary Megson which eventually moved them towards the middle of the table despite a horror run to finish the season. He finished the campaign with double figures for goals despite often being deployed at left-back on occasion.

In the 2009/10 campaign, Bolton found themselves in another relegation scrap but they managed to again pull themselves clear with seven points from their final four games and a run sparked by a Taylor brace of goals in the 85th and 88th minutes to turn defeat to victory at the then Britannia Stadium against Stoke City in mid-April. Taylor eventually finished Wanderers’ great escape as their joint-top scorer in the league.

Hard work kept Matty Taylor relevant

The famous phrase “hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard” is first widely attributed to a former high school basketball coach Tim Notke but is worthwhile and applicable when discussing Matty Taylor.

In his final season at Bolton, it was perhaps most obvious that Taylor’s endeavour and work rate for Wanderers was so pronounced when he was often starting in a Bolton side that had moved to an easier on the eye style of football under Owen Coyle that saw them sit in the top six of the top-flight for much of the campaign and reach an FA Cup semi-final with a very talented and ambitious squad.

Alongside the natural talent of the likes of Daniel Sturridge, Lee Chung-yong, Mark Davies, and Johan Elmander; Taylor forced his way back into the eleven ahead of summer signing Martin Petrov, who had joined from Manchester City on a free transfer.

What many would describe as the definition of a luxury player, Petrov certainly had his moments for Bolton but it was the hard work and sheer consistency of Taylor that saw him remain a key man.

He departed in the summer of 2011 for West Ham United and, a year later, Bolton were relegated down to the Championship and Taylor’s Hammers were back in the Premier League, where he would go on to make a further 58 appearances in the top tier for West Ham and then Burnley until the age of 33.

Taylor produced magic throughout his career and is often perhaps most commonly associated with screamers at Portsmouth but he also scored a fair few stunners for the Whites, including a rasping long-range free kick at Upton Park against the aforementioned Irons, whilst also being genuinely effective with quality, versatility and his mentality.

It wasn’t just down to the now Wealdstone boss but he was one of the biggest contributors in extending Wanderers’ stay in the Premier League and should be remembered very fondly in South Lancashire.