Second rival after Preston?

B

Breck

Well-known member
Visiting Bolton fan:

I was explaining to a younger relative on Saturday that Blackpool are very old rivals of Bolton's. He'd absolutely no idea . Years ago I'd seen a fan survey suggesting that Blackpool viewed Bolton as their second biggest rivals after Preston. I googled it and it seems a further survey in 2019 found pretty much the same thing.

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The top five rivals of English football's top 92 clubs revealed - Fan Banter

The top five rivals of English football’s top 92 clubs has been revealed and it’s got many supporters talking about it online. The 2019 study, which has been named ‘The League of Love And Hate’, has been carried out, with tens of thousands of football fans said to have responded to it, to find...
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It didn't really feel that way on Saturday. I think to most Bolton fans who've watched the club from the 90s onwards they view Blackpool as similar to Burnley and Preston. Not really a big rivalry as such but always an occasion and a feisty derby when the day of the match itself arrives.

According to the list above Oldham are Bolton's fourth biggest rival, and Bury fifth which made me scratch my head somewhat! Made me think your listing might be wrong too?
 
No one has mentioned Blackburn?

I suppose I see them and Burnley as an extra occasion as it’s Lancashire and close by.

However, top two for me are certainly Preston and Bolton.
 
preston bolton burnley.

i see carlisle put the knobbers in their top 5 but not us & morecambe do the opposite. oh well 🤷‍♂️.
 
Fleetwood….




😁




The best thing about Bolton is that it’s a historical rivalry. There’s proper Lancashire history behind it. Notwithstanding the ridiculous redrawing of the old boundaries.
 
I must admit, whilst Bolton has always been a feisty fixture , I can’t say I’ve ever really looked upon them as a significant rival to be honest. I’m certainly no more arsed about beating Bolton than I am Exeter really. That might have been a bit different in the 80’s I suppose

For me it’s Knob-End and that’s it really…. Possibly Burnley might sit slightly above the rest and then it’s a case of (Oldham, Wigan, Blackburn, Bolton etc..) are all local, so I’d go to the away fixture.
 
Preston and Bolton any day. Felt like a big derby on Saturday personally for me and a lot of our lot and would also say some of the Bolton fans.
 
Weirdly after Nobbers it has now become Fleetwood as number 2.
It was always Burnley before which have now become 3.

Bolton & Blackburn never been arsed about.
 
AllezBlackpool said:
Surely Oxford are up there
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Graves said:
No one has mentioned Blackburn?

I suppose I see them and Burnley as an extra occasion as it’s Lancashire and close by.

However, top two for me are certainly Preston and Bolton.
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We went from 1980 to 2010 without playing them competitively so that’s probably the main reason although we’ve played them loads since
 
Think it depends on the era you started watching in, my formative years were 91-2000 where we were never in the same league as Bolton so they didn't register for me. When I think Bolton my first thoughts are the Premier League Allardyce teams with players like Jay Jay Okocha, Bolton might as well have been playing on the moon for how close they felt to us back then.

For me it was Burnley just due to the fact we had more games against them than any other localish team, my dad and I were attacked by a Burnley fan wielding a wine bottle in the mid nineties too which added a bit of spice.
 
All depends when you started watching Blackpool. If it was from the beginning of the 90s then your one two will be Preston then Burnley. I think we've always seen Burnley as a bigger rival than they see us.
 
What did strike me on that list amongst the top PL sides was just that, a lack of historical rivalries, other that Man Utd vs Liverpool, City & Arsenal feature a lot which surely is amongst younger fan bases who've never stood on a terrace.
 
Yes Burnley were always our second rivals for me watching the Pool in the 90s where we regularly played them in hostile atmospheres both home and away.

Bolton are third but it never feels like a proper derby for me as we did not play them regularly for years.
 
I think arch-rivalries like you and Preston never change. Burnley and Blackburn didn't play each other and if anything the animosity festered and the rivalry was even more intense for the break.

Those who remember the 70s and before on both sides would see a Bolton/Blackpool rivalry. As others have said the fact we never played between 1993 and 2010 watered things down a lot.

Burnley went through a phase of hating us because we nicked Owen Coyle as their boss. Not that it did us any good!

I notice Wigan never come in to any of these conversations!
 
Breck said:
I think arch-rivalries like you and Preston never change. Burnley and Blackburn didn't play each other and if anything the animosity festered and the rivalry was even more intense for the break.

Those who remember the 70s and before on both sides would see a Bolton/Blackpool rivalry. As others have said the fact we never played between 1993 and 2010 watered things down a lot.

Burnley went through a phase of hating us because we nicked Owen Coyle as their boss. Not that it did us any good!

I notice Wigan never come in to any of these conversations!
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Wigan really are just an irrelevant club.
 
Most likely Preston for most on here will be number one rival but it will always be Bolton for me…hate them and always will…and yes I was there that day😡
 
I started watching the pool in the late 80’s. Getting passionate about football growing up through the 90’s. As an FY7 resident, we used to have a group of 10/15 of us on the No.14 bus that would look forward to the Boxing Day fixture, normally at home to the clarets, which would often be called off because of a frozen pitch. I recall being chased by a bunch of thugs in Claret carrying scaffolding, fortunately I had youth in my side. I’m not a fighter for those that frown!

Burnley away with the old man was good fun, although I’d often crap my pants as they set fire to scarves and flags in the segregation, but the atmosphere was amazing, not so much the piss riddles busses we’d travel on!

Only rivalries for me on the back of that are:
1) PKE
2) Burnley

I don’t see Fleetwood as a rival at all. Bolton either really. Nice to play local’ish teams and get the numbers up but if I’m happy to park on the local streets at an away game and walk to the ground in colours, it can’t be a rival team IMO! 😂

UTMP
 
The first time I saw Blackpool play live was against Bolton in 1954 at Burnden Park. My Dad and his Dad were lifelong Wanderers fans. I broke the mould.
 
Preston are our big rivals. If I had to pick another then Bolton. Being on the more senior side , games against Bolton in the late 70s and early 80s were massive. Blackburn and Burnley are derby games that have a little bit of extra spice. I don't really care about Fleetwood, Wigan or Carlisle.
 
For me, when it comes to rivalries a big indication of who matters most is who you look for first on the day fixtures are released. Last season was Knobbers, then Burnley and then Blackburn. This season it was Bolton and then I didn't really care about another individual team. It was then more about first and last game of the season and who we had over the Christmas period. I grew up with Bolton/Burnley being the team I disliked the most after the Knobbers. So either of thoes would be our second rivalry to me.
 
Any team in league 1 and Fleetwood locally. I fail to see how PNE or Burnley can be our rivals when we are in different leagues. Yes, we have historical links to both teams, but at present we are rivals no longer.
 
Only Preston for me, I would have said Burnley a few years ago but not anymore.

I don't feel much towards Fleetwood at all, I'd probably know some people in the home end and I've got family who grew up in Codland (all managed to escape).
 
Lytham_fy8 said:
Bolton have been a bigger game than Burnley, I don't even class Burnley as that big a rival really, don't know anyone who does.
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Burnley 100%. In my time I've put that ahead of PNE- no fun when the rivals just lie on their backs asking for their tummies to be tickled.

Yes, Bolton always always a big game, but infrequent by comparison. At least with Burnley you could say 'allreet maaaaate, you've grown another finger since last season'.
 
Generally everyone accepts Preston as our main rivals.
The one after tends to be when you first went watching ‘Pool.
70s/80s Bolton
90s/00s Burnley
2015 onwards Fleetwood.
 
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