Bolton

Bolton grew up on cotton, one of the Lancashire mill towns later folded into Greater Manchester, in a stretch of England so dense with football clubs that Bolton Wanderers has never wanted for a local rival. The side began in 1874 as Christ Church F.C., without a ground of its own, moving between pitches around the town until it was renamed Wanderers in 1877. By 1888 it stood among the 12 founding members of the Football League.

Its longest unbroken run in the top flight stretched from 1935 to 1964, the years built around Nat Lofthouse. Nothing since has come close. Bolton first dropped into the fourth tier in 1987, and by 2019 the club was in administration, £163.8 million in debt and relegated to League One, kept alive only by new owners, Football Ventures. A points deduction pushed it down again the following season, into League Two. The climb back was quick: League One by 2021, the Championship by 2023.

Wigan Athletic supplies the fixture still known locally as Derby Day. Bolton play in white, home and away, and are called the Trotters. Their ground has taken a new name with each sponsor since it opened – Reebok, Macron, University of Bolton, now the Toughsheet Community Stadium – and holds 28,723. It is a settled home the club's founders, wandering from pitch to pitch around Bolton with nowhere of their own to play, would not have recognised.