Dutchman praises success of recent Legends Match in support of the Bolton Wanderers Community and Supporters' Trusts
Turning out for the Whites on home soil for the first time in 20 years last weekend in the Legends Match, Richard Sneekes admitted his pride at being involved in an event which put the smiles on faces of so many alongside raised valuable funds for both the Community and Supporters’ Trusts.
Spending two years at Burnden Park between 1994 and 1996, the Amsterdam-born midfielder linked up with a host of his former teammates for last Saturday’s charity encounter, figuring alongside players who helped the Whites secure promotion via the play-offs in 1995 as well as reach the League Cup Final that year.
And now over two decades on, Sneekes was only too happy to return to the club where we made his name on English soil all those years ago.
“When I joined Bolton, I always thought it was a very good family club and even though football has changed, that is still clear to see and I thoroughly enjoyed it,” he said.
“There was a good mix of players right from our era in and around the mid-nineties to just a couple of years ago.
“I played for Bolton in the Masters football a couple of years back so I did cross paths with a few of my old teammates then, but there was definitely the opportunity to catch up with a few more at the game.
“It was just absolutely brilliant. There’s talk of it being a more regular thing too which would be great.”
The 47-year-old also praised the club’s fans for their impressive turnout on the day with almost 11,000 packing into Macron Stadium to watch the game which ended 6-2 in Team McGinlay’s favour.
“I think from what went on out there and how many people turned up to watch, you can see just how much they all care about their football club,” said Sneekes. “The sooner that everything is sorted on a wider scale, the better, and then the club can start to climb back up the leagues.
“For a bunch of old guys to run out there on the pitch, to have 11,000 people turn up, it is full credit to all of them.”
“I don’t think John got the message to mix the teams up properly, though,” the Dutchman joked. “We’ll have to do some analysis of what went wrong for us and give him a phone-call!”