Butcher doesn’t recall the Town side of that era conceding many better: “There weren’t many great goals scored against us, we scored great goals, we scored some unbelievable goals, but not many others scored against us stick in the mind.

“That one does especially because it was so unique, you don’t see many goals scored like that where a striker flicks the ball over with his back to goal and then in the next movement he scores.

“You’ve seen Thierry Henry or Dennis Bergkamp flick it up in the Premier League when they’ve teed it up, but this was probably better than those two because it had to be so precise.

“That was a tough game with Sam Allardyce playing as well, Bolton were a strong team. I’m not sure whether Peter Reid played but they were a strong side, especially at Burnden Park, it was a tough place to go to and it was a good game in terms of it being end to end and there were chances galore at both ends, so it was very much a bruising encounter.

“But you always got bruising encounters at Bolton. The best thing was going in the showers afterwards to have a nice shower or bath.”

Despite the efforts of Worthington, who sadly a few years ago was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and Allardyce, the Blues won the game with Alan Brazil netting twice and John Wark once.

Butcher, his defensive partner Russell Osman, Brazil and Dutchmen Arnold Muhren and Frans Thijssen all established themselves during that season as Bobby Robson built the team which would win the UEFA Cup two years later.

“You could see the nucleus of the team for 1980/81 was coming through in that one and I think that season we had a good run towards the end of the season,” Butcher added.

“I don’t think Bobby Robson ever really got praise for in a way dismantling the FA Cup-winning side and then rebuilding with virtually a whole new line-up and a whole new system.

“He deserves a lot of praise for that because it was masterful and for the next three or four years especially everything clicked and we went on a great run in most cup competitions and obviously the league as well.”

Butcher says the changes in personnel saw a switch in style: “We used to play the ball down the channels, there’d always be runners and that sort of thing. It wasn’t route one, you’re playing a ball into space - ’Space created, ball delivered, man arrives’, that was the mantra.

“You’d turn the opposition defenders and make them go back and then when they did go back, initially for the next ball, you can then play it short, just dink it into them. You were trying to move the back four in any way you could.

“And with Eric Gates being in behind the two strikers, it was a case that sometimes they dismantled their back four and went to a three or a full-back would come down and then they would try and adjust.

“But it disrupted them more than it would disrupt us. It didn’t disrupt us, we just kept on playing and we’d put the ball into wherever there were spaces.

“That’s where Alan Brazil’s running especially, his powerful running, and Paul Mariner’s hold-up play really got us out and got us into the heart of their team.

“There was a definite change of style. I remember coming into the team in 1978 and Big Al telling me ‘If you’re going to kick it long sometimes, it may have to go into the crowd because the opposition can’t score when it’s in the crowd’.

“Big Al was a really skilful player, so for him to say sometimes you had to put it in the crowd was recognition that you had to do that. He could play some wonderful passes, he was a tremendous passer of the ball and obviously Beat was as well.

“Ipswich were then producing Johnny Wark as a centre-half/midfield player, we were producing players that could play with the ball, not just lump it long and head it and kick it and whatever, players that could actually have a good range of pass, which was what you wanted.”

Muhren had joined at the start of that season with Thijssen following him to Portman Road in the February.

“They had a range of passes,” Butcher enthused. “Arnold had a wand of a left foot, he could ping the ball anywhere.

“Frans wasn’t so much a long ball player, he was a dribbler, but he could pass the ball well. He kept the ball, he didn’t lose the ball, if you were tired or under a bit of pressure, you’d give the ball to Frans and he would take it away and you’d get a breather because he wouldn’t lose it.

Photo: Action Images

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