Nostalgia Corner: Fredi Bobic - hat-trick hero

Great goalscoring strikers are not something Bolton Wanderers have been blessed with in recent years. The likes of Kevin Davies, Gary Madine and Zach Clough have all been good in their own way, but you can't exactly consider them prolific strikers.

True we've had brief bursts of goalscoring joyousness from Nicolas Anelka, Adam Le Fondre and Michael Ricketts, but I can't remember ever thinking "this guy is guaranteed to bag us 20 goals this season."

The ultimate task for any goalscorer is bagging a hat-trick. So when you consider that only three Bolton players have completed this feat since John McGinlay hit a treble as Bolton hammered Tottenham Hotspur 6-1 at Burnden Park in 1996 (yep, over 21 years) you get an idea of our long-term goalscoring woes.

One of those hat-trick heroes was the enigma that is Fredi Bobic who, 15 years ago today, scored three goals as Bolton completed a 4-1 rout of Ipswich Town. The German striker had notched his hat-trick before half-time, as Wanderers raced into a 4-0 lead at the break against the hapless Tractor Boys, with the other goal added by Youri Djorkaeff.

The opener came after just 71 seconds, as a Kevin Nolan long-throw was cleared as far as the mighty Simon Charlton, whose low drive was intercepted and turned neatly past the goalkeeper by Bobic. A second was added on the half-hour mark as Rod Wallace's shot was palmed straight to Bobic, who headed the rebound goalwards and it somehow found the net through the hands of Andy Marshall, who had a day to forget in the Ipswich goal. The hat-trick was completed when club legend Ricardo Gardner knocked a corner into the front post and Bobic expertly powered a header home past the helpless Marshall.

However, if you think that hat-trick makes Bobic a prolific goalscorer for us then think again. He scored just once in his other 15 appearances on loan at club - a tale sadly all too common for us Wanderers fans.

But Bobic was a good goalscorer in his prime, notching 197 goals through his career including 172 goals in 433 league games. Indeed, the year after leaving Bolton he went and scored 14 in 27 games for Hannover in the Bundesliga, and previously played for Stuttgart and Borussia Dortmund. He also scored ten times for Germany in his 37 caps, and was part of the side that won Euro 1996 in England.

You can watch Bobic's hat-trick in all its glory, and dubious video quality, here:

Since Bobic's day of glory, only one player has scored a Bolton Wanderers hat-trick. Kudos to the first person that can guess that man's name and our other hat-trick hero since McGinlay in 1996 and against whom they both scored their trebles, in the Comments section below...